Effective call summarization can make a positive difference in contact center productivity and in the way businesses assist customers. By transforming lengthy conversations into actionable summaries highlighting the most important parts of interactions, businesses can deliver top-notch customer service, provide transparency within their call systems, improve agent efficiency and productivity, and more.

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In this guide, we’ll discuss the following:

• What is a call summary, and why is it important?
• Call summarization tools
• Techniques & best practices for effective call summarization
• Effective call summarization adds value to a contact center
• Frequently asked questions

What is a call summary, and why is it important?

A call summary collects key points from a phone call. This technique is often used in contact centers to describe the phone call, from the customer’s issue to the steps taken to resolve it to the outcome of the call.

Call summarization is important for businesses for a few reasons:

• Enhanced customer service: Call summaries ensure that contact center agents have the details necessary to follow up with customers and provide a resolution. If customers call back, the summary offers details of the assistance they’ve already received so the agent can work on different solutions, increasing the accuracy and personalization of customer support.
• Increased productivity and accuracy: Call and contact summarization, often executed by artificial intelligence (AI) tools, ensures frontline agents and customer service employees can spend more time servicing customers vs. completing after call work. Further, there can often be discrepancies in how agents take after call notes or disposition interactions. AI-powered summarizations can create consistency among this reporting.
• Improved communication: Summarizing calls allows teams can boost internal communications and transparency. Marketing teams, decision-makers, customer support professionals, and other team members can access call summaries, understand the point of the call, and make informed decisions based on that information.
• Recordkeeping and compliance: Call summaries serve as records of communications between businesses, vendors, customers, and other points of contact. These records create a clean audit trail to help companies maintain compliance.

Call summarization tools

Businesses can use manual or automated tools to decrease wrap-up time in the call center; however, automated tools are quickly replacing manual tools in favor of more straightforward and less time-consuming summaries.

While agents often used manual note-taking tools, like Microsoft OneNote or Evernote, in the past, many call centers are switching to automated, AI-driven software that transcribes calls, takes notes, and summarizes key points for agents. Then, agents can edit and add to each summary themselves to provide more context or offer suggestions to help the customer in future interactions.

CallMiner’s conversation intelligence software is an excellent example of this type of AI-driven software. It listens to conversations and provides insights during and after calls to improve customer satisfaction.

Techniques & best practices for effective call summarization

Use the following strategies to summarize calls accurately and efficiently.

Get comfortable with real-time summarization

Real-time summarization requires conversation intelligence software to actively listen to calls and gather insights in real time. This captures pertinent information in the moment that agents can use to immediately address customer concerns or needs during a conversation. It can also come in handy should a call need to be escalated, allowing supervisors to understand what a customer needs and what an agent has already done for the customer.

Agents can also use shorthand manual notetaking techniques to summarize calls in real time, allowing them to add context to call summaries without spending extra time completing after-call work. Bullet points, abbreviations, and note coding are a few examples of helpful techniques.

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Use a consistent format

Agents and summarization software should maintain a consistent call summary format to ensure accessibility across all departments. Ensure that the sections of each summary stay in the same locations and that each summary contains the same level of detail and type of information, like call participant names, topics discussed, steps taken, and solutions offered or performed.

Be thorough

Call summaries should be concise and to the point, but they also need to contain ample detail so that any team member who reads them can understand exactly what happened during the conversations. Include any important information that can aid with decision-making regarding the customer or client and their needs, and include any deadlines, responsibilities, or expectations for contact center agents to meet in future interactions with the customer.

Effective call summarization adds value to a contact center

Learn more about each phone conversation, whether it’s between agents and customers or people on your teams, with concise and thorough call summarization. Real-time summarization tools like the CallMiner platform can reduce after-call summarization time while extracting valuable insights and details from every conversation.

Learn more about the AI-driven CallMiner platform and request a demo today.

Frequently asked questions

What should be included in a call summary?

A call summary should include all key points you discuss during a call with a customer, plus any resolutions you’ve also discussed. It’s also best practice to summarize the call's outcome, such as whether the customer’s problem was resolved or if additional steps may still be required for a full resolution. Keep the summary as clear and concise as possible for easy reference later.

How can I ensure my call summaries are accurate?

Active listening is the best way to ensure that your call summaries include the most accurate information about a call, whether you summarize calls manually or automatically. This way, you can check all summarized information after the call to ensure that it doesn’t include any misunderstandings or unclear wording.

How can I save time when summarizing calls?

Automated, AI-powered contact summarization tools keep notes of a call in real time, so you can access the notes after the call. Real-time summarization provides key details, which can save you time writing a detailed summary. Use the automated summary as a base to add pertinent information and edit details for accuracy. Automating this process can save several minutes of after-call time.