Castel Blog

Who hasn’t heard this disclosure when calling a business via phone? Keeping in mind that a good percentage of customers will use the phone for ‘first contact’ with a business is key insight into reasons for their repeated or ceased business.

Barry Moltz, author of Getting Small Businesses Unstuck, states, “The most common complaint from customers is not that they are dissatisfied with the product or service they bought, but rather the post sale customer service. This is why 86 percent of customers take their business elsewhere.” Imagine 86% of your small business customer base going to your competitors because your customer service levels post-sale fall short of the expectations of people you’ve already met, made contracts or signed deals with? WOW!

Recording customer calls may help bring to light customer service issues your business is missing each day. We rely upon our esteemed customer service representatives to provide only the best quality service to our customers, but how do we make sure? There are many solutions available to businesses of all sizes, whether your customer service team is made up of just one representative, or thousands. Simply put, ‘checking tape’ can assist your business in determining why customers are staying or leaving you.

Remember, it’s not just what we tell our customers, it’s how we tell them…and who is making sure our tone and delivery is meeting our business’ expectations? Our customers!
 

Most call centers that record or LIVE listen to agent calls do not have the resources to evaluate 100% of those calls. The QA analysis is labor intensive, time consuming and typically results in only an extremely small percentage of calls being reviewed/scored.   For example, the goal for many call centers may be to evaluate 3 to 5 calls per agent per month. Not only is this a small sampling, but makes providing timely feedback to agents very challenging.

As more companies are embracing customer-focused quality (customer delight), a company’s scorecard should focus on key metrics and improving value from customers’ perspective.  The ability to analyze 100% of contact center calls is possible, as well as systematically scoring calls for emotions, words and phrases. The need for a human to score in post-call is no longer necessary. Companies may create a ‘call profile’ to which each call will be measured against and scored. As the scorecard or histogram is available immediately following the call, agents may receive nearly instantaneous feedback from a supervisor. Keep in mind, LIVE analysis may have already been provided to that agent during the call as well!
 

Tracking appreciation on LIVE calls between customer and agent can be tricky, but it is possible. Technology today can monitor and track specific words and phrases, as well as emotions associated with what speakers are truly feeling. As a customer I can say THANK YOU sarcastically, I can say it with hesitation, or I can say it with genuine feeling of contentment. Truly capturing the words and emotions relating to the statement is a great opportunity and proof of best-in-class customer service.

Recently I stumbled across some of these phrases shared by businesses, that I think are pretty catchy:  “From the company ranked #1 in customer loyalty”, “Americas Most Convenient Bank®”. Personally, I feel these phrases lines are descriptive of both of the businesses using them and I’m confident these businesses try to secure confirmation of such when agents are speaking with customers.

As businesses continue to review opportunities to deal better with customer complaints and suggestions, they may also require agents to make a closing statement to customers such as, “…have I addressed all of your questions today?”, or “…did I provide you with quality customer service during your call today?” As customers, let’s be sure we comment honestly, and when appropriate, say THANK YOU!

Barbara Burke (customer care expert http://barbaraburke.com/its-really-pretty-simple/) shares that among other characteristics desirable in a supervisor, agents look for a supervisor who is fair and will not play the ‘favorites’ game. This often comes into play when being reviewed after a customer/agent call.

Complaints of favoritism rise as agents believe their reviews to be more subjective rather than based upon objective analytics, “She likes her better than me” or “They are friends out of work, so of course she scored her higher.” Take agents’ criticism of unfairness added with the need for those agents to change their behavior and now you’re looking at a real challenge!

Many of us personally, can attest to the difficulty in being successful ceasing our own ‘poor’ behaviors. So how are we to help our employees change their behavior while on the phone with customers? Implementing call center solutions such as voice and speech analysis can assist agents toward successful change. Using a solution that listens for specific words and phrases to be said during the course of a call, and having the ability to be notified when those words have been stated, increases the likelihood of successful change and encourages positive behavior!

Overall, solutions like these can reduce business risks and provide reporting to show increased performance due to behavior change. Remember, reviews can include constructive criticism, but don’t forget rewards and positive reinforcements, too.
 

                Speech analytics is rapidly coming to the forefront of the call center technology scene.  With an increasing number of different solutions, all with varying capabilities, it may seem like a daunting task to attempt to implement a speech analytics solution at your company.  There are many different facets to take into account when trying to understand the right speech analytics solution for your company, some of the key aspects to look for include speed of response, level of accuracy and reliability, reporting capabilities, as well as the speed of return on investment.

                Speech analytics solutions are often implemented as a preventative measure for many companies.  They seek to reduce lawsuits brought against them, retain dissatisfied customers before they move their business to a rival competitor and ensure a consistent level of customer service.  With these goals in mind, one of the most important aspects of a speech analytics solution is the speed at which it can analyze and report back the results of any given number of conversations going on within a call center.  Learning about a dissatisfied customer, after the fact, does not operate as an effective preventative measure.  When looking at a speech analytics solution, it is important that these insights into calls be delivered as rapidly as possible, in real-time.  This allows your supervisors and quality control officers to respond to customer satisfaction and other potentially volatile situations as fast as possible.  The use of a whisper function or marquee message to the agents desktop will allow your customer service agents to diffuse the situation or alter their approach to provide a more favorable result.

                Speed of response alone is not enough for a good speech analytics solution, accuracy must also be present.  Delivering alerts and warnings quickly means nothing if the majority of those warnings are false, they must also be accurate.  It is important to evaluate the recognition rate of words, phrases and other key indicators when looking at speech analytics solutions.  This can often be accomplished in an initial proof of concept phase done with the analytics company.  Proofs of concepts are a very important part of the process of selecting the proper system for your company.  Through the use of a proof of concept, a company can select a specific project to test the speech analytics software on, then measure the return on investment as well as any other benefits identified during this period.  This allows for minimal risk during the evaluation of the system and can provide valuable insight into the speed of return on investment.

                Assuming the above qualities are present, another extremely important aspect to examine when choosing a speech analytics solution, are its reporting capabilities.  This type of system has the potential to provide massive amounts of data to your company.  However, without a proper reporting engine, this data will become useless.  The system must be capable of delivering meaningful data in intuitive ways to allow your business to identify important things such as trends, productivity levels and overall customer service quality.  A quality system should enable users to drill down to specific calls on an agent by agent basis if necessary. 

                As the speech analytics field continues to grow, more and more solutions will present themselves.  It is important to understand the needs and expectation of speech analytics in your business and evaluate the value of any system before implementing it at your call center.

Increasing Use of Voice Stress Analysis Tests among Law Enforcement

As technology continues to advance, numerous business sectors examine that technology and begin to find ways in which it can be used to enhance their respective fields.  This is especially true in the ever evolving field of law enforcement.  As criminals continue to become more resourceful, law enforcement must constantly embrace new ideas and technologies in order to keep pace.   One of the most recent technological trends utilized by law enforcement is the use of Voice Stress Analysis Tests, alongside the already established polygraph tests. 

In 1957, a British physiologist by the name of Olaf Lippold would identify a physiological occurrence in muscles he termed “microtremors”.  Further research into the field following this would lead to the determination that these mircotremors would appear in much greater frequency in the human voice when the speaker was under some form of psychological stress.  Years later, three retired US military officers would invent the first voice stress analyzer, called the Psychological Stress Evaluator.  This device was based off the large amount of research conducted in the microtremor field following Lippold’s discovery.   This original evaluator and the subsequent versions of it, built under Dektor  Counterintelligence and Security Inc. and would be the foundation of the voice stress analysis industry.

The concept of the voice stress analyzer works off of the same principles as a polygraph.  When a subject is faced with a situation in which the consequences of lying are grave, this psychological stress created by this scenario produces a high stress voice signature.  It is important to note that it is not absolute truth or deception that a voice stress analyzer detects, rather it is the fear of being exposed for lying that is detected.

In recent years, law enforcement agencies worldwide have begun embracing this technology as a tool in the questioning of suspects.  While in the United States voice stress analysis results are still not admissible in a court of law, they have become a valuable tool in aiding officers in identifying suspects with greater speed and accuracy through questioning. 

There has been much debate on the actual accuracy of the voice analysis technology and it remains a heated debate among the scientific community on is viability.  There are studies proving its merit as well as studies claiming it is not accurate enough to be useful.  However, throughout the law enforcement community it has received a generally positive response, showing promising results.

From telemarketing to collections, providing customer satisfaction is at an all time high in the contact center industry. Check any top 10 list of call center complaints by customers and you’ll find rude or unprofessional agents somewhere on that list. Certainly there are opportunities to train agents, have them complete a diversity course, perhaps a class for proper phone etiquette and conflict management. However, without the right tools to monitor agents, natural behavior may slip agents back into the everyday grind, leaving freshly trained and practiced agents back to where they started. What’s next?

Since installation at Northstar Location Services Buffalo NY contact centers in October, the results were even better than expected. Aaron Castle, COO stated, “We were very aware of the application’s benefits prior to installation, however the immediate effects have transitioned into department-wide improvements, including increased employee morale and decreased customer complaints.” The call centers are now experiencing a 54% decrease in customer calls to their Quality Assurance Team (Resolve It! Professionals). Agents are managing escalated customers much more effectively through the use of the Castel Detect™, as its agent dashboard appears right on the agent’s screen. In addition, unresolved customer issues have decreased as well.  Castle adds, “This application has enabled our agents to better identify escalating issues which equates to more quickly resolving issues, collecting payments more efficiently, reduced call time and stronger agent/customer relationship.”

Data hygiene is an essential part of effective call center management. Also called data cleansing, data hygiene is a series of procedures employed by call center supervisors and managers to ensure databases are up-to-date and run efficiently for the purposes of maintaining a smooth operational call floor. Read on to learn more about the importance of data hygiene, its availability, and its data enhancement.

High call volumes, limited staffing, and budget constraints in the call center environment are all too common occurrences in today's business marketplace. One solution is the use of interactive response applications or IVRs. An IVR application improves call center business operations and enhances customer experience, giving your call center the leading edge.

President Barack Obama has selected Richard Cordray, former Ohio Attorney General, as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the strongest consumer watchdog group of its kind. Cordray, most recently served as the bureau’s Chief Enforcement Officer, handing out penalties to financial institutions such as rating agencies and payday lenders, for poor conduct. The Financial Protection Bureau is responsible for many reformations in the consumer market to date and Cordray will no doubt assist the bureau greatly in the furtherance of its goals.

Miss a payment, maybe two and you may receive a call from your creditor. What if the only number you provided to your creditor at time of application was your cell phone number?

Most of, if not all, collection and predictive system companies are working on some sort of a program or application to identify and scrub for cell phone numbers to eliminate them from predictive and power dialing.  Penalties for using such are severe and enforced based upon recent TCPA rulings affecting creditor collection and bank account receivables businesses.