Call centres are proving their worth more than ever during this time. With face-to-face contact on halt for the foreseeable future, more and more customers are turning to contact centres for help and advice. With such a surge in callers over the past year, it’s crucial that every call centre utilities the best tools available to increase efficiency and make sure those customers are being provided with the best possible service, without extreme pressure on call agents.



One of the most effective routes is with the implementation of speech analytics. But what exactly is speech analytics software? To put it simply, it’s a form of software that can analyse calls and even text, if a contact centre uses instant messaging services, both in real-time and pre-recorded to provide in-depth insights into customer patterns, behaviours and trends. 

This can be done with the use of predetermined words and phrases that will be flagged up when spoken or written, by either party in the conversation. Not only does it detect phrases, but can even be programmed to detect emotion, meaning managers can have a real insight into the satisfaction levels of their customers.

Let’s take a look at how software for speech analytics can increase efficiency within call centres and ensure that the best service is provided to those valued customers.

Reducing Call Handling Time
Customers hate long wait times and call centres who aren’t using speech recognition may think that long handling times are unavoidable. However, speech analytics can help to significantly reduce average call handling time.

Callers are kept waiting because agents are helping other customers, but with speech analytics, systems can detect exactly why those customers are calling and direct them to the best agent or department to help.

This means that agents will not have to spend time transferring callers to different departments or struggle to answer their questions and have to seek help from colleagues or reference information.

It can even eliminate the need for an agent, by recognising why a customer is calling, speech analytics can direct them to pre-recorded information that provides the answer to their query and allows agents to answer more complex questions.


Increase in Revenue 
Even those most experienced and skilled agents can miss opportunities to increase revenue during a call. Speech analytics makes it easier for that agent to identify why the customer is calling and what their needs are.

Instead of a typical marketing script, speech analytics can provide a real insight into what products or services could work for this particular caller. Not only does this help provide the best solution, but it makes customers feel like they are being heard and that they are valued, creating loyalty and an opportunity to up-sell.

Identify Training Gaps
With such a strange year for all of us, training and upskilling have been forgotten about by many businesses as they focus on keeping customers happy and trying to stay afloat. It can also be incredibly difficult to identify exactly what areas need to be focussed on or what agents are struggling in certain aspects when so many of us are now working from home.

Speech analytics can analyse recorded conversations between agents and callers and highlight areas that are not being addressed to standard. This could be anything from irate customers to those who use words and phrases associated with leaving the business, it can even detect pauses and ‘ums’ and 'ers' in a conversation, showing an agent who is not as confident as they should be.

Managers can then be provided with an in-depth and accurate report on areas that need attention or agents who may need extra support, ensuring that everyone is performing to the best of their ability.

Put A Stop To Churn
Customer churn can lose a lot of money for businesses and ensuring the best service is always given and exceeding expectations is something that will help reduce this.

However, staff churn can be just as detrimental. Losing the best agents to competitors and having to spend time and money training new colleagues can lead to a loss of productivity and can even decrease the quality within teams.

By being provided with the best tools and training possible, agents will have a great level of job satisfaction. Nobody wants to spend their working day unable to adequately complete their role and having dissatisfied customers on the other end of the call.

Staff are more likely to stay within the business if they feel they are succeeding in their roles and stress is reduced as much as possible.

These are just a few of the benefits speech analytics can provide businesses to increase productivity. In this time, it’s important to cater to the needs and wants of customers as much as possible. With emotions running high and everyone looking after every penny, even the smallest annoyance can lead to a cancelled contract. Using speech analytics keeps customers satisfied while providing ease to call agents working throughout a very difficult period in history.