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Is Your Contact Center Keeping Secrets?

by Mary Moilanen, Senior BI Enablement Program Manager, Calabrio - December 1, 2022

Is Your Contact Center Keeping Secrets?
Mary Moilanen, Senior BI Enablement Program Manager, Calabrio

Since the pandemic, the concept of the “traditional” contact center has been mostly retired. With the rapid adoption of cloud-based platforms, many agents are now working hybrid models and many more fully remote agents have been hired. But one thing about the contact center hasn’t changed—in fact, it’s only gotten better. It’s the abundance of data that comes with managing hundreds and thousands of customer interactions every day.

Contact centers have long embraced the value of data for internal customer service operations and performance improvements. But as times change and siloes break down through efforts like digital transformation, so does our view of how data can be used to benefit the whole organization. Instead of keeping these secret insights hidden away in the dark, now is the time to bring them to light. 

Modernizing Data Access

The modern contact center is awash with voice-of-the-customer (VoC) insights. As the main point of interaction between a company and its customers, the contact center is perfectly positioned to gain insight into customers’ thoughts and feelings about a brand. This data is invaluable, not just to the contact center, but to departments across the entire company. For marketing teams, sales leaders, human resources, financial analysts and more, these insights can help steer an organization toward the smartest, revenue-driving decisions.

The landscape of today’s business environment is more challenging than ever, but when departments cooperate and share the wealth, they set themselves, and the brand, up for success. Using (and sharing) VoC and other rich contact center data can help bring teams together, elevate previously unseen trends, and propel teams toward faster results, happier, more engaged employees, and more satisfied customers. 

Benefits to Marketing

Marketing departments and the contact center haven’t always worked hand in hand, and it’s time for this to change. As a department that thrives on understanding what motivates customers to action, nothing is more valuable than hearing it straight from the source. 

Today, automation and analytics-based products can directly capture the voice of the customer, and business intelligence solutions can aggregate the data in ways that transform it into usable information. Marketing teams can hear directly from customers to understand how the brand is perceived, what buyers love and loathe, new trends in demand, and even determine if marketing campaigns are resonating. 

GreenPath Financial Wellness did just that—recognizing the value of listening to its customers. Using Calabrio Speech Analytics, GreenPath identified key phrases related to its marketing campaigns. They found billboards, social media, and radio were the top campaigns mentioned by their customers. By pivoting away from less effective media and investing more in the better-performing channels, marketing was able to optimize its budget and efforts to better serve and reach customers 

But they didn’t stop there! Amidst the turmoil of the pandemic, GreenPath’s contact center began receiving more questions about programs for rental payment support and counseling. Thanks to an already-established relationship with its marketing team, the contact center was able to communicate this trend right away. Marketing fast-tracked a campaign to highlight its rental counseling services, leading to a 300% increase in use. GreenPath’s effective reporting, use of technology to analyze voice interactions, and partnership with the marketing department allowed them to respond rapidly to changing conditions, resulting in real financial value. 

Benefits to Sales

Just like marketing departments, sales teams flourish when they understand the needs of their customers. By understanding how customers feel about certain products or services, a sales rep can craft personalized pitches that zero in on real-world, current needs. Sales teams can maximize profits by knowing how customers respond to different pricing models. An early glimpse at how interest in products or services is trending based on inquiries to the contact center can give sales teams a head-start on building strong, informed relationships with prospects.

Benefits to Human Resources

Contact centers know great customer experiences usually start with great employee experiences. The data held within the contact center is a valuable resource for understanding what’s happening with agents and operations. Seeing constant understaffing in the afternoons? Maybe it’s time for human resources to recruit employees with different availability. Noticing a lag in how long it takes employees to get their performance metrics up to speed? Perhaps the onboarding program needs a tweak. Employers can even keep an eye on employee stress and burnout by monitoring metrics and VoC data indicative of challenging calls or workloads. In an industry that often sees costly high turnover, managing burnout before it leads to resignations can save managers more than just a headache.

Benefits to Finance

While the benefits of contact center-based insights may be more apparent for marketing and sales, good data can also be used to help historically non-customer facing roles. For example, many contact center interactions involve questions about billing. By understanding the context behind these calls, finance teams can stave off issues as they emerge, rather than learning about them only once they’ve become a big problem. Monitoring trends like inquiries about payment plans or deferred billing could highlight leading indicators of issues that have yet to hit the books, keeping finance teams from being caught off guard.

Benefits to the Contact Center

When teams collaborate and share insights, the entire organization benefits. But within the contact center itself, VoC insights, sentiment analysis, evaluation scores and more can all help identify areas where teams are wowing customers and where it may be missing the mark. Phrases about repeat inquiries or speaking to a supervisor could indicate unfavorable trends that need to be addressed. On the other hand, increasing script adherence and use of empathetic words may indicate new agent training programs are paying off.

The best thing about all this data stemming from the contact center is that its value keeps growing and expanding. Sharing data among departments helps everyone perform better and highlights the contact center as the valuable brand guardian it truly is. So, reveal the secret intelligence hidden inside—your teams, and your bottom line, will thank you.

 

 
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