Explore fresh, expert perspectives on customer engagement and innovation

As artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts industries at a breakneck pace, the contact centre industry hasn’t been immune to a fog of misconceptions and myths clouding its true capabilities and limitations. We tackled these misconceptions head-on during our webinar titled “Top things you really need to know about AI in the contact centre,” where industry experts Garry Gormley, Founder of FAB Solutions, and Matthew Yates, VP of Engineering at MaxContact, delved into the most prevalent stereotypes and opinions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in the contact centre industry.

The panel worked through each myth one by one, revealing whether it was true or false and sharing their invaluable insights on the topic. As AI continues to revolutionise the contact centre landscape, it is crucial for industry leaders to separate fact from fiction to make informed decisions about implementing this technology.

Myth 1: 74% of people believe AI is unethical

False. While a Forbes article from April 2023 reported that 96% of people consider ethical and responsible AI to be important, the majority do not believe AI is inherently unethical.

Yates emphasised the importance of ethics in the context of AI, stating, “Trustworthy AI and ethics is really important, and I think it’s a topic we’re going to see more of.” He also highlighted the need for human accountability, traceability, and good privacy and data governance when building and using AI applications.

Gormley added, “It’s defining what actually is ethical AI. And I don’t think there is a really clear description around what ethical AI is.” He also emphasised the importance of transparency, fairness, and privacy, particularly in areas like voice biometrics, where additional safeguards may be necessary as the technology develops.

Myth 2: Only 1 in 10 contact centres can afford to implement AI

False. A study from Call Centre Helper stated that 51.8% of contact centres now have a strategy built around AI in 2024.

Gormley pointed out that contact centres have been incorporating elements of AI for some time, saying, “It’s affordable. I think it’s accessible, even more so now with all of the different CCaaS vendors starting to integrate more AI technology into things like their chatbot technology and their agent assist.” He emphasised the importance of having the right strategy and deciding how to scale AI throughout the customer journey.

Yates added, “I hope that in 2024, every contact centre out there is thinking about their strategy around AI.” He encouraged decision-makers to identify pain points and opportunities in their customer journey lifecycle and evaluate suitable vendors and solutions accordingly.

Myth 3: AI can detect customer emotions correctly during 65% of interactions

True. AI sentiment analysis has been found to have between 55 to 65% accuracy, which is not far off the human level of sentiment detection, which sits around 60 to 70%.

Yates explained that sentiment analysis involves two parts: analysing the words used in conversations and examining the audio for human emotions. He noted that sentiment analysis through text is currently more mature than audio analysis but expects a combination of the two to provide a holistic view of emotion in conversations within the next 2-3 years.

Gormley expressed excitement about the potential of speech analytics, saying, “I think there are two aspects that I look at. Firstly, the customer perspective, and that’s easier to analyse in terms of the words, the language, and the phrases that customers are saying. But I think there’s also something to think about in terms of the agent sentiment as well.” Garry explained that sentiment analysis can also be used to highlight agent vulnerability, lack of support, or confusion, identifying areas for further training.

Myth 4: 14.2% of people have never interacted with a chatbot

True. A study conducted by Userlike found that 80.2% of customers said they have interacted with a chatbot, 14.2% have never, and 5.5% said that they couldn’t remember.

Gormley emphasised the importance of chatbot design, stating, “It’s never about the interaction for me. The key to a successful chatbot implementation begins all the way back right back to the start. It’s important to think about what issues we’re trying to solve with the chatbot. What’s the flow, and what’s the kind of common customer questions that are being asked so that we can program into a chatbot to have the correct self-serve options.”

Yates agreed, adding, “It’s important to really think hard about what use cases you want to truly solve the problems with a chatbot, and some are too complex.” He noted that while some chatbots can effectively solve problems, others simply act as a holding pattern before connecting with a real agent, which can lead to frustration.

Myth 5: AI can help cut compliance costs by 10%

True. A study in June 2023 found that AI was already helping 36% of tightly regulated industries, such as finance, cut compliance costs by 10%.

Yates highlighted three areas where AI can help with compliance: script adherence, mandatory statements, and vulnerability detection. He explained, “Those three are areas that we see quite a lot across our client base. And certainly, AI could help with those because it can identify any outliers across all contact centres interactions, which in turn helps improve risk posture in the organisation.”

Gormley focused on the impact of consumer duty regulations, particularly in the financial services sector. He noted that AI can help identify issues like misleading statements, misadvice, and selective presentation, which can lead to significant fines from the FCA. Gormley mentioned that in 2024 alone, the FCA had already issued £54 million worth of fines to contact centres.

Myth 6: AI can help to automate 84% of contact centre interactions

False. A study by Zendesk actually suggests that around 40% of customer interactions can be handled by AI.

Gormley questioned the Zendesk poll, stating, “I would love to see that poll by Zendesk done again because I think it’s probably higher in the last maybe 6 to 12 months.” He mentioned that as chatbots and AI are deployed across the contact centre, they can become more intelligent and handle more queries independently.

Yates encouraged contact centres to think carefully about which interactions they want AI to handle and which ones are best left to humans. He gave an example, saying, “For example, if a customer wants to phone up and cancel their Sky subscription, if I’m Sky or if I’m a representative working on behalf of Sky, I probably don’t want to offload that issue to an AI chatbot and would want a human agent to handle that particular query to gain a better understanding of why the customer wants to cancel and to try and retain them if possible.”

Myth 7: 21% of contact centre leaders say that AI is already helping them create a better customer experience

True. An internal research report from MaxContact in October 2023 confirmed that even in the early stages, AI in the contact centre is already proving to enhance CX.

When asked where contact centres should start with AI to boost CX, Matthew Yates recommended, “Start by understanding the problems and opportunities, and identify where AI can best help.” He suggested beginning with quality assurance and compliance, as it offers a tangible ROI and is easy to understand the benefits of using AI to analyse 100% of calls rather than the 2-3% that are manually reviewed today.

Gormley stressed the importance of getting the customer experience right, citing statistics showing that customer satisfaction is starting to drop. He emphasised the need to identify the purpose of using AI, the use case it’s trying to solve, and the data that underpins the journey. Gormley advised, “Let’s take one journey at a time and iterate. Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

Mindful Implementation for AI Success

As the webinar demonstrated, while AI is an exciting development in the contact centre industry, it is essential to approach its implementation mindfully. By debunking common myths and stereotypes surrounding AI, contact centre leaders can make informed decisions about how to best leverage this technology to enhance customer experience, improve efficiency, and remain compliant with industry regulations. The insights shared by Garry Gormley and Matthew Yates serve as valuable guidance for navigating the evolving landscape of AI in the contact centre industry.

Catch Up On-Demand

Interested to hear more AI truths? Watch the full discussion below.

To find out more about how MaxContact’s AI functionality can help your contact centre unlock hidden insights and boost efficiencies, book a demo with our team today.

Get the MaxContact Newsletter

Get free insights, research and expert interviews shared to your inbox every month.

‍

Businesses operating in the channel thrive by recommending the right solutions to their customers, based on business needs. Their reputations and revenue streams rely on having the right products on hand to help their clients reduce costs, improve outcomes or increase efficiency.

For communications experts or technology businesses, a Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform is becoming an increasingly important part of any third-party product portfolio.

Generic communications solutions are not designed for customer communications at scale. Only a true CCaaS platform can offer the optimised features that create top tier outbound sales, after sales and debt collection campaigns, and at the same time unlock ROI for your business.

Partnering with MaxContact gives you access to our feature-rich and continually updated outbound CCaaS platform built specifically to meet contact centre requirements. We also offer highly competitive commissions and fees. In the rest of this article we’ll tell you everything you need to know.

The best solution for contact centres

By partnering with MaxContact, you can offer your customers what is, quite simply, one of the best and most competitively priced contact centre solutions on the market.

We won’t go into detail here, but these are just three features of MaxContact your clients will want to know about:

1. Intelligent auto dialling. Automate dialling in an intelligent and compliant way, with separate dialling modes for different types of outbound campaigns.
2. Omnichannel. Customers want flexibility. With MaxContact, your clients can get in touch with their customers using the right channel at the right time.
3. AI and speech analytics. Analyse customer sentiment, improve agent performance and satisfy the growing desire for instant answers with powerful AI technology.

The best solution for partners

But MaxContact isn’t just a great contact centre solution, we’re also a great fit as a channel partner, offering a potential path to significant profit for those we work with. We offer two flavours of partnership:

Referral partners

Industry specialists that work as consultants and advisors can earn a commission every time they recommend MaxContact to a client. Earn a minimum referral fee of 15% and up to 18% for every new client with ten users or more you introduce to MaxContact. All you have to do is make the introduction and we can take it from there.

Reseller partners

Reseller partners are typically technology companies that sell the MaxContact CCaaS as part of a portfolio of solutions or as an add-on to their own technology platform through an API. These are experienced technologists with unique insight into their customers’ challenges and opportunities. They take more ownership of the sales process, but our experts are always on hand to help with demos, sandboxing and solution sizing. Resellers earn a healthy margin of between 25% and 35%.

In both instances, partnership with MaxContact creates a new potential revenue stream and a new opportunity to impress clients. On top of that, when clients can get more of their technology or telecommunications stack from one provider, they’re more likely to stick with them.

Offering a CCaaS platform alongside other technology makes you more indispensable to your customer base. Or to put it another way, become the one-stop-shop that makes life easier for the companies you work with and drive loyalty and longevity.

Why partner when you can build?

If you’re a technology company, perhaps with a Unified Communications (UC) or VOIP platform, you may ask why you wouldn’t build a CCaaS platform of your own, or amend the platform you have to offer some of the features of a contact centre solution.

The simple answer is that doing so would be offering your valuable customers a half-baked solution to their contact centre challenges. Modern CCaaS platforms are at the technological cutting edge, offering AI-driven chat and speech analytics, sophisticated data analysis and a complete omnichannel experience.

Intelligent algorithms manage outbound dialling speeds to optimise both engagement and compliance. Security and data privacy are baked-in to every aspect of the service.

That’s to skim the surface of what a modern CCaaS platform needs to do. MaxContact has been developed by industry experts over many years. We invest continually in innovation, putting out updates on average every couple of weeks.

By offering something less than that, you risk disappointing your customers and putting them at competitive disadvantage. The alternatives are clear. Either plough large amounts of time and money into developing a full-featured CCaaS platform, or collaborate with a partner that has done the hard part already.

The second option is the quickest and easiest way to unlock revenue from a contact centre solution.

More than technology

Technology is key to unlocking ROI in the IT channel, but it isn’t everything. The kind of partnership you develop with the technology provider can make all the difference.

At MaxContact, we proactively help you sell our CCaaS platform to your clients. If your client has complex or bespoke needs, we’ll work with you to make sure they’re covered. If they require an integration we don’t already offer, we’ll always see what we can do.

And on a day to day basis, we’ll support your sales engagement, help you demo the product and work with you to make customer onboarding seamless. We’ll be there when you need us throughout the life of the contract, and our tech support team will feel like an extension of your own.

All of this is crucial to the partnership you have with us, and the partnership you have with your end users. When you work with MaxContact, you can offer customers the CCaaS platform they need alongside the support they want.

We understand that your success is ours. We’ll do everything we can to help you unlock ROI from our partner programme.

For more information on our partner programme or if you are interested in joining, you can visit our partner page for more information.

‍

In this blog, we reveal the exciting new developments to our web agent platform, now known as Contact Hub. We’ll walk you through what’s changed and what each update means for our customers.

At MaxContact, we’re driven by a deep understanding that exceptional customer experiences require much more than just cutting-edge technology – they demand an intuitive, user-friendly platform tailored to the needs of those on the front lines. That’s why our reimagined Contact Hub wasn’t just about adding new bells and whistles, but enhancing the overall experience of the platform, shaped by the voices of our valued customers.

How we got started

Through extensive research calls and interviews, we actively listened to the real challenges and pain points of agents and managers who use our platform. Taking into account features that could help to make their lives that bit easier. Armed with this invaluable customer feedback, our team got to work, meticulously designing and developing our new and improved Contact Hub.

The result is a revamped platform packed with enhanced features and clever additions, all purposefully crafted to streamline workflows, turbocharge efficiency, and cultivate customer-centric interactions for a superior user and customer experience.

Web Agent Just Got Even Better

Comprehensive Contact History at a Glance

Delivering personalised support hinges on having a comprehensive understanding of a customer’s journey. Our revamped contact history feature offers agents a user-friendly, centralised view of all previous interactions, complete with granular details such as dates, interaction types, user notes, and outcome codes.

Agents can now access a customer’s full history with just a few clicks, allowing them to provide contextualised and tailored support from the very start. This intuitive feature presents information in a clear, easy-to-scan format, enabling agents to quickly grasp the key details of each interaction without feeling overwhelmed by excessive data.

Streamlined Agent History

Complementing the enriched contact history, our new agent history view provides a centralised hub for your team to review and manage their interactions. With an intuitive, clean interface, agents can effortlessly access details about previous calls, sort and filter data with ease, and add notes or make updates on the fly, all without navigating away from their primary workspace.

This powerful feature minimises distractions and increases focus on customer interactions, empowering agents to track their performance metrics, call outcomes, and interaction notes. Additionally, it provides managers with visibility into agent activities, enabling targeted coaching, training, and quality assurance initiatives.

Optimised Callback Management for Proactive Customer Care

Effective callback management is crucial for delivering a consistent customer experience. Our revamped callback feature introduces a familiar calendar-style view, designed to be more intuitive and visually appealing. Agents can easily schedule, manage, and reschedule customer callbacks using intuitive controls, ensuring that no follow-up falls through the cracks.

With improved visibility and the ability to prioritise upcoming callbacks, your team can minimise the risk of missed follow-ups, fostering trust and enhancing customer satisfaction. This update translates to increased efficiency, elevated customer experience, and robust compliance with comprehensive records of scheduled and completed callbacks for auditing purposes.

Centralised Note-Taking for Seamless Collaboration

Effective communication and collaboration are key to delivering consistent, personalised customer experiences across multiple touchpoints. Our revamped Contact Hub introduces a centralised location for agents to capture and access notes from various interactions, including calls, transfers, and callbacks.

This streamlined approach ensures that crucial customer information is readily available to all team members, facilitating comprehensive handoffs and improving overall communication. Agents can quickly grasp the context of a customer’s journey, enabling them to provide tailored support without unnecessary repetition or delays. This feature enhances collaboration, elevates the customer experience, and ensures robust compliance with comprehensive record-keeping for auditing and quality assurance purposes.

Intuitive Transfers for Comprehensive Handoffs

While the fundamental transfer functionality remains unchanged, we’ve significantly enhanced the user interface, providing a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. Agents can now distinguish between warm and cold transfers through clear visual cues and descriptions, ensuring smooth handoffs and minimising friction during the onboarding process. We’ve also introduced improved agent statuses so that users can clearly identify whether or not agents are free or unavailable at that time.

This update reduces training overheads by providing clear transfer descriptions, minimising confusion for new agents and accelerating their onboarding process while simultaneously improving the overall experience by providing a bigger picture. It also elevates the customer experience with quick transitions between agents or departments, fostering a cohesive and professional experience. Additionally, it ensures robust compliance with accurate records of transfer types for auditing purposes.

Optimised Outcomes for Efficient Call Dispositioning

Accurate call dispositioning is essential for effective performance analysis and data-driven decision-making. Our optimised outcomes management feature improves visibility and accessibility, allowing agents to sort and search outcome codes based on various criteria, such as frequency of use or personal preferences.

This approach minimises the risk of incorrect code assignments, leading to increased efficiency and data accuracy. Agents can quickly locate and assign the most relevant outcome codes, ensuring that call dispositions are accurately captured and readily available for reporting and analysis. The optimised outcome codes offer time savings, improved data accuracy, and enhanced reporting capabilities, facilitating better performance analysis and informed decision-making.

Intuitive User Experience for an Improved Work Day

Beyond the specific feature enhancements, Contact Hub has undergone a comprehensive redesign, improving the overall user experience. The layout has been optimised for intuitive left-to-right navigation, following natural reading patterns and reducing cognitive load for agents. Menus have been consolidated for easy access, and visual cues and prompts have been introduced to guide agents through various processes simply. For example, introducing a “live coaching” status for agents during calls, letting them know when a manager has joined the call, so they have a clear understanding of what is happening during their interactions.

These enhancements create a distraction-free environment, allowing agents to focus on delivering exceptional customer service without navigational hurdles. The user experience improvements result in a reduced learning curve, increased efficiency, and enhanced job satisfaction, fostering engaged and motivated teams dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Hear from Agents Themselves

Find out what Quincey Bernard, Support Team Lead at MaxContact, has to say about Contact Hub below.

You Asked, We Listened

The reimagined MaxContact Contact Hub represents our commitment to continuous improvements based on real user needs and feedback. By closely collaborating with the people actually using our platform, we’ve enhanced and added features purposefully designed to simplify operations and empower more efficient, impactful customer interactions.

Overall, these updates aim to vastly improve the day-to-day experiences of agents while driving operational efficiencies for the wider business. We’re excited to unveil this intuitive next step of Web Agent’s evolution into our new Contact Hub, focused on user-friendly design, streamlined workflows, and data-driven optimisation.

If you’re an existing MaxContact customer please reach out to your account manager for more info. New to MaxContact? You can book a demo to find out more here.

‍

But keeping pace with evolving customer expectations can be daunting. Today’s customers expect seamless, omnichannel interactions across various touchpoints, from voice calls and emails to social media and chat platforms.

Thankfully, this is where modern contact centre software comes in, empowering you to step up your customer service experience with ease.

In this guide, we explore contact centre software, what it does, how it can improve contact centre operations, and considerations to make when choosing the best solution for your needs.

What is call centre software?

Call centre software is a suite of tools and technology used to manage and improve inbound and outbound phone calls, or support agents in their communication with customers.

Call centre software has various functionalities, that can include:

• Call routing
• Call recording
• Performance analytics
• Workforce management
• Speech analytics

However, with customers expecting to be able to use multiple channels to communicate, call centres need to offer omnichannel communications, and traditional call centre software is gradually being replaced by contact centre software.

What is the difference between call centre software and contact centre software?

The main difference between call centre software and contact centre software is that the former focuses on voice interactions while the latter encompasses a range of communication channels.

Call centre software primarily supports incoming and outgoing phone calls. Meanwhile, contact centre software offers a broader scope of tools to help agents handle everything from calls to emails, instant messages, and social media.

Most modern businesses opt for contact centre software to help them cater to diverse customer preferences, improving the overall user experience across every contact touchpoint.

More and more traditional ‘call centres’ have migrated towards an omnichannel approach by integrating new methods of communication and implementing more flexible contact centre software.

On-premise vs cloud contact centre software: Which is best?

When it comes to contact centre software, there are two main types. On-premise contact centre software is the more traditional model, where all of the technology infrastructure is handled by an in-house data centre.

The more modern, cloud-based alternative relies on third-party cloud hosting to alleviate the need for physical data storage at the contact centre itself.

There are pros and cons to both types of contact centre software, so the type that is right for your business usually depends on your needs and priorities. However, in recent years, cloud-hosted options have rapidly become the most popular choice thanks to their lower costs, flexibility, and efficiency.

On-Premise Contact Centre SolutionsProsConsGreater control over software and hardwareAll data stored on-site for enhanced privacy and securityNo monthly payments requiredExpensive and time-intensive installationComplex infrastructure and maintenance
Limited scalability

Cloud Contact Centre SolutionsProsConsQuick to set up
Easy to integrate and maintain
Flexible monthly pay models Easily scalable Accessible remotely for at-home employees Automatic updatesReliance on a third-party provider Only partial control of software infrastructure

Clearly, there are lots of benefits to choosing or switching to cloud-based contact centre software. Choose a reliable provider, and you’ll be able to unify all of your communication channels with one flexible solution that allows you to quickly scale up and down according to demand.

You can add seats with just a few clicks, allow for remote working, and even seamlessly share essential data throughout your organisation, with high-tech data collection and analytics. Put simply, cloud contact centre software leaves space for innovation, adaptability, and growth.

If you are interested in moving your contact centre software from a legacy on-premises system to the cloud, MaxContact specialises in seamless migration, training and support.

Common features of contact centre software

If you’re scaling up or simply looking to upgrade your contact centre software, you might be wondering about the features and benefits of the products of today.

The majority of modern products are flexible to your needs, but can include the following features:

• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): This simplifies incoming calls and automatically distributes them according to the availability of your agents.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): An automated system that helps to quickly filter incoming calls to the right departments by allowing callers to interact with a pre-recorded or text-to-speech interface to exchange relevant information.
• Omnichannel Communication Channels: Most modern contact centre software supports voice, email, chat and social media communications, offering enhanced visibility over all of your customer’s interactions at once.
• Call Recording & Coaching: Gives team leaders the option to record or listen to conversations live and offer training in real-time, as well as streamlined monitoring and feedback.
• Workforce Management: Innovative contact centre software uses advanced analytics and AI to help you schedule and assign agents according to resources, skills and demand.
• Reporting & Analytics: You can gain valuable insights into the needs and behaviours of your users with customisable analytics dashboards.
• Speech Analytics: AI speech analytics software can analyse speech, language and sentiment to improve quality assurance, prioritise the most important calls, and gain a better understanding of user’s needs and feelings.
• CRM Integration: Contact centre software can now be fully integrated with your wider CRM systems from Salesforce to HubSpot and Zoho. This ensures customer data is aligned across teams and at your fingertips when required.
• Security & Compliance Features: From secure payments handled by IVRs, to robust data protection and compliance, high-quality contact centre software has several built-in features to protect your business and all of its communications.

Why use contact centre software?

Along with all of the capabilities mentioned above, there are many more benefits to using modern and responsive cloud-hosted call centre software. It can help:

Improve the customer experience

Streamlined contact centre software often results in faster resolution times when it comes to customer complaints and enquiries, resulting in positive customer experiences. It can also help direct incoming calls and messages to the correct department faster, reducing waiting times.

Customers also have the flexibility to reach out in a way that suits them, whether they want to chat via instant messenger, send an email, or resolve their query over the phone. With the help of tools like AI chatbots and IVR, they can often get the answers or solutions they need without the need for agent intervention.

Meanwhile, omnichannel capabilities allow agents to offer a more personalised experience, with all of the customer’s communication history at their fingertips.

Supercharge agent productivity

Call centre solutions have long sped-up processes, with incoming calls automatically routed to the next available agent. Modern contact centre software also allows you to record calls for quick and reactive agent training, with performance analytics to help you fine-tune ongoing operations.

Agents also have access to a more comprehensive array of customer information and data, helping support clients at scale.

Streamline operations

Nowadays, contact centre software does more than just support communications. Clever tools and intelligent analytics can monitor and assign agents according to resources and demand.

Automated and self-service systems allow you to reduce labour costs while serving more customers at speed.

Meanwhile, a modern, cloud-based system costs less to install than a traditional on-premise data centre, with flexible monthly payment plans depending on your needs. This boosts the bottom line while streamlining operations.

Facilitate scalable growth

Whether you are on a rapid growth trajectory or have an uncertain landscape ahead, modern contact centre software is agile and can adapt to your changing needs. Resources can be adjusted at the touch of a button according to call volume and demand, without the need for complex or expensive hardware adjustments.

How to choose the best contact centre solution for your business

When comparing contact centre software solutions and providers, it’s important to consider a few different factors at play:

• Unique needs of your business: Be sure to opt for a solution that solves the challenges you face.
• Budget and scalability: Consider both up-front and long-term costs, taking into consideration future growth and changing business needs.
• Security and compliance: Always make sure the provider you are considering offers robust security encryption and certified ISO compliance.
• Integration with existing systems: Search for contact or call centre solutions that can be seamlessly integrated with your existing systems for improved workflow and productivity.
• Reputation and support: Opt for a reputable provider that offers ongoing support to safeguard against potential issues. It’s always a good idea to take time to consider and compare the online reviews and case studies of potential providers.  

Why Choose MaxContact?

Looking for flexible and streamlined contact centre solutions that are customised to your needs?

We have established an industry-leading platform that puts your business at the forefront, from integrations with your existing software to work-from-anywhere functionality.

We understand that every minute counts when it comes to running a successful business. This is why we have developed a resilient, cloud-based platform using industry-standard development practices and multi-layered security. Our contact centre solution is also constantly monitored and maintained to eliminate unexpected downtime, with robust tools in place to maintain compliance.

Getting started is simple with the help of our specialist support and integration specialists, who work seamlessly alongside your team to build and implement the new system.

We take the time to understand your challenges and configure a solution that creates a smoother working environment, with dedicated technical managers to make the switch simple, and unlimited ongoing training and support.

Book a demo today.

‍

What is sentiment analysis?

Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, is a natural language processing technique. Textual data reveals attitude, sentiment, or emotion through analysis and assigns a positive, neutral, or negative label.

Sentiment analysis has many use cases within business, but is especially useful for understanding customer sentiments, interactions, and preferences. Businesses can use sentiment analysis for a variety of reasons, for example, to monitor the perception of products and services or to improve customer experience by analysing reviews and feedback.

In a call centre environment, sentiment analysis provides valuable data that can be used to enhance:

• Customer experience
• Operations
• Agent performance
• Quality assurance

What exactly is call centre sentiment analysis?

Sentiment analysis is a feature of conversation analytics software, an analytics tool used by many call centres. Conversational analytics captures the raw words said during an exchange, while sentiment analysis considers the emotional meanings behind every customer interaction.

Call centre sentiment analysis technology evaluates emotions expressed by customers and agents through phone transcripts or online chats.

How is sentiment analysis used in call centres?

Sentiment analysis uses speech-to-text capabilities within a conversation analytics platform. Real-time speech-to-text technology instantly transforms phone calls into searchable text. Natural language processing then examines the text to detect emotional tone, gauging the level and direction of emotional expression, whether it be positive, negative or neutral.

Emotional tone considers several voice attributes, including:

• Word choice
• Phrases used within the context of a sentence
• Tone of voice
• Speech tempo
• Pauses
• Volume
• Voice quality (e.g. breathlessness, laughter, trembling)

Not all speech and conversation analytics solutions are capable of analysing phrases used within the context of a sentence. Some conversation analytics tools only look at sentiment on a per-word basis, which means that it’s very easy to misdiagnose the overall sentiment of an interaction.

Let’s look at the phrase, “That’s flipping brilliant.” If we analyse sentiment on a per-word basis, it’s neutral, negative and positive. However, in its entirety, the phrase is undoubtedly positive.

If you’re considering conversation analytics solutions, be sure to explore and compare their full capabilities.

Gain a better overview of the customer journey

Speech analytics combines sentiment insights with other metrics that automate quality assurance (QA). Auto QA provides insight on discussed topics, agent responsiveness to concerns, resolution rates and customer effort scores.

By linking these together, call centre managers have a better understanding of the whole customer service journey. For example, they associate negative sentiment spikes with the dialogue exchange where an agent was being unhelpful or dismissive.

Analyse trends and patterns

Trends and correlations are generated through in-depth call analytics. For instance, do calls about a certain product cause more frustration than others? Does a longer call queue time match with initial negative sentiment when customers connect with agents?

These insights allow for targeted improvements. Such as adjusting hold music or having more staff for busy service or product lines.

Evaluate agent performance

Individual performance dashboards track sentiment, call dispositions, and other metrics. Dashboards show strengths and development areas to guide each agent’s development and training needs. Those needing extra coaching are supported with one-on-one guidance when call recordings are flagged for negative sentiment. It also highlights if particular types of calls are more challenging for the agent to handle. Using sentiment analysis can positively impact staff training, hiring and employee experience.

Why is sentiment analysis such a valuable tool for customer satisfaction?

When sentiment analysis is used well in call centres it positively benefits customers, agents and call centres as a whole.

Benefit 1: Real-time sentiment analysis and agent assist can enhance customer experience

Here’s how:

• Agents can intervene early when negative emotions emerge before escalation
• Customers feel heard and understood when their emotional state is recognised during calls
• Issues can be addressed promptly as soon as negative sentiment is detected
• Customers get a more personable service and solution as it is based on understanding specific emotional needs
• Customers who have positive emotional experiences with the business or brand, are likely to be more loyal

Benefit 2: Sentiment analysis can improve operational efficiencies

Here’s how:

• Customer satisfaction and NPS scores improve
• Teams can identify highest value/happiest customers to focus their retention efforts
• Recognising positive sentiment highlights opportunities to upsell/cross-sell
• Teams can answer unhappy customer calls first to reduce churn
• Customer sentiment insights can be used to shape the service that’s given

Benefit 3: Sentiment analysis supports better agent training

Here’s how:

• Management teams can tailor agent training and coaching to handle emotional callers effectively
• Sentiment analysis provides valuable insights to improve the quality and efficiency of onboarding, identifying areas for support and ensuring a more positive experience for new agents
• By analysing real call transcripts with various levels of customer sentiment (positive, negative, neutral), trainers can create training scenarios that simulate real-life situations and equip agents with strategies to navigate different emotional states effectively

By responding to customer emotion, call centres improve customer lifetime valuethrough better retention and service. As for call agents, sentiment analysis makes the onboarding process much quicker and gives new and experienced agents confidence to problem-solve and navigate interactions positively. This translates into happy customers, happy agents and more revenue and growth.

What role does AI play in sentiment analysis?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly popular in call centre conversational analytics, but not all solutions are AI-powered.

There are many advantages to using AI conversation analytics and sentiment analysis.

1. Firstly, AI can handle large data volumes and analyse calls automatically – in ways that a manual approach can’t accommodate. This makes scaling up and resource management easier.
2. The next positive influence that AI sentiment analysis has, is the ability to interpret complex emotions and small nuances in speech- removing bias and potentially exceeding human accuracy. By analysing these collectively, it’s possible to spot trends and patterns in the ways customers respond. From this, it’s easier to determine what makes a ‘good call’ and this can be standardised and followed by agents as best practice.  
3. AI tools learn and adapt, becoming more accurate over time as they analyse more data.

AI is already shaping call centre operations. It’s predicted that the role of AI in speech analytics will continue to dominate and will soon become the standard due to its ability to enhance engagement, contacts, service and experience.

Which industries benefit the most from call sentiment?

Any call centre dealing with emotionally-charged customer conversations benefits from conversation analytics and sentiment analysis. From onboarding, customer support and debt collection to renewals, claims and cancellations.

However, one vertical that can really benefit is sales. And for call centres that specialise in sales, sentiment analysis is an invaluable part of sales call analytics.

Remove the guesswork

Automatically detecting customer emotions during sales calls helps the sales team understand pain points that complicate purchase decisions. Knowing the why prospects hesitate to buy lets agents address specific needs and trends, so they can tailor their pitches. By collecting continuous data, sales agents have a better understanding of the ‘why’ behind the buy.

Sell at the right time

Seeing which product features spark positive emotional reactions helps sales reps double down on discussing those strengths. With insight into the emotions before purchase for each customer, agents can time targeted upsells and cross-sells to capitalise on spikes in purchase intent. And, instead of generic sales scripts, agents create customer-specific value propositions that trigger action.

Boost conversions

Sentiment analysis removes the guesswork, making every sales interaction insight-led. This not only improves the ability of sales agents, but directly improves key call centre metrics like deal conversion, average order value and customer lifetime value. For sales-focused call centres, sentiment analytics optimises buyer journeys for revenue growth.

How to implement sentiment analysis in your call centre

While stand-alone sentiment analysis tools exist, integrating them within speech analytics software is the most beneficial. This removes the need for multiple systems and simplifies data management. It also combines sentiment analysis with other call metrics and gives unified insights. Finally, it allows agents to access sentiment insights alongside call recordings.

MaxContact offers a fully integrated Conversation Analytics platform designed to work seamlessly with our feature-rich, cloud-based contact centre software. Setting up speech analytics is a straightforward process. Our project team will work with you to ensure a smooth transition, with the typical project setup taking just a few days, including training.

Book a customised demo to learn how our AI-led speech analytics can understand customer sentiment, improve call quality, and reduce churn in your contact centre.

‍

Introduction

The competitive nature of contact centres means that achieving exceptional customer service and keeping costs under control is a balancing act. Traditional landlines aren’t an option, and some contact centres opt for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as a cost-effective and flexible solution to ensure effective communication with customers.

This guide explores the inner workings of VoIP, how it exists in call centre operations, and its potential limitations. We’ll also talk about UCaaS and CCaaS – and discuss how it could be a more efficient and customer-centric solution for omni-channel contact centres. And if you’re a BPO contact centre? We’ll explain why neither VoIP or UCaaS is the right solution for your contact centre model (and what is).

How do VoIP calls work?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become a well-established technology for making and receiving phone calls over an internet connection instead of traditional landlines. VoIP technology has been around for years and is still used by some call centres seeking cost-effective solutions.

Here’s a breakdown of how VoIP calls work:

1. From Voice to Data: When you speak into your microphone, analogue sound waves are converted into digital data. This process is called analogue-to-digital conversion.

2. Compression Efficiency: The digital data is compressed to significantly reduce its size, which optimises internet transmission speed.

3. Packets for Travel: The compressed data is broken down into smaller packets, a bit like sending a large file in multiple parts. These packets are individually addressed and routed over the internet using the IP protocol.

4. Reassembly and Playback: At the receiving end, the packets are reassembled and converted back into digital data. This data is then transformed into analogue sound waves through a digital-to-analogue converter. This allows you to hear the caller’s voice through your speaker.

How is VoIP used in contact centres?

There are some reasons why call centres may choose to use VoIP, and its use cases extend beyond simply making and receiving calls.

1. It can handle inbound customer service

VoIP supports high-volume call management in customer service industries. VoIP distributes calls across your call centre agents to reduce wait times.

2. It enables flexible remote technical support

VoIP allows contact centres to deliver remote technical support.

Removing geographical limitations also means that call centre teams can handle a wider range of technical support cases without having to visit sites in person.

3. Appointment scheduling

Manual appointment scheduling is prone to error, but VoIP allows call agents to schedule appointments during calls. Additionally, VoIP gives customers greater flexibility by enabling them to choose their preferred date, time and even the specific agent they want to speak with. Automating appointment reminders further boosts efficiency by reducing missed appointments and maximising valuable agent time.

The advantages and disadvantages of VoIP

Although VoIP is still used by contact centres with moderate needs, other platforms, such as UCaaS are gaining traction. Therefore, it is important to understand the benefits of VoIP and also be aware of its limitations.

Here are the advantages of VoIP:

1. VoIP can save you money

Traditional telephone services often come with inflated long-distance charges and require costly specialised equipment and maintenance investments – particularly if you’re a growing business. By leveraging the internet for calls, VoIP significantly reduces costs. With no bulky phone line installation or complex setups, VoIP doesn’t require extra equipment and you only pay for the lines you need. VoIP services also save you money by offering unlimited long-distance calls and affordable international calls. By ditching the per-minute model, you will benefit from predictable, lower rates.

2. It gives you more flexibility

An advantage of VoIP is you can make and receive calls anywhere, regardless of location. Contact centres have the flexibility to grow remote teams, with a stable internet connection and sufficient bandwidth being the only conditions.

3. Scale up or scale down

Predicting call volume can be a guessing game, but with VoIP, you’re equipped to deal with changing demands. Scaling up or down is easy as you can add or remove lines in minutes, adapting to seasonal fluctuations or unexpected surges without hefty upfront costs.

Here are the disadvantages of VoIP:

1. VoIP relies on a stable internet connection

When you’re reliant on an internet-based phone system, the customer service you provide is only as consistent as your internet connection. Slow internet speeds can lead to poor call quality and dropped calls – which is frustrating for call agents and customers.

2. VoIP calls are more likely from network jitter

Poor internet connection, inadequate routers and incorrect cables are all connection issues that can cause latency and jitter. Network jitter happens when data packets hit delays in transmission or don’t get properly reassembled. It leads to choppy and unprofessional audio.

3. Limited mobility and device flexibility

While remote capabilities are a VoIP strength – it does come with some caveats. Yes, it minimises traditional phone line infrastructure, but VoIP still requires compatible hardware like VoIP phones and adapters which restricts remote access.

4. Power outages can cause disruption

Traditional phone lines function even during power outages, but VoIP systems lose all functionality without connection to the internet. In most cases, WiFi is powered by WiFi routers which rely on electricity to work. So, if your call centre experiences a power outage, your service will suffer. To mitigate the risk of power outages, backup solutions such as generators or mobile hotspots are required.

5. VoIP doesn’t encourage collaboration

VoIP is great for voice communication, but its functionality can fall short of modern needs. Features like video conferencing, instant messaging, file sharing and collaborative tools tend to be absent and require integration with separate platforms.

6. It can be costly to scale

Scaling your VoIP system for additional features like video conferencing can get tricky. This often requires separate systems, which can impact your budget and introduce complexity.

7. Additional security demands

Integrating additional communication channels that go beyond voice increases vulnerability. Adding features to your VoIP software requires robust security measures to protect your system and data.

Is a VoIP system the right choice for your contact centre?

VoIP focuses solely on basic voice calls, so it typically has lower initial costs than feature-heavy platforms. But will you need to expand your communication channels or functionality requirements in the future? While it’s possible to do this, it might require separate platforms alongside VoIP for an additional cost. So, before committing to VoIP, consider if you are comfortable juggling separate systems. Ask yourself, do the potential cost savings outweigh the limitations?

If your contact centre requirements extend beyond voice calls and integrations, analytics and optimisation of processes are on your must-have list, alternative solutions such as UCaaS could be a better fit.

VoIP vs UCaaS: What’s the difference?

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a cloud-delivery model that enables a more complex communication platform combining voice calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, file sharing, collaboration tools, and more.

UCaaS is for contact centres that want to upgrade from outdated VoIP systems or need a unified solution across multiple communication channels.

UCaaS can easily integrate into your existing business ecosystem, like CRM systems, streamlining data flow and simplifying operations. UCaaS offers impressive scalability and can adapt well to fluctuating call volumes. By integrating other communication channels, such as voice and chat, UCaaS encourages team collaboration and improved efficiency. Better still, your customers have diverse communication options, leaving them feeling valued and heard.

‍

Here are the main differentiating capabilities and features of VoIP and UCaaS.

‍

UCaaS offers more versatility and integration capabilities than VoIP, but we should also acknowledge its limitations when adapting to specific types of contact centres, such as BPOs.

Why is CCaaS more suitable for BPO contact centres?

For BPO contact centres with high call volumes, complex customer interactions and tight margins, even UCaaS lacks the capabilities that are needed. Cloud-based contact centre solutions also known as CCaaS, offer the scalability, cost-effectiveness, agility, omnichannel support and data-driven insights that BPO contact centres require.

CCaaS supports multiple communication channels and gives BPOs access to all the latest features and functionalities without the need for costly upgrades or complex integrations. Outsourced contact centres can use these advancements to stay competitive and offer cutting-edge customer service solutions to their clients.

CCaaS uses a pay-as-you-go subscription model, which is more cost effective for BPOs. What’s more, you only pay for the features and resources used, reducing overall operational costs.

Conclusion

VoIP is an upgrade from traditional landlines but does not offer the functionality required to grow a business, UCaaS offers increased functionality however, for call centres that are looking to grow, increase revenue and meet KPIs, having a CCaaS solution is far more suited to your needs and has the capabilities to grow with your business.

Learn how MaxContact’s contact centre solutions can help you. Book a demo today or get in touch with the team to find out more.  

‍