We live in a virtual world and the pandemic has proven just how valuable modern technology is. Many of us would have been unable to complete our roles safely, without being able to utilise technology and maintain a social distance from others.
One industry that has really benefited from the use of technology in the past 12 months is customer service centres and with the use of speech analytics, the role of a call agent has not only been made more efficient, but easier and more rewarding.
Since the start of the pandemic, the world of customer service has been pushed to its limits. From the initial closure of borders and holiday cancellations seeing travel agents being inundated with phone calls to travel insurance companies seeing record numbers of customers making a claim against their lost vacations.
With emotions, anxiety and stress pushed to the breaking point for not just customers but also call agents, if these high numbers of calls are not handled correctly, it can quickly spell disaster for many organisations, all of whom are clinging on the all the custom they can get at this time and losing a paying customer doe to inadequate service can be catastrophic in these uncertain economic times.
This is where speech analytics software steps in and helps call agents and managers provide the best service possible, with as little stress and effort. Let’s take a look at how speech analytics is helping call agents to improve their service during these stressful times.
Alert Agents With News
There are constant new announcements that impact all industries within the country if it isn’t a new COVID-19 accouchement, it’s something to do with Brexit and it can be hard to keep up, especially if something is announced without any warning during working hours.
With the use of speech recognition software, this can pick up patterns in words and phrases customers are using and alert management of anything that appears to be a trend. With the knowledge being as swift as possible, management can then alert staff of new rules, practices or procedures that are occurring and implement the best way to handle this, meaning everyone is ‘in-the-know’ as quickly as possible.
This is especially important with increasing numbers of agents now working from home, no longer can agents quickly have a chat with colleagues in between calls and easily compare notes as to why customers are calling and flag anything that seems unusual.
Fastest Service
Now that most people are working from home, this means there is no longer a ‘busy’ period during evenings and weekends, in fact, most days are busy at any hour as customers aren’t restricted to when they can make a phone call anymore.
This can quickly lead to a constant bag log of waiting callers and average handling time can quickly skyrocket. Speech analytics can determine exactly why someone is calling, even before they have gotten through to an agent, meaning they will be put through to the best person possible to handle their query, reducing the chances of them having to be passed around departments and taking up both parties precious time.
Speech analytics software can even determine if there are any calls that can be avoided completely with common questions and phrases that arise. This can then be turned into actions, this could be providing options to listen to pre-recorded information or placing more information on the website regarding a certain element.
This way, agents will be free to answer more complex questions and customers won’t be left on hold waiting for information that could be accessed elsewhere.
Save The Sale
Before the pandemic hit, many customers were not as concerned about their finances, but with job security at its worst in a generation, many members of the public will not hesitate to drop current contracts for the smallest of reasons.
This is why agents make sure they are always as satisfied as possible and do everything within their power to not lose a customer to a competitor. Speech analytics can identify irate customers from the tone in their voice and pick up on words they use.
With pre-programmed responses, agents can be prompted with the best way to handle the situation, even if they were not yet aware of how the conversation was steering.
This also helps managers monitor call performance, reports can be generated to show which agents have the best and worst customer satisfaction rates and training can be provided accordingly. With managers unable to monitor agents directly while they are working from home, this is invaluable to ensure quality is always maintained.
In these times, we are all having to change and adapt, even with vaccines being rolled out, there is no telling exactly when we can return to ‘normal’. That’s why any investment in the right pieces of software are essential to keeping call centres running smoothly and reducing customer and staff attrition.
