Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2011
One of the technologies making waves in the contact centre industry is speech analytics, as it can boost operations as well as agent performance.
This is according to Fokion Natsis, SA territory manager for unified communications company, Interactive Intelligence.
Natsis says speech analytics provide real-time keyword- and phrase-spotting on either the customer side, agent side, or both sides of a voice conversation.
“This real-time capability enables contact centre managers to be alerted to problem interactions, then monitor, coach, or intervene to better satisfy customers and improve agent performance,” he says.
According to research firm Ovum, global call centre spending on speech analytics is set to double, growing from around $95 million in 2009 to $180 million by 2014.
It adds that although still an early-adopter technology, speech analytics will grow in importance over the next few years, helping businesses to improve customer loyalty and processes.
“Spending on speech analytics will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 13.5% between 2009 and 2014,” says Ovum analyst Aphrodite Brinsmead. “Companies have shown significantly more interest in the technology as they begin to understand the business case. Consequently, they can now justify the costs despite tightening IT budgets.
“Vendors have increased their market education efforts, in addition to offering flexible pricing and scaled-down versions of the solutions. This makes speech analytics more accessible, laying the foundations for increased adoption,” says Brinsmead.
Interactive Intelligence recently unveiled its Customer Interaction Centre (CIC) with speech analytics to the local market.
“CIC features the new real-time speech analytics application, Interaction Analyser. It also includes the addition of Interaction Web Portal, a new application that enables contact centre outsourcers to provide their clients with secure, branded access and real-time visibility,” adds Natsis.
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