Conversation Intelligence Improves Outcomes for Contact Centers, Observe.AI Research Shows
However, two-thirds of contact centers still rely on manual processes for critical workflows like agent coaching and quality assurance.
June 29, 2022
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Technology spending is up, yet half of contact centers don’t feel very prepared for the future. While 81% of contact centers reported higher annual software budgets, 48% do not feel “very prepared” for the future. This concern was primarily attributed to not having the right technology and/or strategy in place to improve business results, despite increased budgets and spending.
Agent teams suffer from too many bottom performers. Contact centers were asked to qualify the makeup of their agents with regard to top, average and bottom performers. A startling 22% considered most of their agents to be “bottom performers” that negatively impact both the top and bottom line. They identified the business impact of bottom performers as low CSAT, low revenue growth, low volume of answered and/or resolved interactions, increased risk of non-compliance, poor operational efficiency and low employee satisfaction.
Despite wide adoption of AI and automation, contact centers still rely too much on manual processes – making it impossible to achieve complete visibility or accelerate critical workflows. Just 16% of respondents analyze every agent-customer interaction, meaning they have only partial visibility into business-critical factors. Two in three (67%) still use manual processes to analyze interactions, whether exclusively or in combination with AI. One in five (21%) contact centers rely solely on completely manual processes for interaction transcription and analysis.
Contact centers are also bogged down by unscientific methods and tool juggling. Nearly half (49%) of contact centers continue to use antiquated spreadsheets and/or rudimentary word processing documents as the basis for evaluating and analyzing interactions. Seventy percent of respondents use two or more tools for agent-customer interaction analysis, forcing operators to jump from solution to solution. This increased complexity, inefficiency and risk of human error leaves the business vulnerable to incidents like compliance failures, which cost an average of $4.24 million per breach.
Contact centers that leverage conversation intelligence report better agent performance, more robust formal coaching programs and faster QA workflows. Eighty-two percent of contact centers that reported their agents consisted of “mostly top performers” used a conversation intelligence solution. Ninety percent of respondents agreed that conversation intelligence improved agent performance programs, and 94% agreed it enabled better agent coaching. Those using conversation intelligence were nearly five-and-a-half times more likely to implement formal coaching programs.
Contact centers that invest in conversation intelligence feel their business is better prepared for the future. Contact centers using conversation intelligence were 10 times more likely to feel “very prepared” for the future than those without. In addition, those who cited their agents comprised “mostly top performers” were nearly four times more likely to feel “very prepared” for the future.”
Contact centers that invest in conversation intelligence feel their business is better prepared for the future. Contact centers using conversation intelligence were 10 times more likely to feel “very prepared” for the future than those without. In addition, those who cited their agents comprised “mostly top performers” were nearly four times more likely to feel “very prepared” for the future.”
Intelligent workforce platform Observe.AI has unveiled its latest research that says conversation intelligence leads to better financial and employee outcomes for contact centers.
That said, as consumer expectations and technology investments continue to rise, customer experience and business outcomes fail to improve. The findings highlight the contact center industry’s continuing struggle with the customer experience paradox. Despite increased technology budgets and spending, many contact center leaders feel unprepared to succeed and that their agents are underperforming.
In State of Contact Center Conversation Intelligence 2022, the report details the current landscape of conversation intelligence – software that uses AI to analyze speech or text to derive data-driven insights – in contact centers. Observe.AI commissioned Zogby Analytics to survey 307 North American contact center leaders across industries.
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Contact centers adopting conversation intelligence report higher agent-customer interaction visibility that drives more robust coaching programs, majority top-performing agents and greater confidence about the future of their business.
Observe.AI’s Swapnil Jain
Swapnil Jain is CEO and co-founder of Observe.AI.
“There’s no longer a debate on whether conversation intelligence is worth the investment. Adoption is no longer a question of if, but when,” Jain said. “Whether a contact center’s focus is on service, sales, or both, visibility into agent-customer interactions is key to accelerating workflows that drive revenue and growth.”
The above slideshow reveals the key takeaways from the report, including the current landscape of conversation intelligence in contact centers. This includes technology investments, business needs and challenges, use cases, future planning and outlook.
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