THE SPEECH ANALYTICS DILEMMA
Is your platform collecting dust? Engage the right partner.
In today’s credit and collection world, more and more agencies are turning to speech analytics platforms to solve their compliance needs. These robust software platforms help agencies find issues much quicker than any internally staffed quality assurance team. Many agencies are deploying the software to act as the proverbial big brother as it is constantly mining for compliance infractions.
Unfortunately, in many cases, this is the extent in which the system is utilized. In some instances, companies ‘set it and forget it’. This is often a path to causing the investment to collect dust. Decision makers should consider the following three guidelines so that the platform becomes more than just a glorified Quality Assurance assistant: understand the limitations, solve for best practices and make data driven decisions.
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Understand the Limitations
First and foremost, understand the limitiations of the system you purchased. An off the shelf system should deliver canned searches, reports and scorecards. It that initial form, it can provide an immediate helping hand to an already taxed quality assurance department. However, these systems may need training to correctly interpret the specific language used by your business. In speaking with Kyle Carter, founder of Zenylitics, he suggested that it is vital that the organization invest effort in tuning the system. Assign an analyst to audit the engine’s coding. Enlist a good partner with expertise and a good process for facilitating calibration. This is an important initial investment needed to increase the value of the system in the early days.
Solve for Best Practices
it is also imperative that users educate themselves in industry best practices. Fully grasping the possibilities can lead to not only enhanced QA and compliance deliverables, but also a tool to drive revenue. For example, measureable revenue lifts can be demonstrated by increasing soft skills, coaching on the optimal negotiation waterfall, and asking for payment earlier in the call. A partner well-schooled in financial services best practices will help analyze your speech analytics data and quickly cut to the highest-payback agent behaviors. Another common target of opportunity is optimizing tax time verbiage during the tax season. One study found that less than 40% of agents were using tax return language when negotiating payment. With a good script and the ability to monitor, adherence drastically increased, and with it so did collections.
Make Data-drive Decisions
With the amount of data the industry now has available, ‘gut’ feeling is being overtaken by empirical data. Decisions can be made with measurable and exact results. The script that has been gospel can be improved by testing variations. A speech analytics platform increases the amount of data ten-fold, and can turn “anectodal” into “actionable”. For example, by drilling into the why relative to complaints and dissatisfaction drivers, an organization can build models to ‘look’ for behaviors of either agents or callers that can help eliminate complaints. Couple that information with a strong marketing or mail campaign, a company can proactively engage its consumers before they complain. There are literally dozens of incremental return on investment opportunities that can be pursued with little or no incremental cost.
In speaking with Mr. Carter he said something that should resonate with anyone that has already is looking to purchase speech analytics software. “Today’s consumer is searching for a frictionless experience, and analyzing interactions can help companies understand how to create that. But to achieve the results a company wants, it needs not only the right tool, but a partner full invested in helping them analyze their data and take the appropriate actions to leverage those insights.
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Josh Seuberling is the Chief Operating Officer for Lendly, a company that provides customers with nationwide access to thousands of dollars in benefits and savings, all in one place.
Kyle Carter is the founder and Vice President of Delivery for Zenylitics, a company founded to improve call center effectiveness by combining the power AI-powered speech analytics with expert help in interpreting the results.
