The use of profanity in calls to the contact center is on the rise. It has moved beyond an issue of politeness to a business problem that is impacting operations and costing organizations money.
CallMiner recently analyzed more than 82 million calls to determine the prevalence and impact of profanity in the contact center. Our analysis showed that callers are becoming more frustrated with issue resolution and are verbalizing their displeasure at an increasing rate.
Our infographic, What the %!#* is Going On, brings to light the negative consequences of profanity during calls and the potential impact on the company’s bottom-line. While the use and variations of profane terms vary, there is no disputing the issue that profanity is bad for business.
Key findings in our analysis showed that calls that contain profanity last on average more than eight minutes longer than those without. Think about what these are doing to your metrics. It was also determined that for calls that contain profanity, 87% of them contain profanity throughout the entire call.
These statistics signify a few serious issues for the business. First, contact center agents are unable to de-escalate volatile interactions. Customers are coming in angry and staying that way. Second, your process is broken. By the time a caller gets to an agent they have lost control of their emotions.
Why Profanity Needs to be Accounted For
The use of profanity during calls says more about you than your customer. There will always be a small percentage of callers who are impolite and show little respect for your agents. However, the more important takeaway is that you are failing on some level.
Maybe it’s your inability to properly address and solve customer problems in a timely way. Perhaps your service or product is not performing as promised. No matter what, you can’t afford to ignore this key metric.
Measuring the use of profanity can help you head off several costly business problems early on. It can be your first indicator that there is a breakdown in process, product or service. Customer and agent churn can be reduced and contact center metrics can be normalized.
Direct customer interactions are extremely valuable. Don’t ignore the important data resulting from these conversations. Reducing the presence of profanity in the contact center should be an established and important KPI for every business.
Use this information early to avoid costly problems down the road. Ignore these key data points and you could be f*cked.
