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Getting It Right with Speech:
Lessons from the Trailblazers
A N A L Y T I C S

2. Ready to take the leap into speech?
Most customer service leaders recognize that implementing speech analytics is no small task. Not only does it require big up-front and ongoing
capital expenditures, there’s also the issue of extensive personnel allocations. And that’s just to get it up and running. Gaining insights that matter,
then sharing them with the right people introduces even more challenges. Has anyone solved for all of this … and is there really an ROI at the end?
Why speech analytics
As brands fight for the attention of the always-on customer, organizations are making big
bets on Big Data to understand needs, wants, preferences and behaviors. Innovators in
using Big Data to improve the customer experience are taking advantage of unstructured
data, including the spoken word.
Not surprising to call center leaders, one of the best sources of customer insights lies
within the gigabytes of contact center call recordings.
In the past five years, there’s been an avalanche of companies trying to use speech
technology for day-to-day agent compliance and performance. Placing speech automation
on top of call recordings gives agents more feedback than ever about performance, even
above traditional quality monitoring.
But one doesn’t exclude the other. Rather than going all or none, your best bet is to blend
speech into ongoing quality and reap the benefits of both. Done right, they’ll inform each
other to yield deeper insights your team can use in process improvements and targeted
actioning.
Speech benefits
There are multiple benefits to using speech analytics in customer service, from
performance management to cost containment. In the end, if it improves the customer
experience it’s sure to improve the business.
Early adopters of speech analytics as a supplement to quality monitoring quickly
recognized that more data alone doesn’t improve interactions. If call quality is intended
to measure the customer experience, then call metrics need to reflect actual customer
expectations—not just what we think is important.
If you still don’t know what customers value, you’re wasting time and money. The only way
to capture that is to listen.
Doing it right
Take the time and make the investment to understand how customers want to be served.
Keep in mind that expectations vary from segment to segment and change over time, so
anticipate digging deeper on a regular basis. Find out what customers expect through an
integrated effort—conduct interviews, focus groups, surveys, even calibration sessions—
and add analysis of call recordings. A complete view gives more intelligence and direction.
For leaders, getting from Point A to Point B is about changing business outcomes not
adding another technology. Today’s speech trailblazers do more than improve agent-
controllable factors, they drive business transformation.
Read on to learn how they do it.
“If you’ve ever wondered whether taking the leap
into speech analytics is worth it, you’re not alone.
With the first commercial speech technology
launched in the 1970’s, stories began to abound from
early adopters facing myriad challenges and resulting
failures. A huge obstacle to entry in today’s market
is the associated price tag; doing speech right isn’t
cheap, or easy.
The latest innovations in speech analytics emphasize
the importance of having smart people actively
managing inputs and outputs on an ongoing basis.
The tools themselves are extremely robust but that
means they’re not a plug-and-play option for IT to
install and your team to noodle around in. To really
achieve value, you have to know how to do it right
and be willing to make the proper investments.
With the evolution to real-time squarely in our midst,
the benefits of speech analytics are becoming clearer
and more tangible. If you can listen to a caller and
interpret on the spot whether they’re frustrated
and need an escalation, or satisfied and open to an
up-sell … imagine what that would mean to your
business.
As with many growing markets, sometimes the
best way to dip a toe in is to learn from those who
have gone before. Here we share stories from five
companies that solved the speech conundrum with
great success.”
MIKE CHOLAK
General Manager and Vice President
Convergys Analytics
FOREWARD

3. Mortgage loan originator and servicer used speech to establish KPI offers, attempts and eligibility. Also analyzed call
events to refine offers and agent techniques, then created propensity models for offer acceptance.
IMPROVE SALES
in
agent
retention
13%increase
in new loan
refinance
amount
10%increase
$
convergys.com/analytics | analytics@convergys.com | 800-576-0920
Healthcare insurer used speech analytics to identify which
business processes and agent behaviors caused higher
member frustration, then established new agent metrics and
claims processes.
Communications company used speech analytics to
identify top call drivers, assess agent troubleshooting
and explore ways to lower truck rolls.
A multi-national financial services company used speech
analytics to automatically categorize call reason thereby
eliminating manual dispositioning by agents.
Communications company offering voice and data bundles
used speech to increase sales-agent compliance checks
and better set customer expectations about upcoming
pricing changes.
INCREASE SATISFACTION LOWER COSTS
HIGHER EFFICIENCY BETTER COMPLIANCE
5S P E E C H A N A L Y T I C S
A N A L Y T I C S
one call per agent/month
to all calls per agent/month.
decreased
truck rolls
in
member
confusion15%reduction
in contact
center
costs
$600,000annual reduction
in call center costs
due to fewer
repeat calls
$24Mreduction
Increased
agent efficiency reduced
handle time&
62%compliance
increased
compliance checks grew from
Success Stories
$5Mannual
savings
$5,000,000
$
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4. Intelligence like you’ve never seen.
Powerful, actionable, transformative.
convergys.com/analytics | analytics@convergys.com | (800) 576-0920
A N A L Y T I C S