Real-Time Speech Analytics technology understands phone conversations and automatically alerts reps with the best things to say, live on each call. As opposed to traditional speech analytic solutions that illustrate call data only after the fact, Real-Time Speech Analytics guide calls as they occur.
Post-Call Speech Analytics:
Post-Call Speech Analytics dashboards provide insights for managers, quality assurance personnel, and other leadership groups. Post Call Analytics are manager facing and provide insights after the fact.
Real-Time Speech Analytics:
Real-time Speech Analytics provides rep’s in-call guidance while they are live on calls. Real-time insights are rep facing and illustrate mistakes in the moment, when saving the conversation is still possible.
Why Use Real-Time Speech Analytics?
Real-Time Speech Analytics’ biggest draw is its ability to guide reps live in-call before the opportunity is lost . Conversely, post-call solutions, while valuable, only illustrate conversation mistakes after the fact and when the damage is already done.
Put another way; Real-Time Speech Analytics ensure phone reps say the right things in every conversation. It’s the delivery mechanism for coaching insights – effectively ensuring reps are using the best conversation techniques possible.
Why Real-Time Speech Analytics Matter:
Real-Time Speech Analytics ensure that reps use effective conversation techniques on every phone call. By extension, it ensures teams use consistent, high-quality messaging when communicating with callers.
As the image illustrates, Real-Time Speech Analytics is the support mechanism for great calls:
Gather – Speech Analytics analyze phone conversations and extract key call coaching insights, which are presented via manager dashboard.
Train – Manager’s use those call insights to improve conversation coaching and messaging for their phone teams.
Enforcement (Real-Time Speech Analytics) – Through immediate reinforcement, Real-Time Speech Analytics ensures reps actually use their coaching and training.
What Are Common Uses for Real-Time Speech Analytics?
Organizations that value high-quality phone conversations gain the most from Real-Time Speech Analytics. Specifically, the call’s value is what matters – as the value increases, so does the need to get every single conversation right. With this in mind, here are three fairly common call environments in which Real-Time Speech Analytics is utilized:
For Sales:
- Stronger, more Nuanced Rebuttals: Real-Time Speech Analytics detects sales objections live in-call, prompting sales reps with effective objection handling language to overcome them.
- Qualification: Live Checklists ensures sales reps cover the critical points in every call, like identifying the caller, scheduling an installation, or confirming a second meeting date. Just like live alerts, the Live Checklist is usually customizable.
- Develop Sales Habits through Immediate Reinforcement: Delivering just-in-time feedback helps ensure sales reps rapidly develop good sales habits and quickly break bad sales habits.
- Consistent Sales Messaging: Real-Time Speech Analytics standardizes messaging across entire sales teams so that sales managers can isolate the strategies that convert from the ones that don’t.
For Service:
- Reduced Call Handle Times – Real-Time Speech Analytics detects customer questions and automatically provided agents with correct answers, reducing wait times and errors.
- Increase One Call Resolutions – Help agents answer questions accurately and concisely on the very first call by providing automatic, up-to-date answers to caller questions.
- Enforce Soft Skills – Sometimes, it’s not what an agent says, but how they say it. Real-Time Speech Analytics monitor calls for talk speed, talk time, and other variables indicative of tone and mood.
For Collections:
- Reduce Compliance Deficit – Should a collector use inappropriate language, forget to read a disclaimer, deviate from their script, or use misleading statements, Real-Time Speech Analytics helps them self-correct before the conclusion of the call.
- Increase Average Amounts Collected – When a consumer gives an objection, Real-Time Speech Analytics helps the collector use effective negotiation and communication strategies to find a solution that works for both parties.
- Improve Call Quality – Real-Time Speech Analytics monitor talk speed, talk time, and other soft skills to improve communication over the phone.
Is Real-Time Speech Analytics Only for Call Centers?
No. User customers span the gauntlet, including contact center agent, call center reps, sales development reps, collectors, support agent, and even nurses. The higher the value of the call, the more valuable tools like Real-Time Speech Analytics are.
Is Real-Time Speech Analytics Distracting?
By nature, reps interact with Real-Time Speech Analytics more than most other technologies; as a result, it helps improve conversation performance quickly.
However, this technology must be rolled out properly. After all, no rep wants or be constantly alerted with unhelpful suggestions. You should make sure your vendor has specific knowledge of your use case and clearly defines a key performance plan to ensure your real-time speech analytic solution is helping on every single call.
How Should a New Buyer Evaluate Real-Time Speech Analytics Vendors?
Make sure your Real-Time Speech Analytics vendor offers the following:
- Complete Call Coverage – Your solution should operate on 100% of phone conversations so that nothing can slip through the cracks. Similarly, make sure your solution can handle the demands of your organization’s call volume.
- Post-Call Analytics and Dashboards– It sounds counter intuitive, but a robust post-call offering supports impactful Real-Time Speech Analytics. Are reps actually using suggestions? Is there an area that would benefit from additional alerts? Post-call alerts help to illustrate areas for further improvement.
- User-Friendly – Real-Time Speech Analytics is supposed to make your life easier. Make sure your solution offers robust out-of-the-box packages with intuitive customization functionality. Similarly, ask your vendor if they guarantee implementation times.
- Robust Security – Call Data is incredibly important intellectual property. At a minimum, ensure your solution is PCI, PCH, and PII compliant and utilizes both TLS-1.2 and 256-Bit Encryption.
- All-Inclusive Customer Support – Your solution is constantly prompting reps with suggestions and alerts. If something isn’t working, you need to make sure you can get it fixed, quickly.
- Additional Functionality -Depending on your situation, you might consider additional functionality, including:
- Campaign Switching for Multiple Call Campaigns: Most popular for B.P.Os and third party call centers, the ability to automatically switch alerts depending on the source or nature of the specific call.
- Gamification: unlock the power of competition by allowing reps to compare performance in real-time.
- Call coaching suggestions: Immediate coaching suggestions for both agents and managers.
- Flexible Telephony Integrations: Nobody needs another complex integration – make sure your vendor is ready to get things up and running immediately.
Does Real-Time Speech Analytics Require Programming Knowledge?
It depends on the technology vendor, but sophisticated solutions should not require programming experience and should be designed to work within dozens of different call environments. More nuanced alerts – like competitor names or medical terminology – can be activated by a manager or the vendor’s Account Manager as necessary.
How Long Does it Take to Roll out Real-Time Speech Analytics for the First Time?
It depends on the technology vendor, but in Balto’s case, integrations usually take between three business days and four weeks for standard use cases. Make sure your vendor guarantees integration times.
How Does Pricing Work?
It depends on the vendor; some are more flexible than others. At Balto, we don’t have minimum contract sizes and offer adjustable pricing models for both hourly and unlimited usage and different support levels.
Are you interested in learning more? We are always happy to chat!
What Does Real-Time Speech Analytics Look Like In Practice?
Here is a simulated example. In this case, a sales rep for a rental car agency receives the following question.
Though a seemingly simple question, there is actually a lot to unpack, and it would be easy for a representative to miss at least one of these three main points.
Two Upsell Opportunities – The customer mentioned a vacation. which is an opportunity to promote the vacation package. Separately, it might be an opportunity for the sales rep to suggest a larger, more family friendly-vehicle.
Bonding and Rapport: A vacation is a special time for families. It presents a relationship building opportunity for the organization. Positioned correctly, the customer will associate this positive brand experience with a great vacation.
In both of these cases, real-time speech analytics can be calibrated to provide the ideal responses.
This example also illustrates another point – real-time alerts can reflect varying levels of specificity. In this example, potential segments include:
- General Customer Interest
- Specific “storage” alert
- Vehicle Specific “storage” alert”Different types of alerts lend themselves to different levels of specificity. Make sure your real-time speech analytics vendor is comfortable with your conversation environment.
Are Real-Time Speech Analytics New?
Yes, it is a fairly new technology. It wasn’t always economical to analyze millions of calls instantly and simultaneously, but we’ve worked very hard to change that!
Do Experienced Reps Use Real-Time Speech Analytics?
We believe firmly that everyone has room for improvement, and it’s not uncommon to see the highest performing reps adopt real-time speech analytics most readily.
Another common real-time speech analytics centers on breaking bad habits. Usually, seasoned reps have the most ingrained habits (good or bad) and Balto can help influence them through immediate reinforcement.
Did you Name Your Company after a Dog?
You bet! We love the dynamic of man and animal working together to achieve an amazing result that neither could have achieved independently. That’s how we view real-time speech analytics: humans still play a leading role, but Balto is there to support them along the way.
Where can I find a Real-Time Speech Analytics ROI calculator?
Yes, you can find one, here. Technically, this calculator tracks Conversation Drip – the amount of otherwise winnable calls that slip through the cracks. Your result will answer the following two questions:
- “If reps said everything perfectly on every call, how would that affect my bottom line?”
- “How close could real-time speech analytics reasonably get us to perfect phone calls?”
Combined, these two answers should help give you a clearer picture of real-time speech analytics ROI.
