How to Reduce Risk in CX With Speech Analytics

A Digital CX Strategy With Speech Analytics Reduces Risk Throughout the Customer Journey

A digital CX ecosystem that includes speech analytics offers endless opportunities to enhance business intelligence and improve the customer experience. One way is through risk management and regulatory compliance monitoring to ensure all steps of the customer journey mitigate risk and meet legal requirements.

Because all customer calls are recorded, business process outsourcing (BPO) companies like iQor can tailor speech analytics software to search for specific content based on a client’s needs in response to changing factors in the environment, whether the release of a new product or impacts from a natural disaster. One method to achieve this is through customizable keyword-based queries which tag any customer interactions that relate to the topic of concern and prompt a deeper data analysis. This empowers supervisors and program leadership to make adjustments to improve the customer experience through speech analytics, from coaching agents on particular areas of need to adjusting scripts and updating training protocols.

In this blog post, we will look at the capacity for customizable speech analytics to reduce risk and improve regulatory compliance monitoring in contact center environments. By harnessing the power of iQor’s proprietary speech analytics solution (VALDI), platform users can perform searches by keywords and data filters in response to changing needs. The results inform brands on the pulse of their customers to provide optimal customer experiences.

Speech analytics is part of a larger iQor digital transformation strategy to garner customer experience insights using advanced data analytics.

Through artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions, we can mine all recorded contact center calls and turn their content into actionable data to create smiles throughout the customer experience journey.   

What Is Speech Analytics in CX?

Speech analytics is an AI-powered digital technology that mines human speech and text. As a managed services provider of customer engagement and technology-enabled BPO solutions, iQor has developed a proprietary speech analytics platform that uses cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to analyze every recorded interaction between agents and customers.

The Top Six Ways to Improve Risk Management and Compliance With Speech Analytics

Leveraging speech analytics has the power to mitigate risk and monitor regulatory and contractual compliance in contact center environments. The flexibility of customizable speech analytics solutions enables CX teams to identify areas of non-compliance and leverage digital capabilities to address and improve performance through coaching and training. Large quantities of data can be analyzed based on customized searches to identify areas in need of addressing. Then CX teams can summarize the data to inform decision making.

This data analysis process yields insights to improve numerous components that impact the customer experience. Optimized speech analytics improves risk management and regulatory compliance in the following six ways.

1. Identify Connection Issues to Maximize Uptime

Speech analytics solutions like iQor’s can include capabilities to detect connection issues. Static noise or voice cutting in and out may affect the quality of contact center interactions. VALDI speech analytics automatically tags calls containing phrases such as, “I can barely hear you” or “You’re breaking up.” These recordings can then be easily retrieved in the platform interface.

iQor’s speech analytics can identify these vulnerabilities so they can be properly addressed in a timely manner without having to manually review thousands of calls.

By reviewing only a fraction of calls, quality assurance (QA) specialists are able to determine if the communication problems resulted from actual line issues or whether they were caused by external factors such as difficulties hearing or challenges understanding the subject matter. These actionable insights empower contact center operations with the necessary business intelligence to take measured and appropriate actions, such as updating policies or agent scripts.

But this fraction of calls can still be too many to strategically address connection issues. How can CX teams identify persistent issues or tell the difference between a single temporary disruption and an acute problem leading to poor customer experience? In VALDI, all calls receive a Connection Issues (CI) Score which measures connection issues on a numerical scale. It is implemented by default on all client programs that utilize iQor’s speech analytics solution. On top of the query detections, the score uses a complex set of call data to provide a best connection issues risk estimation.

This metric is represented in a Connection Issues Report which provides a short list of agents at greatest risk of experiencing recurring problems. Supervisors can easily check on specific agents and determine appropriate next steps such as potentially moving them from a work-at-home environment to work-in-office. VALDI reporting also allows for comparing metrics, including CI Score averages, between teams and locations. Finally, an hourly distribution table provides insight into times of the day when connection issues tend to happen. In these ways, data empowers quality management, inspires best practices, and assists agent performance tracking in order to ultimately provide the best customer experience.

2. Discover Trends During Emergencies

In the event of emergencies such as weather-related events, natural disasters, data breaches, and pandemics, it is essential that BPOs like iQor are prepared to respond immediately and effectively to the needs of employees, clients, and the end customer. Speech analytics enables quick adaptations to identify and monitor trends on calls in order to provide responsive customer service experiences.

For instance, when COVID-19 prompted stay-at-home measures across the globe in early 2020, iQor implemented a targeted speech analytics query to detect every instance when an agent or customer mentioned the pandemic. Language analysts were able to quickly define keywords associated with COVID and cross-reference them with other topics present in the dialogue, like technicians’ visits or shipping. This approach led to the discovery of new trends and problems caused by the pandemic. Thanks to this insight, contact center operations could make informed decisions to proactively address a variety of current needs, such as shipping delays.

Speech analytics teams worked closely with operations teams to develop scripts to enable agents to respond effectively. For example, teams were able to improve the scheduling process for in-home technician service calls in part by modifying scripts to promote omnichannel self-service for the customer to modify their appointment in the event of a COVID quarantine. These measures protected technicians and empowered customers and agents with informed and efficient customer service options.

The COVID query has been deployed on all VALDI speech analytics programs to inform clients of trends and improve the customer experience. By empowering agents with scripts that prompted them to ask the customer the right questions in the moment, agents were able to provide excellent customer service to support brands in the midst of a global pandemic.

Additionally, iQor operations can independently browse through speech-to-text (S2T)-generated call transcripts whenever a new crisis hits without contacting VALDI support to arrange selected keywords into a query definition, even a complex one. The VALDI Text Search bar allows for instant searches on already processed calls. This may not make iQor entirely immune to external events impacting our clients’ businesses, but it allows operations to quickly rise to the challenge and navigate the uncertain, changing world as securely and wisely as possible.

3. Monitor Agent Compliance on KPIs

Speech analytics teams are able to develop specialized solutions to efficiently identify issues that may impact relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) in order to address them throughout a program and mitigate risk.

An example of such a KPI is call avoidance, an especially important risk in work-at-home (WAH) environments. The recent development of the Potential Call Avoidance (PCA) Score provided insight for operations teams to identify why it may be occurring and address it quickly to deliver a customer-centric approach throughout all voice interactions.

The PCA Score calculates the probability of call avoidance occurring in the call. It focuses on certain scenarios that affect customer satisfaction, like long holds and ghost calls. The reason behind these situations may be intentional call avoidance, but they may also occur due to connection issues or high call occupancy at a given time. Each case is different and VALDI speech analytics users are strongly encouraged to review the calls to confirm or reject call avoidance and develop appropriate interventions.

Manual call verification may prove daunting, even though the PCA Score is triggered in a very small portion of all client calls. This is why iQor’s speech analytics enables operations to quickly identify agents with the highest ratio of risky calls to ensure proper agent training and consistently great CX. By accessing speech analytics reporting, contact center operations can quickly identify the lowest-performing agents and intervene with targeted coaching and training.

The PCA Score has proven efficient in providing actionable insights, improving agent performance, and lowering call average handle times. These Score-based findings have also prompted some operations teams to modify policies, to ensure consistently high levels of service. The ultimate goal, however, is to provide the best customer experience by limiting or eliminating situations that customers may find difficult or frustrating. Higher Net Promoter Score (NPS) values show the benefits of acknowledging, researching, and addressing call avoidance as one of the risks in CX.

4. Ensure Agents Adhere to Scripts

The increased number of WAH contact center agents at the onset of COVID accelerated the need to monitor proper adherence to scripts to make sure agents deliver the same level of customer service, regardless of their work environment. Custom keyword searches through speech analytics provide insight into calls to ensure agents communicate according to the scripts and prompts provided on their program.

5. React to Negative Experiences

VALDI applies artificial intelligence to measure CX by calculating customer sentiment in each interaction and linking calls with post-call surveys and NPS values. Additionally, language analysts create query definitions aimed at detecting any negative feedback and communication barriers. Researching these areas allows for successful agent training.

6. Prevent Legal Risks

Speech analytics solutions facilitate effective quality assurance and audit functions at scale, regardless of call recording volume.

Data scientists can create queries and sub-queries to drill down on specific issues, identify trends, and develop interventions to improve service in unique circumstances.

For example, program teams can use speech analytics to identify the exchange of credit card information in customer service calls. This functionality allows operations teams to limit their audit to only the calls that contain credit card data.

For one client that wanted to ensure credit card data was not discussed on customer calls, iQor tracked more than 46,000 calls with significantly less effort than would be required if we had done so manually. A query was built to identify the calls on which the term “credit card” was mentioned. The team then created sub-queries to further focus the detection to identify card information.

The result was a nearly 100% reduction in the number of calls in need of audit.

Speech analytics capabilities produced exponential savings in time and cost while protecting the client with valid PCI compliance.

Speech analytics also simplifies the creation of cease-and-desist lists to guarantee that customers who indicate they don’t want to be contacted are removed from call lists in order to meet customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and protect the client’s reputation.

What Differentiates iQor’s Proprietary Speech Analytics Solution?

At iQor, we deploy our internally developed speech analytics technology, VALDI, to enhance customer service delivery that many of the world’s top brands outsource to us. Each instance is customized to the unique needs of the client—in terms of search filters, reporting modules, and data types.

Our speech analytics solution is excellent for risk management because it offers flexibility when a new problem arises, whereas commercial, off-the-shelf tools typically either can’t be modified or require significant time and cost to do so. And you don’t need to be an expert to use it!

Several key attributes of iQor’s speech analytics solution include the following:

• VALDI evolves according to client needs with the capacity to quickly build new capabilities in short timeframes to proactively address changing circumstances.
• It offers customer experience analytics that shields clients from potential risks at scale.
• iQor operations are empowered to use VALDI technology to make informed decisions.
• Its video capabilities help QA to monitor agent performance by reviewing the recorded agent screen capture synchronized with the audio.
• Nothing in VALDI is random—every signal and query is designed to drill down into specific needs.

This proactive combination of digital CX technology with artificial intelligence and human review provides a holistic approach to improve the customer experience and create smiles.

Experience the Best in Speech Analytics

iQor’s proprietary speech analytics platform uses a combination of cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to extract every customer interaction for actionable data insights delivered as a custom solution with outsourced CX services.

iQor is ideally suited to help brands create amazing customer experiences. iQor provides a comprehensive suite of full-service and self-service scalable offerings that are purpose-built to deliver enterprise-quality CX.

Our award-winning CX services include:

• A global presence with 40+ contact centers across 10 countries.
• A CX private cloud that maximizes performance and scales rapidly across multiple geographies on short notice.
• A partnership approach where we deploy agents and C-level executives to help maximize your ROI.
• The perfect blend of intelligent automation for scale and performance coupled with an irresistible culture comprised of people who love to delight your customers.
• Virtual and hybrid customer support options to connect with customers seamlessly, when and where they want.
• The ability to launch a customer support program quickly, even when you need thousands of agents ready to support your customers.
• A best-in-class workforce management team and supporting technology to create a centralized organization that can better serve your entire business.

iQor helps brands deliver the world’s most sought-after customer experiences. Interested in learning more about the iQor difference? If you’re ready to start a conversation with a customer experience expert, contact us to learn about how we can help you create more smiles.

Monika Starczewska is director of Analytics at iQor.

Irena Michalewicz is manager of Information Services at iQor.

They are both part of the VALDI Team.