Explore fresh, expert perspectives on customer engagement and innovation

Like many areas of our economy, contact centres are suffering from something of a recruitment crisis.

A recent report from The Open University and Institute of Directors found that 63% of decision makers agree their organisation has found recruiting difficult.

In addition, one study of 20,000 global employers found that nearly 70% of companies were experiencing difficulties in hiring staff, a 15-year high.

Against this background, contact centres need to optimise their recruitment strategies. They also need to be doing everything they can to keep the staff they have.

More and more organisations are realising that a successful retention strategy starts at the point of recruitment. The effectiveness of your onboarding process goes a long way to determining whether staff leave in weeks or stay for years.

Onboarding matters

Onboarding really does matter when it comes to reducing staff churn.

According to studies, effective onboarding programmes can significantly increase the number of recruits who are still with a business several years later, in one case by 82%.

Onboarding is a recruit’s first in-depth introduction to your business. One study found that almost a quarter of staff who resign do so within 45 days of their start date, so first impressions really do count.

Failing to welcome staff effectively and prepare them for their first weeks on the job is hugely costly, even at the best of times.

Pre-pandemic, the average UK employer was spending £3000 – and considerable time and energy – on every new hire. That figure is probably significantly higher today.

Making contact centre onboarding better

Given that onboarding plays such a large part in effective retention strategies, how do you make yours better? Here are eight simple ways to improve your contact centre onboarding experience:

Have a plan

An employee’s first few days should be filled with interesting or fun activities. Make sure you have an onboarding plan that makes full use of their time. Leaving new starters twiddling their thumbs or unsure of what they should be doing next is not a good first impression. It smacks of a lack of organisation.

Give them basic information first

Before you get to the specifics of their role, welcome them to the business with a tour (physical or virtual). Show them where bathrooms are, where to get a cup of coffee, and where to turn for help when they’re locked out of the company intranet. Let them know of any perks the company offers, like free Friday drinks or a discount at the local gym, and how to claim them.

Introduce them to useful contacts

Depending on the size of your organisation you might not be able to introduce new starters to everyone, but you should introduce them to people who will be important to their ability to work and thrive in the first few weeks of their employment. A HR contact would be useful. If appropriate, designate an experienced employee in a similar role as a mentor or ‘work buddy’.

Give them the equipment they need

Stock a new starter’s work space with the things they might need, like pens and a notepad. Don’t make them spend time squirrelling out essentials. Small gifts – like a coffee mug or chocolate – are a nice touch.

Get the team involved

One of the most important parts of onboarding is giving new starters the opportunity to get to know the people they’ll be working with. Do this with an informal introduction session and icebreaker games. If everyone is in the office, think about organising a team lunch.

Plan adequate training time

The core of any onboarding programme is preparing new recruits for the role they are taking on. This preparation must be thorough, with plenty of time for questions and feedback. It’s particularly important for new contact centre staff to feel confident about handling live interactions with customers. Mock calls and role plays covering a number of common scenarios are a good idea. But however you choose to prepare new starters for their first days and weeks on the job, make sure the programme is comprehensive and interactive.

Talk about company culture

Onboarding is a great time to start promoting company culture. Don’t forget to talk about the company’s values and vision. If you’re doing anything notable in the ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) space, make sure you mention it. If you support a charity, tell new starters about the form that charitable support takes and how they can get involved.

Give them the IT they need

The best contact centre software is easy and intuitive to use. Even so, thorough training is a must, and this should continue well beyond the initial onboarding period. Start with basic functions and progress through more advanced features. As new features are introduced, have sessions dedicated to them. MaxContact is your friend here. We offer a comprehensive contact centre solution that is easy to get to grips with. We also offer full training for you and your teams, for free, forever.

Don’t leave onboarding to chance

The key to all this is to put some thought into your onboarding programme, and have a well considered plan.

Onboarding is an important part of your retention strategy. It’s a time for both comprehensive training and a warm welcome. It’s an opportunity to inspire new starters with your values and enthuse them with your vision.

MaxContact can help with your onboarding strategy, by offering a fully equipped software solution and the training to help new recruits make the most of it. For more information on our smarter contact centre software, please get in touch.

How can contact centre teams move with the times and improve contact strategies to push their results to the next level?

In a recent webinar session, Sean McIver, Product Owner at MaxContact, poses this question to two expert guests – Martin Teasdale, Founder of The Team Leader Community and the GOOW Podcast, and Beverley Hughes, Director of Mullard Associates.

They discuss how to improve contact rates in the modern day, why making small changes could be more effective than wholescale transitions and how technology and the pandemic have changed the face of the industry.  

Keep reading for the top takeaways, or tune into the webinar below.

What does customer contact strategy mean?

Your customer contact strategy is made up of every mechanism, decision and process that influences how customers are contacted.  

It’s the way you interact with customers, the way they interact with you and everything that makes up your approach.

What impacts contact strategies?

MaxContact’s Duty of Care Gap study found that 83% of contact centre workers say work is taking a toll on their mental wellbeing.  

Beverley explains that some of this stress is caused by the fact that customers have two priorities – speed and accuracy.

Martin adds that, in the past, agents who struggled with the stresses of the job would leave. But he thinks it’s essential to consider how you can make the pressure lighter.

Sean tells us 75% of people leaving customer contact centres say they’d be more likely to stay long-term if their employer implemented a more innovative approach to mental health. Things like talking more openly about agent wellbeing processes, giving everybody a seat at the table and aligning processes to work towards common goals.

How to drive continuous improvement in contact strategies today

As the customer contact landscape changes, so does the way we approach it. Martin highlights that traditional call scheduling is a thing of the past.

Here are a few ways things have changed and how they impact the industry:

The pandemic

COVID-19 has resulted in millions of people working from home. Martin explains that this disruption has “wiped the page clean”, leaving teams able to contact customers at many more points throughout the day.

On-demand

Traditionally, contact teams would plan to avoid calling customers during hotly-anticipated television events or the times when their demographic is most likely to be watching their favourite programmes.  

But nowadays, on-demand services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and catch-up TV mean people aren’t all watching at the same time. Again, this gives teams wider windows to get in touch.

Despite things seeming clearer in the past, many decisions to contact customers based on these factors were formed on generalisations. Today, we are presented with a new opportunity to discover more about our customers and make informed decisions to improve contact strategies.  

Martin also suggests the excess of choice customers have can mean they miss out on the best services for them. It’s vital to inform customers about the add-on services and options that could improve their experiences further.

Improving contact rates

We’ve discussed how we can improve contact strategies, but how can we increase contact rates themselves?

Beverley says it always comes down to one thing – listening to customers. Talk to the people in your team who speak directly to customers and ask for their opinions and suggestions for change.

Martin also put forward the ‘marginal gains’ theory, popularised by cycling coach Sir Dave Brailsford. The theory suggests it’s more constructive to strive towards improving something 1% at a time, rather than aiming for a huge increase in performance.

Goals need to be put in place, but a degree of realism is crucial.  

Host Sean points out that: “If every single outbound contact was in a position to have a full and complete conversation, you probably wouldn’t get through all of your data.”

Can too much change be a bad thing?

Change is often a positive thing, and it’s crucial if you want to continue performing highly.

However, as Martin says: “If you do too much, you can’t determine what’s working and what’s not.” It’s wonderful to have great ideas, but you then need to work through them in the right order.

With each change you make, however big or small, you need:

• A strong reason why it should be made
• A clear outcome to work towards
• A plan for how it’s going to be done

With these in place, put the changes in motion and if something doesn’t work don’t be afraid to remove it or review it or retract it. This is not always easy to do, because often in this industry we can be so committed to change that we want it implemented no matter what. However, if it’s not delivering the output you need it to deliver and if it’s at the detriment to your customers or your staff, it needs to be looked at.

As Beverley says,change has to be led from the top in terms of what the objective is for the business, but keep that communication two way. Test in small ways. Test and learn.

To discover more top tips on harnessing innovation to improve contact strategies, watch the full webinar.

For contact centres, retaining top talent is the key to hitting performance targets. It’s no secret that high turnover rates can lead to poor efficiency, customer complaints and increased operational costs.

So, how can you combat this challenge? Well, staff retention can be tricky but there are some effective strategies you can implement to encourage a positive and supportive work environment.

What is the state of play in contact centres?

According to our latest Benchmarking Report, the average turnover in call centres is 30.2%. But before we dive straight into retention strategies, let’s take a moment to understand the factors that contribute to high turnover in contact centres.

1. Increased Workloads: 42.0% of call centres are experiencing a surge in agent workloads, which will eventually lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction.
2. Lack of Reward: Despite higher workloads and the cost of living crisis, 56% of agents have not received a salary increase. Underpaid staff negatively impacts job satisfaction and motivation.
3. Lack of Career Growth: Feedback and training are essential for performance growth and provide agents with opportunities for advancement. However, 22% of contact leaders share coaching tips just once a month.  

Without the right call centre staff retention strategies in place, call agent turnover will increase. So what strategies should call centre managers implement?

It starts with onboarding

Onboarding really does matter when it comes to reducing staff churn. Failing to welcome staff effectively and prepare them for their first weeks on the job is hugely costly.

Have a structured onboarding plan

Make sure you have an onboarding plan that makes full use of their time. Leaving new starters twiddling their thumbs or unsure of what they should be doing next is not a good first impression. It smacks of a lack of organisation.

2. Share essential company information

Before you get to the role-specific stuff, give them the essential business information they need. Show them where to get a cup of coffee, and where to turn for help when they’re locked out of the company intranet. Let them know of any perks the company offers, and how to claim them.

Help new-starters to network

Introduce new starters to key contacts and consider assigning a mentor for support. Make sure you give new starters the opportunity to get to know the people they’ll be working with.

Provide them with the right equipment

Make sure new employees have the right equipment and set up. Don’t forget to consider their needs based on their working agreement – are they office based, hybrid or fully remote?

Have a role-specific training plan

An onboarding programme should prepare new call agents for their specific role. It needs to be thorough, with time for questions and feedback. It’s important for new contact centre staff to feel confident about handling live interactions with customers, so incorporate mock calls and role plays.

Provide training on contact centre features

The best contact centre software is intuitive to use. But ongoing training is essential as new features are introduced. Start with basic functions and progress through more advanced features. At Maxcontact, we offer full training for our clients and their teams, for free, forever.

Create a positive work environment to reduce staff churn in your call centre

Even if you nail the onboarding process, there are still plenty of strategies you can put in place to make sure your workforce stays motivated and your call centre is a happy environment.

Prioritise the well-being of your staff

Investing in employee well-being is essential for a thriving contact centre. Here are some processes you can put in place to prioritise employee engagement and reduce burnout.

• Organise regular one-to-one chats and make yourself available for impromptu meetings.
• Measure satisfaction and engagement levels with surveys and questionnaires.
• Organise team social events to blow off steam.
• Train mental health champions and give employees access to wellbeing resources.
• Encourage a switch-off culture: employees should disconnect from work at the end of every shift.

NOTE: Even with all this in place it’s important to spot signs of staff disengagement and intervene early.

Pay attention to your recruitment strategy

It’s inevitable that employees will eventually move on. But it’s important to have a recruitment process in place so you can keep staffing levels up. If you’re understaffed, workloads increase and this leads to burnout.

But recruitment strategy doesn’t just apply to replacing staff – it’s much broader than that.

• Attract top talent through effective recruitment channels, including social media, job boards and employee referrals.
• Invest in talent development programs to identify and nurture high-potential employees within your organisation.
• Create clear career paths and progression opportunities to motivate agents and retain them long-term.

Prioritise continual learning

Agents are less likely to burn out if they’re confident in what they do. Well trained staff are less likely to feel overwhelmed. So provide your team with specific training and schedule regular feedback sessions.

Invest in the right technology

Investing in the right contact centre software and technology can ease workloads and increase job satisfaction. Software such as intelligent diallers can reduce manual labour, while self-serve IVR payments can reduce customer contact and free up staff time for more complex calls. Meanwhile, good scripting and on-call coaching can help agents deal with difficult situations.

Offer them a career path

Make sure every agent knows how far ahead the next step on the career ladder might be, and what they need to do to reach it.

It might be achieving better monthly figures, taking extra training or just making gradual improvements over time. If an agent can see a route to greater responsibility and better rewards, they’ll be more likely to stay with your company. If they feel trapped at their current level, they’ll be more likely to leave.

Some agents may show little interest in promotion; the job is a stopgap. That’s fine, as long as they do the job satisfactorily. But focus more time and resources on those agents that clearly see a future with your business.

By implementing these processes, contact centres can significantly reduce staff turnover rates and create a positive work environment. By prioritising employee retention and keeping their staff motivated, call centres can improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

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If you’re a debt collection agency or a consumer-facing billing, credit, or accounts receivable department, you may be getting a little nervous right now.

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting us all. Debt has increased across the UK, up by a whopping £63 billion in a year. The average unsecured debt per UK adult as of March this year was £3,797.

That’s a significant amount of debt, and it’s likely to increase. Inflation has just hit a 40-year-high, and gas and electricity bills are forecast to rise again in the Autumn.

All of which means consumers will have less money in their pockets, and bigger bills to pay. Debt and payment collectors are having to work harder to meet targets.

How do you ensure your own communications are heard above the din? How can you meet your targets in an environment of such intense competition?

The status quo is not an option

In many cases, the answer is not to simply carry on as before. Even before the pandemic, the average debt collection rate was below 20%, the lowest in 25 years.

In addition, outbound collection strategies are often costly and inefficient, with a success rate that is usually below 5%.

So, if standard outbound practices aren’t working, and competition for customer attention is getting fiercer, what can you do?

To ensure debt collection strategies are ROI positive, you have to adapt your processes, make them more efficient, act proactively and know your customers better than ever.

We’ll discuss what that means in practice.

Smart outbound communications

The key to successful payment collection is creating smart outbound communications. That is a three-step process.

Streamline your processes

It’s not unusual to still find payment collection processes that involve manual outbound dialling with no omnichannel option.

This is hugely costly and inefficient. By contrast, an outbound dialler takes the legwork out of customer communication, deftly handling missed calls and answer machines. It ensures your agents have more time to do what they do best – talk to customers.

Linked to a CRM platform, it also automates the management of customer accounts, and presents agents with the information they need when they need it, so they better understand customer challenges.

Meanwhile, omnichannel communications (text, email, chat, WhatsApp etc) let you contact customers in the way that is most likely to get results.

Match this with a secure automated payment platform. Too often, customers contacted in an outbound campaign will fail to pay because the payment facility isn’t available when they need it, or they have to queue to speak to an agent.

Automated payment means customers can pay whenever they’re ready, and before they use the money for other reasons.

Get to know your customer

When you link communications and CRM platforms you can segment groups and contact them in the most appropriate ways.

For example, you can send a text message to customers in danger of falling into arrears, to remind them to pay before problems arise. You can target indebted customers with messages about the help on offer.

In addition, pre-collection contact strategies can ensure your organisation stays front and centre of a customer’s mind. Being proactive, getting ahead of issues before they become problems. Build profiles for segmentation, based on the financial situation, payment history, vulnerability and more. Then plan campaigns that are relevant to each segment.

You should also capture preferred customer contact methods during onboarding. A customer might be more likely to act on a call, text or email, so segment them further in this way.

Create better experiences

The easier and more pleasant your business is to deal with, the more likely customers are to prioritise you for payment.

Automated payment is part of that, as is using preferred contact methods whenever possible. Another is training staff to be patient, understanding and genuinely helpful.

Continuous performance feedback should be part of your training regime. Implement a system that lets you guide agents during calls – this is especially useful for the most challenging customers – and give instant post-call feedback.

Track performance over time so you can use resources efficiently, allocating the most challenging customers to the most experienced and skilled agents.

Create and edit scripts for every circumstance. Empower agents to use all the tools at their disposal to engage customers and create positive outcomes.

Improve debt collection ROI

If your communications are on point, your payment strategies are likely to be more successful. That will in turn reduce breakage rates and improve the ROI of debt collection.

In the current climate, it’s important that you do everything possible to create better customer interactions and nurture goodwill. Customers are likely to prioritise payments to businesses they trust and respect.

MaxContact’s powerful customer engagement software can help. It includes intelligent outbound dialling, comprehensive omnichannel options, automated payments, on-the-go script editing and a sophisticated agent monitoring and training platform. It also integrates with your CRM systems to create a seamless customer service solution.

Book your free, no-obligation demonstration and we’ll show you what MaxContact can do for you >

MaxContact, a leading UK-based customer engagement software provider, has shared findings from their new report – ‘The Evolving Contact Centre Landscape: Trends, Challenges and Strategies for Contact Centre Leaders’ – revealing insights into the evolving contact centre landscape.

The report, which includes results from a survey of 100 operational and contact centre leaders across the UK, shares insights to assist contact centre leaders in driving their strategies in 2024 and beyond.

Headline messages include:

• The balancing act: Balancing performance and cost in an unstable economy is a significant challenge, with 25% of leaders citing ‘balancing contact centre performance with cost efficiency’ as the main challenge in their role. Striking this balance requires investing in efficient technology, smart workforce management, and the integration of AI-driven solutions.

• AI impact: Nearly all survey respondents are using AI to improve performance. Among the findings, 25% reported using AI to streamline processes and enhance operational efficiencies. 22% highlighted AI’s role in enhancing data analysis and decision-making, while another 22% emphasised its contribution to improving customer service and innovation. Only 9% indicated AI has not yet impacted their roles. These insights underscore the industry’s readiness for AI-driven solutions and highlight AI as a valuable ally, allowing leaders to empower teams with the freedom to handle more complex, creative, and sensitive work while AI takes care of repetitive tasks.

• Customer centricity: Enhancing customer experience and satisfaction is the main area of focus for contact centre leaders over the next six months, with Net Promoter Score (NPS) being the most important measurement for success, according to those surveyed. A successful customer-centric approach derives from fostering feedback loops and cross-functional collaboration which enable businesses to stay in tune with customer sentiment.

• Navigating challenges and opportunities: In a difficult economy, contact centre leaders see challenges and opportunities, and their strategies for the short and medium-term are an attempt to balance the two. Successful contact centres will use insight, technology and agile management to solve problems without undermining performance or stifling growth. The right technology investments, workforce optimisation, and seamless cross-departmental communication are vital for maintaining customer satisfaction and operational efficiency during economic uncertainty.

MaxContact’s CEO, Ben Booth, commented on the report saying,

“These are clearly challenging times for contact centres, but MaxContact’s research shows that many leaders are being pragmatic and measured in their response. This report equips contact centre leaders with valuable insights to enhance their operations and navigate the evolving challenges and opportunities in the industry. In these ever-changing times, the ability to adapt quickly will set the industry leaders apart.”

Access MaxContact’s full report for free here.

Contact centres are always under pressure to remain compliant with complex laws and industry standards that frequently change. From data privacy regulations like GDPR to sector-specific rules such as those enforced by Ofcom, FCA, and Ofgem, contact centres must navigate a minefield of compliance requirements.

The increasing number of communication channels that contact centres operate through adds more complexity. Each channel – from traditional phone calls to social media and messaging apps – has its own set of compliance regulations.

One of the most common compliance pitfalls is that agents must read out specific phrases and terms to customers. These mandatory statements are essential for protecting both the customer and the business. Failure to comply can result in severe consequences, including fines and reputational damage.

This is where AI speech analytics steps in, offering a powerful solution to many of these compliance challenges. By using the capabilities of AI, contact centres can gain valuable insights into agent interactions and identify potential compliance risks. In this article, we will explore how AI speech analytics – like our Spokn AI software – can be used to improve regulatory compliance and enhance the overall customer experience.

What is AI Speech Analytics and How Does it Collect Data?

AI speech analytics relies on advanced algorithms, natural language processing and deep learning models to record and analyse phone calls. By converting audio files into text formats, speech analytics systems can extract valuable insights into customer interactions and agent performance.

The data collection process starts with the recording and storage of call transcripts in a secure database. These recordings can then be evaluated post-call, giving contact centre leaders valuable insights into agent interactions with customers against KPIs and more.

These are the key features of call recordings powered by AI speech analytics that enable it to function with advanced accuracy:

• Speech-to-text transcripts: Automatically converts spoken language into text, making it easier to review and analyse call content. These transcripts are summarised, providing an easier and quicker way to access and understand historic interactions.
• Keyword/topic spotting: Identifies specific words or phrases within the conversation, allowing for targeted analysis of key topics.
• Sentiment analysis: Determines the emotional tone of the conversation, identifying areas where customers may be frustrated or dissatisfied. Equally, it also pinpoints positive call interactions and these areas of strength can provide a blueprint for agent training.
• Categorise common objections: Sentiment analysis can be used to identify calls that started negatively and ended positively. By pinpointing the most common objections and how they are remedied effectively, call agents can learn how to successfully handle objections.
• Call quality metrics: Focuses on metrics that give better insight into call quality, such as talk-to-listen ratio, talk rate, correct call opening, and agent & customer monologues.

With these capabilities, speech analytics provides contact centre managers with the data they need to monitor agent interactions, identify compliance risks and improve overall customer satisfaction scores.

How AI Speech Analytics Data Supports Regulatory Compliance

AI speech analytics can support regulatory compliance across various industries. Contact centres can gain valuable data that help address common challenges and ensure adherence to industry standards.

Let’s take a closer look at some examples of compliance requirements that contact centres must adhere to. And assess how AI -powered speech analytics can support call centres.

GDPR: The Challenge of Data Protection

Data protection is a big concern for most contact centres, governed by both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA). While GDPR sets the overarching framework for data protection in the EU (and has been incorporated into UK law post-Brexit as the UK GDPR), the DPA sits alongside GDPR and outlines specific provisions tailored to UK legislation.

Both regulations impose strict requirements on businesses to protect personal data, but the DPA also covers areas not explicitly detailed in GDPR.

For example, the DPA stipulates that call centres must tell customers that their calls are being recorded for transparency and fairness in data collection.

Contact centres must also comply with other industry-specific regulations, such as:

• Direct debit regulations: Agents must read out specific parts of the script when setting up direct debits to ensure customers are fully informed.
• PCI DSS compliance for card information: When handling payment card information, call centres must make sure that sensitive data isn’t recorded. This involves pausing call recordings during the collection of card details to prevent unauthorised access.

Contact centres face significant challenges in complying with these complex and overlapping regulations, including:

• Handling Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) effectively.
• Preventing and responding to data breaches.
• Obtaining informed consent and ensuring customers are aware of call recordings.
• Ensuring sensitive information is handled appropriately during calls.

AI speech analytics helps to address these challenges, helping contact centres to monitor compliance, reduce the likelihood of regulatory fines and strengthen overall data protection practices.

Here’s how AI speech analytics can help overcome these specific challenges:

Customers can request access to their personal data and ask for deletions or changes to data sharing.

Contact centres must facilitate this. However, it’s often a manual process of searching through vast amounts of recorded interactions to locate relevant information.Solution: By using AI speech analytics, contact centre managers can search through recorded interactions quickly and efficiently to fulfil Data Subject Access Requests.

Speech analytics removes the manual process of locating relevant information, and reduces the time it takes to fulfil DSARs.Challenge 5: Getting Informed Consent from Customers

Contact centres must get informed consent from customers before processing their personal data. Individuals must understand the purposes and implications of data collection and it will be used.

Call agents must communicate this information clearly and provide consent documentation.Solution: AI speech analytics provides searchable text files. These call transcripts can be manually reviewed for specific keywords or phrases to verify agents provide correct information and obtain appropriate consent.

For example, in the sales industry, informed consent means customers understand the features and benefits of a product before buying.

With speech analytics, call centre leaders can manually track keywords or phrases related to the product’s features. This helps call centres leaders to identify calls where the relevant keywords haven’t been used. It gives broader scope to check that agents explain the product clearly and customers understand what they are purchasing.

Consumer Duty Act: Ensuring Fair Treatment and Clear Information

The Consumer Duty Act places a strong emphasis on fair treatment and clear information for consumers. Contact centres must tailor customer interactions to meet individual needs, identify vulnerable customers, minimise human error, and avoid pressurised selling tactics.

So what makes the Consumer Duty Act and FCA guidelines complex to adhere to in a call centre setting?

The ChallengesHow AI Speech Analytics Can HelpChallenge 1: Tailoring Customer Interactions to Address Specific Needs

Every customer has different needs and preferences. But it’s hard for call agents to tailor their approach and give clear and fair information to each customer.

It’s even more difficult to assess whether or not the customer understands what’s been said.As well as taking the overall temperature of the call, sentiment analysis looks at individual phrases,  including responses to product explanations. Sentiment analysis shows if customers may feel confused or frustrated.

If customers express negative sentiments or ask clarifying questions, it suggests they aren’t clear about what has been said by the call agent.Challenge 2: Identifying Vulnerable Customers

Identifying vulnerable customers is difficult because the signs of vulnerability are not immediately apparent.

A vulnerable customer covers various circumstances, including disability, financial hardship, language barriers and emotional distress.

This makes it difficult to establish a single criteria for call agents to use to spot vulnerability.Solution: AI speech analytics provides valuable insights into customer behaviour and language patterns to identify vulnerable customers. Sentiment analysis considers the emotional tone of conversations and detects negativity and distress.

As all call transcripts are searchable, any specific references to communication difficulties or personal challenges, such as disabilities or financial hardship, can be manually reviewed.

Managers and agents can offer targeted support when additional needs are found.Challenge 3: Minimising Misunderstandings & Human Error

All humans make mistakes – including call agents. Sometimes it’s easy for agents to misunderstand customer questions or provide incorrect information. The challenge is how do call centres catch these incidents and rectify them?Solution: AI speech analytics can be used to analyse recorded transcripts post-call.  AI can piece together keywords, tone and pace, to give a better understanding of agent performance.

Call centre leaders can manually compare agent interactions to recommended scripts, highlighting calls where the agent may have given misleading information.

It gives contact centres the opportunity to address mistakes and provide further training.Challenge 4: Encouraging Ethical  Selling Techniques

Agents may feel under pressure to close sales and meet their KPIs, which can sometimes lead to the use of overly assertive selling techniques.

This can be difficult to define and monitor.Solution: AI-driven speech analytics can analyse keywords, tone, pace and sentiment to identify instances where sales interactions may not align with best practices. This helps ensure a positive and customer-centred approach to selling.

Consumer Rights Act: Dealing with Customer Complaints

The Consumer Rights Act outlines the fundamental rights of consumers in the UK. As part of this legislation, contact centres must effectively address customer complaints to demonstrate their commitment to consumer satisfaction and compliance with regulatory requirements.

The ChallengesHow AI Speech Analytics Can HelpChallenge 1: Identifying root causes of recurring customer complaints

Agents handle a large volume of calls everyday. So when complaints happen, it’s difficult for contact centre leaders to identify themes of complaints and assess underlying issues. Recurring issues go unnoticed, impacting customer satisfaction scores.Solution: Speech-to-text technology provides searchable call transcripts of customer interactions that are easier to QA. By analysing these call recordings, contact centres can identify common complaint themes, such as recurring issues with products or services. This information can be used to address underlying problems and prevent future complaints.Challenge 2: Addressing Customer Complaints Efficiently

Resolving customer complaints within a reasonable timeframe can be challenging, especially when dealing with complex issues or requiring coordination with multiple departments. Delays in resolution can lead to customer dissatisfaction and potential regulatory action.Solution: Speech analytics analyses call recordings at scale. This makes it easier for contact centres to verify that agents are resolving complaints within a reasonable timeframe, and following appropriate procedures.Challenge 3: Ineffective Complaints Handling Training

Generic training that fails to address the specific needs of agents can lead to ineffective complaint handling. This, in turn,can result in longer resolution times, decreased customer satisfaction, and an increase in escalated complaints. Ineffective complaint handling can also lead to non-compliance with regulations, resulting in fines or penalties.Solution: Analysing agent interactions during the complaints process can help identify training gaps related to complaint handling. This allows contact centres to provide targeted training to equip agents with the skills and knowledge to address customer concerns effectively.Challenge 4: Implementing an Effective Complaint Handling Process

Ensuring that customers are satisfied with the resolution of their complaints is essential for maintaining a positive reputation and avoiding negative publicity. It can be difficult to assess customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement without the right tools and data.Solution: Speech analytics helps to measure customer satisfaction with the complaint resolution process itself. Customer sentiment during the process identifies areas of dissatisfaction and opportunities for improvement.

Why AI Speech Analytics?

Compared to traditional speech analytics, AI-powered software is much more effective – particularly when it comes to supporting compliance. AI has the ability to recognise nuances in conversation, adapting seamlessly to variances in language and emotion compared to rule based keyword spotting alone.

This means that AI speech analytics is much more accurate when assessing agent performance against intricate regulations. This, combined with the AI software’s capability to process and analyse large volumes of calls makes it offers a time-efficient solution for ensuring compliance with GDPR, DPA, PCI DSS, and other regulations.

Overcoming Common Concerns

Of course, it’s critical that we don’t ignore common concerns that some contact centres have around AI speech analytics.

Questions are often asked around how contact centres can ensure that collected data is handled and stored securely in compliance with regulations. And then there’s the issue of agent resistance, with some call teams expressing concerns over job security and privacy.

While these concerns are all valid conversations to have, they can easily be addressed by putting the right procedures in place:

• To ensure data sovereignty and compliance with regulations like those enforced by the FCA, work with providers like MaxContact – as our databases are all located within the UK.
• Use encryption, access controls, and regular backups to protect sensitive data and implement robust data security measures.
• Take the time to explain how AI speech analytics can improve efficiency, quality and compliance to the wider team.
• Offer training to help agents understand how speech analytics can be used to enhance their performance.

Involve agents in the implementation process and seek their input, addressing their concerns and gaining their buy-in.

Reaping the Benefits of AI Speech Analytics

The concerns outlined above are easier to navigate when you work with a trusted provider. MaxContact has worked with numerous contact centres to help them implement our Spokn AI platform – and the results speak for themselves.  

Honey Group, a financial services company, was struggling to review all calls for compliance purposes due to limited resources. They worked with MaxContact to implement our AI speech analytics software.

Honey Group has leveraged call transcripts and sentiment analysis to monitor inappropriate mentions of sensitive topics, ensuring compliance with industry regulations. As a result of Spokn AI, Honey Group has drastically improved quality assurance and the way they approach agent training.

[Read the full case study]

AI speech analytics empowers contact centres to stay ahead of complex regulatory compliance. But, by leveraging the power of AI, contact centres can gain valuable insights into agent interactions, identify compliance risks and ensure adherence to industry standards.

From GDPR to the Consumer Duty Act, AI speech analytics offers a robust solution for addressing many compliance challenges.

As regulatory requirements continue to evolve, AI speech analytics can adapt alongside them for effective compliance management.

Ready to take your contact centre compliance to the next level? See how Spokn AI, MaxContact’s industry-leading speech analytics platform, can transform your operations.

Book a free demo today!

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