THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE

ISSUE 1 • 2018

The Innovation Issue

❯❯The digital revolution ❯❯Evolution of callback
technology
❯❯Sunny forecast for
cloud-based contact ❯❯Omni-channel biometrics to
centers counter innovating crooks
❯❯Creditors: embrace the ❯❯Improving contact centres
digital age with speech analytics
 The Innovation
Issue
The digital
revolution
in customer
care. Are
you ready?
By Seema Rao
C
ustomer care is undergoing a
digital revolution. Customers are
demanding more ways to engage
with organizations. They are demanding
faster, more accurate service and they want seamless,
connected journeys.
79%1 of consumers say they are more loyal to
organizations that are easy and simple to contact, yet two
out of three say it is typically “exhausting” dealing with
customer service. What an opportunity for improvement!
Consider adopting these key innovations in customer
care and best practices to ensure that you are delivering
a seamless customer experience and driving customer
loyalty: Digital Transformation, Rise of the Bots and Cloud.
Agents need to be empowered
with contextual information
about the customers’ journeys
to date.
Digital transformation
Today’s digitally savvy customers prefer to self-serve
online. They want to be taken care of at any time, from
any location and on any device. When they do need to
reach into the contact centre, the experience needs to be
effortless and without friction.
But too often, customers experience fragmented
customer journeys. When was the last time that you
were forced to call into a contact centre because you had
difficulty in filling out a web form and the agent had no
2 | Contact management
idea who you were or why you were
calling? Is it any wonder consumers
are frustrated?
While digital transformation does
include incorporating newer digital
channels such as mobile apps, chat,
SMS and social media into the contact
centre, it is much more than that.
Simply implementing digital is not
delivering on digital transformation.
The customer journey needs to
be continuous. As customers engage
with your organization across
different channels and escalate from
self-service to assisted service, agents
need to be empowered with
contextual information about
the customers’ journeys to
date. Front office and back-
office operations should
be connected with your
digital channel strategies for
continuous care throughout
the customer journeys,
resulting in lower customer
effort and increased loyalty.
A Gartner report2,
suggests that 89% of business leaders
consider the customer experience
(CX) to be the “new battlefield” for
competition. Delivering continuous,
contextual and capable customer
journeys is critical in providing a
differentiated and relevant level
of customer service, and CX, and
winning the competitive war.
Rise of the bots
Aligned with digital transformation
and responding to customers’
demand for 24/7 support and quick,
accurate answers to queries is the
promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
using bots and digital assistants. Bots
use Natural Language Processing
engines (NLP) that recognize human
speech and understand the caller’s
intent without requiring the caller
to speak or chat in specific phrases.
Customers can perform simple
tasks such as request a mortgage
calculator, schedule an appointment
and answer frequently asked
questions without speaking to an
agent. Bots and digital assistants
are also very effective at collecting
initial customer information before
escalating to an agent, creating a
personalized CX. The interaction can
be routed to the best agent based on
information collected by the bot.
Here are several best practices to
consider when implementing bots:
• Ensure that there is a seamless
escalation to live agents or experts
when required. If the bot cannot
answer a complicated query or it
uses sentiment analysis to detect
that the customer is angry, or
frustrated, seamlessly transfer the
interaction to an agent to take over
and finish assisting the customer;
• Connect to the live agent in the
same dialogue window instead of
Issue 1 • 2018
 The Innovation
Issue

redirecting and increasing hold times. To accomplish
this companies should look for contact centre providers
that offer easy-to-use application programming
interfaces (APIs) that allow for simple ways to interact
with the contact centre software;
• Always identify that it is a bot that the customer
is interacting with. Likewise when the interaction
escalates to a live agent: identify that they are now
engaging with an individual; and
• Collect end-to-end customer specific data throughout
the customer journey. Customer data will enable
capabilities such as intelligent routing, agent insight,
reporting, analytics and pre-population of forms and
deliver an effortless CX.
Moving to the cloud
Cloud solutions allow contact centres to gain access to
the latest in technology across multiple channels (omni-
channel), reporting, analytics and workforce optimization
suites. They offer technology innovation as well as the
ability to scale agents business needs change with little to
no capital outlay.
Just some of the benefits of going to the cloud include:
• Cost savings with little upfront investment, and
subscription based, pay-as-you-go utility models.
Support costs and upgrade costs are eliminated as they
are borne by the cloud providers;
• Cloud contact centres require less deployment time so
are easier to scale and administer. They can be up and
running in weeks rather than months;
• With access to the latest upgrades and contact centre
capabilities, innovation is
continuous. Organizations can
focus on changing business
conditions and delivering a highly
personalized and differentiated CX;
• IT staff are now free to focus on
being responsive to contact centre
business requirements, instead
of managing and deploying core
infrastructure;
• Security requirements are
outsourced to the cloud providers
that are typically is better staffed
to deal with customer sensitive
data; and
• Cloud providers offer service level
guarantees and provide disaster
recovery capabilities that ensure
continuous operations for mission
critical contact centres. The best
providers offer a highly available,
geo-redundant and survivable
service.
Organizations need to find a cloud
partner that best matches their
requirements for price, functionality
and support. The vendor must offer
enterprise-class, scalable solutions
with guaranteed security and service
levels.
Once a cloud contact center has
been deployed, businesses need the
ability to scale the number of seats
up or down, increase channel support
options or integrate applications
to meet demand. A vendor with a
defined roadmap that aligns with the
contact centre evolution is important.
By selecting the right cloud vendor,
businesses can then focus on CX
innovation, digital transformation
and extending a differentiated level
of customer service. The burden
of keeping pace with changing
technologies and hardware
obsolescence will instead be shifted
to the cloud provider.
In conclusion the digital revolution
in the contact centre space is here.
Organizations must transform their
customer care strategy to meet
today’s customer demands: not just to
thrive but to survive.
Is your organization ready?
Seema Rao is Collaboration Marketing
Manager, Cisco
1 “Chat, tap, talk: Eight key trends to transform your digital
customer experience” Cisco/BT, 2017
2 “Gartner Predicts a Customer Experience Battlefield” Gartner,
Feb 2015

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Issue 1 • 2018 Contact management | 3

 The Innovation
Issue
Sunny forecast for
cloud-based
contact centres
Scalability, omni-channel support and personalization drive adoption
By Olivier Jouve
O
n-premises contact centre
solutions have long been a
staple of customer engagement
platforms. However, as companies look
for innovative ways to transform operations, many see
migration to the cloud as the approach of the future.
Contact centres struggle with legacy on-premises
technology that was not designed for the age of web
sites, mobile phone applications and social media. It can
be nearly impossible to get a single, coherent picture
of customers or their journeys also due to fragmented
databases and functionality resulting from multiple
acquisitions and past installations of point applications.
The cloud is already gaining ground in the core contact
centre market. Genesys estimates the adoption rate will
double by 2020, reaching as much as 35% of the installed
base, up from approximately 15% in 2016.
Infrastructure conditions, regulatory limitations and
overall legacy system maturity result in different rates of
cloud adoption across regions. The largest contact centre
market, North America, led cloud adoption in 2017 with
3.7 million seats1. It is continuing to move downward
into midmarket and smaller businesses. Similarly, the
Genesys cloud customer engagement solution, PureCloud,
is showing upward momentum in Canada with more
than 70% growth in its install base in the last six months,
according to Genesys’ internal data.
Multiple factors influence the pace of contact centre
cloud adoption, including the business context, workload
characteristics and IT environment. The shift to cloud
shouldn’t be surprising. As customers demand new forms
of engagement across multiple digital channels, robust
cloud platforms that simplify operations and help achieve
faster time to value become a must-have.
Cloud platforms offer a wide range of benefits that let
companies modernize contact centre operations quickly and
inexpensively without requiring new hardware. One of these
unique advantages is the flexibility to dramatically scale
upwards or downwards, allowing organizations to become
agile while having the tools to ramp up to meet seasonal,
hourly or regional needs. Other cloud benefits include
state-of-the-art security, automatic software updates and
pay-as-you-go models, which curb operating expenses and
eliminate the need for large up-front capital outlays.
4 | Contact management
To cloud, or not to cloud
By re-fashioning legacy contact
centre systems, customer experience
managers can benefit from the
cloud in several different ways.
Since the cloud offers the ability
to store vast sums of customer
data, agents can deliver more
personalized customer experiences
by drawing on information about
consumer behaviour. Personalization
saves time, increases loyalty and
contributes to more seamless
customer journeys.
The shift to the cloud also
coincides with the adoption of
omni-channel customer experience
solutions. Through transitioning to
the cloud, even small organizations
can provide reliable service no matter
what channel the customer uses
whether by phone, email, chat or text.
Additionally, the development
of advanced analytics and machine
learning has allowed organizations
to better identify customer trends
and save time during customer
interactions. By analyzing data from
buying behavior, for example, artificial
intelligence (AI) can transform
information into insights and then act
to create personalized interactions
between companies and individuals.
As analytics are applied to data in the
cloud, organizations will improve their
ability to predict consumer behavior
and empower customers to serve
themselves without the constant aid
of live agents.
Choosing the cloud-first
platform
Switching contact centre systems
is time-consuming, expensive and
disruptive though. Because many
organizations consider customer
service to be a cost centre rather than
a revenue source, they hobble along
as best they can. However, failing
to invest in modern contact centre
technology is a big risk considering
customer experience has become
essential to business success.
When selecting a customer
engagement platform, there are three
critical points to consider:
• First, it is crucial to find a cloud-
first platform that is scalable and
uses open APIs and web services;
• Choose an integrated platform to
cut down on implementation costs
and get rid of capability silos; and
• Select a reputable provider with
a strong record of migrations to
help support the transition to the
cloud.
Cloud computing offers limitless
scale, broad functionality and the
ability to deliver customer support in
all channels. Organizations looking to
the future need to take advantage of
cloud-centric, omni-channel contact
centres to drive loyalty, referrals and
new revenue.
Olivier Jouve is the executive vice
president of PureCloud for Genesys, the
global leader in omni-channel customer
experience and contact centre solutions.
He is based in Durham, North Carolina,
and can be reached at
Olivier.jouve@genesys.com or
@OlivierJouve. Genesys has its Canadian
offices in Montreal, Quebec, Saint John,
New Brunswick and Markham, Ontario.
1 Sources: IDC, Worldwide Contact Center Applications Software
Forecast, 2017–2021 (Sept. 2017) and Genesys Cloud Strategy
Workshop, May 2017
Issue 1 • 2018

Dear creditors, it’s time
to embrace the digital age
Accurate payment information and respectful customer service is key
By Kevin Deveau option to ensure
customers
D
elinquent payments are bad news receive the
to all parties. For the organization reminders, yet
they mean interrupted cash flow they enable
and difficult reconciliation processes. For them to respond
the consumer they mean hits to credit scores and often on their own
becoming inundated with notifications and reminders. schedules.
Without a doubt it is in the best interest of both parties to Despite this,
identify and prioritize the most effective methods of contact only 11% of
to ensure repayment and that resolution is quickly met. respondents
But communications about debt repayment are say that text
uncomfortable. There are many reasons a customer may messages are Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLeIGWHs9g0&feature=youtu.be
skip their payment, such as having insufficient funds regularly used to reach them at this
or simply forgetting. It’s up to the organization to be time, making this the most under-
tactful about their message and how and when it is being served communication channel, both
delivered. Are traditional paper reminders mailed to here and in the United States.
recipients too slow, too impersonal and a thing of the past? Preferences aside, respondents
Are calls during work hours or dinnertime more irritating? were also asked to consider what
We at FICO sought to better understand exactly how would really motivate them to make
customers hope to be contacted. We wondered, though, if a payment. Over one-third (34%) of
the banks and financial institutions they deal with on a daily Canadians indicated that hearing
basis are keeping up to the changing consumer demands? from a live person would be the most
Mobile devices and digital communications effective tactic. In the United States
have opened new avenues with opportunities for however, it was more important
communication. However, organizations walk a fine line to respondents that the banks’
when working with these digital innovations. They are messages be friendly and helpful,
faced with the difficult challenge of using technology to but not necessarily live. This is an
maximize efficiencies, while also respecting privacy and important reminder to organizations
not getting “too close for comfort.” who operate on both sides of the
border. Often the audiences in
Canada and the United States are
grouped and treated as one entity, but
there are a number of factors such as
attitudes, demographics and cultural
differences, that make consumers
in each of the markets act and react
differently.
How far is too far?
With over two billion active users,
Facebook and Facebook Messenger
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLeIGWHs9g0&feature=youtu.be
have become the two most popular
Consumer survey results social and chat apps in Canada
In 2017 FICO decided to skip the guess work. We and the U.S. While the majority of
commissioned a survey to ask consumers directly about customers are using these platforms
their preferred and experienced methods of contact across regularly throughout the day, the idea
the globe. of receiving late notifications through
While in Canada, email has emerged as the most these channels was not well received
commonly used and preferred method of contact, one in by respondents in those countries.
five respondents indicated that they would actually prefer When asked, 71% of Canadians
to hear from their banks via text messages. Text messages expressed that they would not be
are direct and discrete and are delivered through mobile comfortable with this kind of contact.
devices that are now the norm, making them a good Interestingly, global respondents
Issue 1 • 2018
The Innovation
Issue
responded quite differently to this
question, depending on the types
of social platforms they use most
frequently. For example, countries
such as Germany, Mexico, Spain
and Brazil most commonly use
WhatsApp, and when asked about
their comfort levels with receiving
late payment notifications through
this channel, they were much more
open to the idea.
Chat apps took off only five years
ago and have grown exponentially in
the numbers of active users globally.
An example of this in action is the
growth of WeChat in China, where
banks already incentivize the use of
the WeChat app. This growth suggests
that it is only a matter of time before
chat apps are used extensively by
customers here in Canada.
So how can organizations become
more effective in the ways they are
reaching out to their customers,
without putting them off?
With the constantly changing
decision-making environments, often
the answer is not easy to come by.
Fortunately, analytics can inform
these decisions.
The future success of the
collections organization and
their ability to execute in the new
environment is going to increasingly
depend on how they manage,
process and analyze their data. Data
analytics software tools, like those
offered through FICO’s Customer
Communications Services, provide
Continued on page CM 9
Contact management | 5
 The Innovation
Issue
The evolution and versatility
of callback technology
Customers and contact centres win with today’s callback applications
By Jaime Bailey
W
aiting on hold is one of the top
frustrations that customers
experience. There was a time not
so long ago where this was unavoidable.
Now, organizations have the ability to implement cutting-
edge callback technology that allows customers to
seamlessly choose their own journeys while contacting
customer service. The benefits can be tremendous to the
customer experience, customers’ satisfaction and loyalty
to companies.
What is callback technology?
Callback technology is utilized when someone calls into
customer service only to find there is going to be a lengthy
wait. Instead of staying on hold, the customer can enter
their information and they will receive a callback from a
contact centre agent as soon as one becomes available.
Callback technology is often “triggered” from certain
variables such as the number of people on hold or the
estimated wait time exceeding a certain threshold. As
technology improves, so do the options and the customer
experience when using it.
When hold times are too
long, people do the obvious:
they hang up. Not only
did these customers or
potential leads drop off,
they left frustrated.
Callback technology benefits
Individuals’ time is valuable and waiting on hold to speak
with agents is most likely not how they want to spend it.
Showing customers that their time matters is a great way
to build brand loyalty.
Here are several other benefits callback technology
offers organizations:
• Call abandonment decrease. When hold times are too
long, people do the obvious: they hang up. Not only did
these customers or potential leads drop off, they left
frustrated. Callback technology allows callers to get on
with whatever they are doing instead of being tied up on
the phone;
6 | Contact management
• More productive agents.
Instead of taking down callers’
information and searching
through a customer relationship
management (CRM) system or
database, employees can easily
click into the callers’ accounts
before making the callbacks,
thereby shrinking call times. As a
result more calls can be handled
by each agent while providing
superior customer service;
• Improved first call resolution
(FCR). There is a strong link
between FCR and customer
satisfaction. Similar to the point
above, callback technology allows
employees to prepare for the calls,
retrieving any information or
answers they may otherwise have
to look up. This saves customers
time and avoids unneeded
frustration;
• Smoother, seamless transitions.
Consumers often use multiple
channels and devices when they
are looking for service. Therefore, it
is vital that consumer information
is retained and easily accessible
across all channels. Nobody likes
repeating themselves, so no matter
how a customer reaches out, the
context they use should be passed
from channel to channel. For
example, if a customer calls in,
then later switches to chat to ask
another question, information
from the first interaction should be
readily available;
• Makes each customer feel valued.
Allowing customers to choose
their own journey shows them
their priorities and preferences are
important. Forcing them to wait
on hold for an extended period of
time does the opposite; and
• Allows customers to gain control
of their relationship with your
brand. With callback technology
solutions, customers can choose
other means of communication
while waiting for the agents’
callbacks. They can later continue
their journeys over the phone,
knowing they can start where they
left off instead of having to start
from the beginning of the process.
The future of callback
technology
Callback technology is constantly
evolving due to advancements
in communications. In order for
companies to survive, they must have
an efficient and consumer-centric
customer service process.
In the near future, it will be
important for contact centres to
offer newer and more personal ways
of communication, such as face-to-
face video chatting and seamless
integration to the latest mobile device
technology. On the company side,
advanced analytics will be a critical
piece in discovering who customers
really are, where they generated and
even predict why they are reaching out.
It no longer matters what industry
you are in or who your primary
customers are. High-tech digital
companies or new start-ups are
not the only organizations utilizing
the advancements in customer
service. Companies need to offer an
omni-channel customer experience
in order to satisfy all of their
customers’ preferences. Failing to do
so could lead to a drop in consumer
satisfaction, a decrease in customer
retention and even harm the
company’s reputation. But taking the
lead on customer service can place
you ahead of your competition. Stay
ahead of the curve and value what
matters most to your business...your
customers.
Jaime Bailey serves as Vice President
of Marketing at VHT. With more than 16
years of experience, she stewards a team
focused on understanding the customer
experience, applying new marketing
techniques and maximizing ROI. A
devout proponent of the importance of
a well-crafted marketing strategy, her
efforts have helped companies enrich
customer relationships, drive revenue
and grow brand equity.
Issue 1 • 2018

The crooks are innovating,
so must CX organizations
Why biometrics needs to be an omni-channel initiative
By Brendan Read same time, fraudsters are becoming
increasingly sophisticated. They often
Y
our contact centre isn’t the only channel that’s first try the phone channel, and when
susceptible to fraud. Determined crooks continue to that doesn’t work, e.g., because they
ramp up their efforts to penetrate other channels: can’t penetrate the voice biometrics,
from mobile apps to the web. Fortunately, biometrics they target these other growing
technologies are advancing so that your organization can channels, devices and access points.
detect and stop fraudsters upon first contact.
CM: You mentioned voice
biometrics. Where does
voice biometrics fit into the
equation?
BB: Voice biometrics has been around
for some time. We introduced it to our
customers more than 15 years ago.
But the market wasn’t conditioned to
using automated voice technologies
for identification and authentication.
Instead, businesses relied on
knowledge-based information such
as U.S. Social Security Numbers,
alphanumeric passwords and PINs.
The problem with those methods
is that once someone hacks into a
database, it becomes a free-for-all,
leading to a massive data breach,
resulting in considerable financial
Brett Beranek and reputational fallout.
Every dollar of fraud costs
Brett Beranek, Director of Security Strategy, Nuance, is organizations nearly 2.5 times more
addressing why biometrics needs to be an omni-channel than the actual loss itself, according
initiative in an interview with Contact Management. to LexisNexis. That’s a hard number
to stomach.
CM: 2017 showed that hackers aren’t slowing Given all this, we have seen a
down their efforts anytime soon. What are you drastic uptick in consumers using
finding when talking with your customers? voice biometrics. For instance, in 2016
BB: The majority of our customers now understand that our customers had a combined 150
when it comes to fraudulent attacks, it’s no longer an “if” million enrolled voiceprints. In 2017,
game. We are now in a “when” game. When crooks try to that number doubled to 300 million
attack, how are we going to be prepared to ward off and and biometrics was used to complete
stop their efforts? more than 5 billion transactions.
Companies that are not operating with that mindset We now have tools that can
are fooling themselves. Unfortunately they are making take this security even further by
themselves and their customers extremely vulnerable to detecting speech patterns associated
these types of attacks. with fraudulent behaviour with our
ConversationPrint solution. We can
CM: How is the customer experience (CX) tell if someone is an actual customer
landscape different now, from what you were or a fraudster based on how they
seeing say, three to five years ago especially string their words together in a
when dealing with security? conversation with a contact centre
BB: The industry has been doing a fine job in making more agent or even while chatting with a
channels available for CX transactions, which is a very live or virtual assistant.
good thing. Consumers are very open to using mobile apps, For example, if an imposter gains
web sites, virtual assistants and other tools to interact knowledge-based information from
with the companies with whom they do business. At the a previous breach and contacts a
Issue 1 • 2018
The Innovation
Issue
credit card company to try and use
the information, the system can
flag the interaction based on words
alone. Even though the fraudster may
have all the required information,
ConversationPrint can identify
in real-time that it is fraudulent,
based on word choices and speech
or writing patterns. This is through
speech-to-text, a core competency
of Nuance, which is applied to
short speech segments to analyze
vocabulary, sentence structure and
grammar.
CM: Does voice biometrics
work for all channels?
BB: Voice biometrics is highly
effective for most channels, such
as interactive voice response (IVR),
virtual assistants and mobile apps.
But ideally companies will integrate
other complementary biometrics
technologies to further safeguard
themselves and their customers
from fraud. For instance, behavioural
biometrics is an excellent tool for
the Web channel or in tandem
with voice biometrics for other CX
interactions. This is why it’s vital that
companies look at the whole omni-
channel experience when developing
strategies to combat fraud. They need
to ensure that all points of contact are
secure, and biometrics technologies
are key to achieving this.
CM: Can you give me an
example of how behavioural
biometrics works?
BB: Behavioural biometrics analyze
behaviour patterns. How a person
types, uses a mouse, holds their
smartphone or even how they pause
when accomplishing a task can all
determine behind the scenes that
a person is who they say they are.
We’ve learned that fraudsters and
hackers have different behaviour
and interaction with their devices
than non-fraudsters, so behavioural
biometrics is useful for detecting fraud
before it happens. Note that at the
Continued on page CM 9
Contact management | 7
 The Innovation
Issue

How speech analytics can

improve your contact centre
Advanced solutions bolster marketing and sales, coaching and compliance
By Mike Aoki Upsell opportunities coaching conversation?
You can track upsell opportunities by The right speech analytics

S
peech analytics have progressed
tremendously since their early
days as little more than a way
to measure vocal “tone” and single
keywords. Now some programs can convert the content
from customer interactions – calls, chats, emails, surveys
and social media – into a format that can be analyzed. That
gives you “the ability to monitor, record and transcribe 100
percent of customer contacts across different channels”,
according to speech analytics expert, Steve Wilton,
Principal Consultant at Wilton & Associates Inc.
(http://www.wiltonassociates.ca).
Wilton notes that speech analytics have progressed
from phonetic systems
that recognize single
keywords to advanced
LVCSR (Large Vocabulary
Continuous Speech
Recognition) programs.
They generate transcripts
of conversations and uses
context to determine which
are the right words and
phrases. That provides
more accurate results.
Wilton reports the
Steve Wilton, Principal Consultant
latest developments in at Wilton & Associates Inc.
speech analytics include
real time analysis to
identify actionable insights during the calls rather than after
they end. They also include the use of artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning to continuously improve data
analysis. Those self-learning algorithms will improve at
identifying key data trends to generate more accurate
results.
DMG Consulting LLC predicts speech analytics demand
will grow by 17% in 2018. Here are several examples how
advanced speech analytics are helping contact centres and
customer-focused organizations:
Customer inquiries
Your CEO wants to know how many customer inquiries
are caused by a particular product. Can you easily find
that information? What if the sales and marketing team
asks about responses to their new ad campaign? Can you
provide verbatim customer quotes?
There are now speech analytics programs can recognize
the context of conversations. They can tell you how many
customers sounded excited about a product or talked
favourably about a particular ad campaign. That enables
you to provide near real time information about your
contact centre’s customer interactions.
product type to see if agents favour
certain items. Many systems analyze
an agent’s vocal tone to determine if
they sound confident when talking
about sales. It can identify periods of
silence caused by an agent hesitating
to suggest an upsell or pausing before
tackling an objection. It can even
flag when a customer has to repeat
themselves. Some systems track the
most common customer objections
to a sale so, you can train and coach
your agents to deal more effectively
with them. Those are powerful tools
for improvement!
Product intelligence
Another benefit of speech analytics
is the intelligence it provides to
your product development, sales,
marketing and C-suite teams.
They discover why customers are
cancelling, what retention offers are
most successful and if agents are
showing the necessary empathy and
customer service skills to drive higher
NPS (Net Promoter Scores.) Better
yet, this data is based upon ALL calls
versus traditional call monitoring
where only a tiny percentage of calls
are analyzed and fewer still yield
Voice of the Customer (VOC) data.
Coaching and QA
Speech analytics helps with coaching.
One of my biggest frustrations as
a coach and trainer is finding good
customer interactions to review. I
usually review a dozen or more calls
and emails to find one good coaching
example.
How does that affect your team
leaders and/or quality assurance (QA)
team? How many interactions do they
review before finding a good coaching
example? How much time does that
waste and how much does that cost in
lost productivity?
Imagine being able to find the
right example just by clicking a few
keywords into a program. How much
time would that save? How would
having the right example boost your
software can sort interactions
by various parameters such as
interaction type e.g., cancellation,
renewal, upsell, agent behaviour
(hesitation or stress in the agent’s
voice) and customer behaviour
(threatening to escalate their issue to
social media.) You can identify where
your agents need help and quickly
retrieve good examples for coaching.
Another benefit is that ALL calls
can be analyzed to find overall trends.
That combats the common agent
complaint of, “That call was a one-off.
I usually don’t sound like that!”
Wilton points out that with speech
analytics a team leader or QA coach
can offer real-time support while the
call is still occurring. They might be
able to instant message the agent
with key diagnostic questions or the
answer to a customer inquiry. That
can result in improved customer
service.
Speech analytics software can
conduct automated QA scoring.
Wilton notes, “organizations easily
can reduce QA staff by 50% using
speech analytics for this purpose.
Speech analytics is a better option for
agents who now have 100% of their
calls scored (not just 1%-5%). This
is done in a timely fashion (often in
hours rather than weeks), and it is
done objectively, by a machine, so
there is no opportunity for believing
there is a bias.” That can improve
coaching consistency and agent
performance. This analysis can also
highlight training opportunities and
process gaps.
Regulatory compliance
Speech analytics can reinforce
compliance. If you are in a heavily
regulated industry, speech analytics
can identify when agents veer off the
mandated regulatory script. It can
identify interactions in which the
agent failed to use proper compliance
language or omitted key phrases.
That allows you to coach back to
those issues. It also provides you with

8 | Contact management Issue 1 • 2018


a mechanism to gauge compliance, e.g., “Our agents follow are retained. The system recognizes
the compliance script for new sales 99.7% of the time.” A positive contact from a customer
good system can also flag individual calls when that does and prevents further contact in the
not occur, giving you the opportunity to address those following days. Better yet, a customer
issues in real-time. who makes a payment via a web
portal will not receive a collections
Vendor selection call to their mobile ten minutes later.
What should you ask, if you are planning to add or enhance These kinds of systems even record a
speech analytics in your contact centre? Wilton says, customer’s preferred contact details,
“Some speech analytics companies design their solution such as time to contact and channel
to be self-sufficient—with vendor support as a fraction to use to tailor future communication,
of their revenue costs—while others charge significantly ensuring the highest possibility of
more” to get fully up and running. success in future outreach. This leads
He adds, “Step-by-step guides that walk (your contact to more efficient outreach, and better
centre) through how to achieve Return-on-Investment customer experiences.
(ROI) and having expert one-on-one support” are important Canadian banks and financial
for a successful speech analytics implementation. organizations have big responsibilities
Wilton gives one final tip, “Ask if a vendor offers the and their customers are telling
ability to ‘test drive’ or do a ‘proof of concept’ for a fraction them to embrace the digital age in
of the price compared to purchasing it. This allows a their communications. By instilling
company to see what it can do while being supported by a confidence in newer technologies,
team of contact centre and speech analytics experts.” smarter communications and
embracing intelligence, organizations
Mike Aoki is the President of Reflective Keynotes Inc. will increase their repayment
(www.reflectivekeynotes.com), a Canadian training company rates. These elements will result
that helps contact centres improve their sales and customer in customized responses based on
experience results. A contact centre expert, Mike serves on the consumer feedback and a better
Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact understanding of their changing
Centre Association www.gtacc.ca ) expectations. They just need to listen
to the data.
Dear creditors, it’s time Kevin Deveau is Vice President and
Managing Director, Canada, at FICO. He is
to embrace the digital age responsible for growing FICO’s Canadian
market share and strengthening client
relationships.
Continued from page CM 5 FICO is a leading analytics software
company, helping businesses in 90+
a wealth of valuable information on debtor profiles. They countries make better decisions that
drive higher levels of growth, profitability
enable collection teams to work smarter by identifying and
and customer satisfaction.
prioritizing those with the strongest likelihood of payment
returns. They also facilitate broad access to data, including
real-time updates. This leads to informed collection
decisions to connect with customers over the right
channels, whether via text messages, phone calls, letter The crooks are
innovating, so must
CX organizations
Continued from page CM 7
same time we’re collecting behaviour
patterns on customers, we’re also
collecting those same patterns on
criminals.
There are also artificial intelligence
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLeIGWHs9g0&feature=youtu.be (AI)-powered technologies layered
mail or the most effective combination of communications together to form a profile to verify
channels and methods. Analytics can also ensure the legitimate users and flag fraudulent
proper tone and frequency are identified and utilized. activity, including spoofing attacks
using synthetic speech, recording
Know your customers through their data attacks and mimics. They analyze
Using these systems, the analytics directing each decision audio to determine device types and
receive real-time data and information such as preferred models used during interactions
contact time and method based on customer behaviour and the call metadata to identify
Issue 1 • 2018
The Innovation
Issue
inconsistencies and determine phone
number spoofing, and detect callers’
geographic locations via the phone
network.
CM: How do voice and
behavioural biometrics impact
the customer experience?
BB: In the majority of instances,
customers opt-in or enroll themselves
for voice biometrics. By being able to
simply say a phrase like, “My voice is
my password,” a customer can easily
and securely authenticate themselves
when calling into customer service,
for example. Many companies also
use another layer of voice and/
or behavioural biometrics behind
the scenes to further ensure that
the person is who they say they
are. In those cases, the customer
really doesn’t even know there are
technologies working on their behalf
to protect their identities and personal
information.
CM: How are companies in
Canada using biometrics
technologies? How is this
impacting their customers?
BB: There are several companies
in Canada using voice biometrics,
including Royal Bank of Canada,
Manulife and Tangerine. Royal Bank
of Canada has more than one million
customers using voice biometrics
for easy authentication and to
prevent fraudsters from illegally
accessing their private financial
information. One of the leading
telecom services firms reported fraud
reductions following voice biometrics
deployment.
CM: What do you recommend
companies do to ensure that
they don’t become one of the
dozens of hacked companies
we’ve seen in the news?
BB: It is vital that companies equip
themselves with robust, omni-
channel security solutions. They
cannot operate in silos i.e., where
those in charge of the IVR contact
centre are not working with those
developing the mobile apps, web chats
or virtual assistants.
A robust, layered approach
ensures that companies will be
much more likely to identify and
stop fraudsters across every channel,
while simultaneously improving the
CX experience. Treating biometrics
security as an omni-channel initiative
is a win-win for businesses and their
customers.
Contact management | 9
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