How to Use Speech Analytics to Increase Sales

Speech analytics software works by detecting trends based on programmed keywords and phrases as well as variations in pitch, silences and emotions, offering a complete picture of what customers think about your product or service. As a result, the technology provides the ultimate tool for listening to your customers’ pain points and making improvements that increase sales.

An early warning system

In a busy call center environment, keeping track of your customers’ wants and needs can soon become difficult. A modern cloud contact center needs to assist and free up service agents to allow them to build relationships with their customers and develop emotive connections to engender loyalty. Even when agents handle hundreds of calls every day, speech analytics will help you gauge satisfaction levels, allowing you to introduce pre-emptive actions that ensure your customers return and don’t switch to a competitor.

If you have the capability in place to analyze your customers’ spoken words, you can identify what they care about, categorize key topics and find out what processes are broken. This, in turn, will offer your businesses the operational intelligence to fix issues before they escalate and cause customers to think about leaving your business.

Spotting competitive challenges

An effective call monitoring strategy allows businesses to gain visibility over key customer interactions that promise improved sales and marketing insight.

From detecting which rival products and services are attracting the attention of your customers to improving marketing campaigns and introducing product improvements, speech analytics can deliver the company-wide understanding you need to reinforce customer loyalty.

By providing accurate analysis of customer experience trends, speech analytics generates the data needed to refine the business decisions that have the biggest impact on your bottom line. This information can then be passed to the relevant sales and marketing departments, improving your business’ ability to meet competitive challenges.

Identifying cross and upsell opportunities

Speech analytics allows you to mine call data for discussions related to products, services, price, quality, location and much more. Listening and learning from your customers in this manner will allow you to identify what they want easier, giving you a better chance of exceeding their collective wants and needs.

Imagine a customer calls your sales team asking for an add-on you don’t currently offer but could easily introduce. If this turns out to be a repeated request, speech analytics can help you to quickly recognize these potential up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, simultaneously giving customers what they want and increasing sales.

Increasing first call resolution rates

Built mainly on trust and mutual understanding, customer relationships work the same as most positive human relationships. That’s why being passed around agents is one of the main things that makes customers angry and annoyed. Implementing an effective call monitoring strategy can help businesses build better, more profitable relationship by providing the tools needed to answer customer queries the first time of asking.

Speech analytics cuts to the core of customer dissatisfaction by revealing pain points and the underlying reasons why people are unhappy with your product or service. The upshot is that inquiries get resolved promptly and small problems don’t intensify to become bigger issues. Typically, when customers feel valued and listened to, attritions rates reduce and the likelihood of customers buying from your business in the future increase.

Sentiment analysis

In 1973, Albert Mehrabian developed the “7%-38%-55% Rule” for the respective impact of words, tone of voice and body language in face to face communications. With word choice only making a 7% influence on what is perceived and understood by others, scrutinizing how customers speak is crucial to analyzing conversations over the phone. 

Sentiment analysis is a feature of speech analytics that studies the pitch and tone of a customer’s voice as well as expressed emotions such as happiness, anger, fear and sadness. As a result, the software can help you spot trends in the emotive language and diction your customers use, allowing you to flag those callers who may be on the verge of taking their business elsewhere.

Final thoughts

Raw vocal data is a rich source of data that companies can use to learn from their customers and increase sales. Speech analytics can reveal those opportunities for your business, what your customers really think while meeting all types of competitive challenges.

Download our on-demand webinar to learn more about NewVoiceMedia's speech analytics solution, Conversation Analyzer, and how SixPack Abs implemented the technology to impact sales, customer experience and dramatically improve their operations.