In the global market, we use our voices to accomplish a lot of things. We prefer to make live calls where we can speak directly to an individual. Apple (News - Alert) developed Siri so we could use our voices to eliminate pesky point and click functions on a smartphone, and we tend to prefer the IVR when we want to accomplish something quickly with a call center.

All of these activities require the use of voice, but only the latter two also incorporate the use of speech analytics. As consumers, we like it when the voice command gets us exactly what we want. For those of us who have endured the IVR that can’t understand a command, we appreciate the advancements that have been made in this technology to eliminate frustrating interactions.

For the contact center, the higher quality interactions are essential to customer satisfaction. That satisfaction is essential to long-term revenue gains and continued loyalty. Without an investment in quality speech analytics technology, the self-service benefits the company aims to enjoy are quickly taken out of reach.

Investing in that quality, however, is only the first step. Industry research has demonstrated that the best way to measure and improve performance in the contact center is to combine metrics from structured data sources with data extracted from unstructured sources, such as chats, voice recordings and email messages. Such a strategy is nothing short of challenging, however, and requires a dedicated team and process to make it a reality.

The results can be very profitable, however, as engaged customers have higher expectations. What kind of revenue opportunities could you uncover if you knew exactly what the customer wanted at their next level of interaction with you? If you had the opportunity to proactively address customer service before the customer ever had to call into the contact center, you would not only save money, you would develop advocates who would help automatically promote your brand.

While it’s hard to believe that all of this could be possible with a little boost to your speech analytics, the reality is speech analytics is just the means by which you collect valuable data that can then be turned into business intelligence. It is the gateway to optimal customer interactions that drive the necessary results.

To learn more, TMCnet has partnered with Forrester (News - Alert) Research and CallMiner for a free webinar, Finding Success with Big Data & Speech Analytics on Thursday, November 7, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (EST). If you want to learn how you can turn information you already receive into valuable data, register for this webinar today.