Speech Analytics: A Game-Changer for Immediate & Relevant Agent Coaching Opportunities

Of the many challenges that exist in the call center environment, agent engagement and retention is often one of the most difficult to overcome. Statistics, in fact, show call centers replace 26% of their front-line agents annually, which can have a significant impact on both workplace morale and overall business.

“A high turnover not only puts a strain on management to find competent workers,” notes one article on agent attrition in the call center. “It can also cost a company thousands of dollars to hire and train a new employee.”

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So what can companies do to boost agent satisfaction in the call center? Speech analytics software is one solution proven to transform call center performance management and increase employee motivation.

But don’t just take our word for it!

Let’s take a look at a few of the ways our customers are using speech technology to offer ongoing training and support to agents:

Identify & resolve issues: With the customer experience growing increasingly important, it’s essential for call center representatives to make each and every point of interaction with the customer count. After all, news of a bad customer experience reaches twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience (thanks to social media platforms and other public outlets such as blogs and customer forums).

With real-time call monitoring software in place, managers are alerted to customer service issues as they occur, which can help them to determine which areas may need to be improved upon and work with agents to figure out the best way to do so.

“With EurekaLive, we can identify immediate areas of a call to assist the agent with, as well as reduce potential client issues or complaints,” says one customer in the collections space. “We can then use Eureka to analyze EurekaLive results to identify training needs and address potential issues.”

Personalize coaching: As noted in a recent Call Centre Helper article, the answer to effectively engaging staff often comes down to devoting the appropriate time and attention to each individual employee. Red Letter Days for Business survey results highlighted in the article show managers who elicit the highest engagement from staff demonstrate they care for each employee, listen to opinions, praise staff and recognize good performance, give staff regular training, etc.

With call center attrition as high as it is, employee engagement becomes especially important. Another customer, a Director of Analytics at a medium-sized enterprise financial services company, notes that Eureka software has created an awareness of inefficiencies across the organization, resulting in opportunities that aid in more focused individualized coaching.

“It has also provided a more effective method to share best practices and provide agents with additional tools to improve their performance,” he adds.

Self-manage performance: In addition to the training and coaching opportunities afforded by speech analytics, customers also note that the technology helps foster employee self-motivation. With myEureka, for example, agents can see current performance and trend information, ranking data, key risk areas, and more – all of which is personalized to the individual agent.

“Agents that use myEureka on a regular basis are excited about being able to track their own progress,” says an analyst at a medium enterprise telecommunications services company. He adds that agent coaches appreciate being able to identify relevant calls quickly to drive additional training opportunities and hone best practices.

Final Thoughts

In the call center environment, speech analytics can be instrumental in providing the type of training and coaching opportunities required for effectively engaging agents. Do you use speech technology to unlock areas of agent strength and weakness? Do you have any best practices for leveraging speech analytics for agent coaching?