Use Big Data for a chance of having a Big Year in 2017

“AN AGE of uncertainty is upon us” according to The Economist. Many other sources suggest that 2017 will carry a lot of unknowns, both for businesses and individuals alike. We could just wait and see what happens. But, as the saying goes, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. In a world of uncertainty, being able to make informed decisions in response to changes will be vital to success.

To be able to do that, companies need to turn to the biggest asset they have … DATA. Smart businesses are already investing in big data in order to provide better services to their customers, by employing a variety of analytics solutions. According to a Forrester study, 44% of B2C marketers in the US are using big data and analytics to improve responsiveness and 36% are actively using analytics and data mining to gain greater insights to plan more relationship-driven strategies. The call centre is in the frontline of customer relationships. So it makes sense to use the data captured through customer interactions to help navigate the volatile markets ahead.

We’ve put together a list of four great tactics for making sure that you use your call centre data to deliver the customer insights you need to turn a “year of uncertainty” into a “Big Year for your business”.

1. Identify ways in which you can deliver customers the human touch needed to create successful customer relationships and keep them with you for longer

Uncertainty will not only affect businesses; customers will feel it too. Therefore, being able to demonstrate that you understand the pressure they are under, and interacting with them in an empathetic manner, will be crucial in ensuring they remain loyal to your business. Interaction Analytics can provide contact centres the information they need to ensure that every interaction exceeds customer expectations and thus creates engaged and loyal customers.

For example, Interaction Analytics can help call centre agents understand how their behaviour, and skills at handling customer requests, can impact the outcome of the call. By combining call recording data with acoustic data, it is possible to measure key emotional content, such as showing empathy. It is also possible to identify trends in the data, such as key words and phrases that deliver a more successful call outcome.

Providing each agent with a daily, personalised scorecard that identifies their performance against a range of key metrics and behaviours, it makes it easier for them to be in control of their own improvement. It also makes it possible for them to set very specific improvement goals for each shift and to ask for coaching assistance where they need it the most.

2. Pass the valuable market intelligence from your call centre to other business functions to get better customer outcomes

A study on Big Data: A Competitive Weapon for The Enterprise found that Customer Analytics (48%) are among the most popular big data use cases. In sales and marketing it is used for increasing customer acquisition, reducing customer churn, increasing revenue per customer and improving existing products. Having access to that knowledge gives businesses greater understanding of their customers’ behaviour and increases their competitive advantage in the market.

For example, the 2016 Speech Tech Awards winner, Open English, utilised CallMiner’s Interaction Analytics API functionality, to gain near real-time actionable insights connecting their data from sales conversion, agent behaviour and marketing processes. This delivered improvements to the customer experience, to agent productivity, and to the conversion rate from their marketing campaigns.

3. Be more agile to resolve customer pain points or respond to trends quicker in order to gain competitive advantage

Interaction Analytics can also give you the insight needed to make sure your business can quickly react to any unforeseen issues, sales trends or competitor offers. Because 100% of calls and interactions are analysed it’s possible to spot and address product or process issues as they materialise. You can also identify possible sales trends or create opportunities to upsell or cross-sell.

For example, one of our customers identified – within one shift – that a competitor had launched a campaign to encourage people to switch. This allowed them to come up with a counter offer and coach their agents to use that offer when their customers called in to cancel their contract. The net result was not only did their customers not switch but many extended their contract. Furthermore, our customer decided to launch a very similar switching offer and acquired many new customers because their competitors did not have the same analytics in place and reacted too late to stop customers switching.

4. Don’t guess what the customer journey looks like. Make sure you can capture the complete view of your customer interactions

Another way to ensure you can react to changes in the market more quickly is to ensure that you monitor and analyse all channels in which customers can reach you. Most organisations only analyse a small proportion of customer interactions – typically less than 3%. Without analysing every interaction it is impossible to identify the complete customer journey. It is also not possible to pick up on trends and identify possible problems or opportunities.

To be able to create the complete picture you will need to analyse all your interactions across multiple channels in one system that allows you to have a single point of access to data. This is important because in today’s multichannel world, it’s not uncommon for customers to use multiple channels to resolve a single issue. And by doing so, you will be able to use this valuable data in different parts of your organisation, beyond your contact centre.