The term "voice analytics" conjures up images of dedicated engineers and vocal analysts holed up in a robotics engineering facility, performing detailed dissection of sounds: trying to understand them, trying to replicate them.

But voice analytics, in reality, is more like....well, any other analytics. Just think of phone calls as data, and consider that you can extract insights from that data. Voice analytics is the term for capturing and processing the information that occurs in speech or on communication devices that relay speech. You could learn the average volume of your rep's voice, the length of the call or the exact number of times your business is mentioned.

Think of it that way, and you can see that voice analytics aren't quite so removed from your daily functions as you may have first imagined. In fact, the practice is becoming increasingly popular in contact centers the world over. And that's because, if your contact center is large enough, the business benefits are proportionally large; implementing VA can help you avoid the deep pains of lost productivity, lost customers and unnecessary investments.

Bottom line? Voice analytics can utterly transform your call center.

Is implementing voice analytics worth it?

Consider your call center's function and staff. The value of voice analytics is less with fewer people, such that if you have a call center that consists of just two people answering phone calls during business hours, the value is likely minimal. That's because the real value lies in data visibility and sorting — in understanding historical performance and being able to form insights and solutions as a result.

You can gather reports on call volume, statistics on how often your callers abandon the call and when that occurs, how long each caller waits in the queue, and much more. With that information, you can better allocate human resources in order to provide a higher level of service to your customers and maintain optimal productivity.

Without analytics, there’s no way to know how good your people are at answering, except to just stand inside of your call center and observe, or to listen in real-time, thereby gathering only anecdotal information. What about, instead, bumping up against opportunities for insight through your data, opportunities like, "Mark has an incredibly high satisfaction rating but spends less than a minute on each call on average." Without reporting, there's no way to know this fact, and therefore no way to find out how Mark is accomplishing this, and how other agents could, too.

If you're still not sure if voice analytics are worth it, consider the undeniable snapshot of quality you'll be able to gain. With voice documentation (call recording) through a call logging system, you can cover both compliance (i.e. ensuring your reps aren't saying anything your regulatory department wouldn't approve of) and quality.

This type of snapshot isn't provided through an individual's personal prism or filter. Instead of hearing through the grapevine that your reps aren't providing the level of service your customers expect, you could analyze performance objectively at all times, grading based not only on the outcome of the call, but also on how attentive the agent is (for instance, are they browsing their personal social accounts while they're talking to a customer, or are they instead sharing a helpful piece of content?).

Capitalizing on Data

With your voice analytics data constantly available, you can make smarter decisions about how to meet your customer's needs and allocate your resources. Are you finding out that people wait too long in your queue, and you're not meeting the industry standard for response time? That could indicate you need more resources, or to examine the hours those resources are available.

Whatever insights you're able to glean from your data, focus on using them to ensure customer satisfaction and high productivity, as well as to avoid hiring when you don't need to (an unnecessary investment).

Special Considerations

Just like everything on your network, your voice analytics data needs to remain secure, especially because it's likely there is PCI involved. Using performance analytics isn't a risk, but documentation is. With HIPAA-compliant or PCI-compliant information, you need the highest levels of security, and to be aware of the compliance terms for storage. For example, if you are required to keep such information for five years, you won't want to accidentally erase it in three.

When choosing your solution, consider ease of use and formatting. Ideally, you should be able to pull up an online web portal and pull your data down into Excel or SQL. Consider, too, what your licensing costs will be, and how you'll grow. What happens, for instance, when you want to add a new user, or update your OS? How will that affect your solution? Answer these questions as you search through providers — in addition to addressing the points above — and your chances of finding the perfect voice analytics solution will greatly increase.