Welcome back! This is Part Two of my four-part series on the future of communications for manufacturers. If you’re just joining the series, Part One reviews research regarding the communication channels companies consider most important going forward. For this discussion, we’ll look at research highlighting how companies are using communication analytics to support their future plans.

Does the term “communication analytics” sound strange? Combining communication and analytics may seem unnatural at first, especially outside of a contact centre, but these two concepts recently became good friends as companies looked for ways to support remote teams. To better understand what companies are learning through communication analytics, we’ve conducted some research of our own. This research breaks down into three areas:

  1. Phone Calls. A phone call isn’t just a phone call anymore, it’s a treasure trove of data
  2. KPIs. The metrics contact centre managers are using
  3. Communication Analytics. How to use communication analytics to manage remote teams

1. A Phone Call isn’t Just a Phone Call Anymore

There is a mountain of data that comes from incoming phone calls from customers, prospective customers, partners and suppliers. Then, add in all the ways your company is handling an incoming phone call today and that mountain of data gets even more insightful. To put it into context, there are at least seven ways to handle an incoming phone call:

  1. Direct extension: The customer calls a person in your company directly. It’s the, “If you know the extension of the party you are calling, dial it now,” option.
  2. Receptionist/ Switchboard: Calls come to a central number and then are routed to the appropriate party.
  3. Auto Attendant: The call experience is automated with messages that allow the customer to select a number for a specific department.
  4. Ring groups: Depending on who is available, several employees have the ability to answer an incoming call and ensure that the calls are answered.
  5. Call Queues: Calls are placed in a virtual line and are answered based on their place in the queue.
  6. Intelligent IVR: An interactive voice response uses natural language processing to automate call routing.
  7. Virtual agent: AI automates workflows by being able to answer certain questions. For example, automate calls that are checking to see if a particular part is in stock.

Handling calls across these methods generates data, and this data can be used in five different ways:

  1. Descriptive: What happened?
  2. Diagnostic: What broke?
  3. Predictive: What are the options?
  4. Prescriptive: The next best action
  5. Cognitive: New idea generation and process automation

Of course, all of that phone call data needs a bit of organisation to make it useful. It must be aggregated in a timely and accurate way so it can be analysed and used to generate recommendations. Next, they need to be presented in a way that’s believable, understandable and actionable. All of this activity, such as recommending the appropriate subject matter expert to answer a particular customer question or responding to increasing call queue hold times needs to happen at the speed of conversations to be effective. Having the data a week later isn’t quite as useful. Here’s a simple diagram that attempts to illustrate how the phone call has evolved into a rich data set that can be used to underpin decisions that improve operational efficiency, as well as staff and customer experiences.

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A phone call is not just a phone call...

Is your company taking full advantage of the potential insights from this data? All of the different data types enable different ways to optimise your business. Manufacturers are using this data for resource planning enabled by aligning staffing levels with call and chat activity (descriptive), ensuring high quality interactions using real-time call and video meeting metrics (diagnostic), accelerating responsiveness and increasing first time resolutions with faster access to subject matter experts (predictive). There’s also real-time coaching using sentiment analysis (prescriptive) and driving operational efficiency using AI-powered self-service that automates handling of high volume, routine requests (cognitive). Is your company effectively using all of these data types? Are you able to combine data from the contact centre, business phone and chat into a comprehensive sentiment analysis? Watch this short webinar to see analytics in action.

The Metrics Contact Centre Managers are Using Today

Research shows that contact centre managers expect to have more remote employees moving forward than they did pre-COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, two-thirds (69%) of employees were working in the office. Now, that number has dropped to one-third (36%). In the long-term, roughly half (53%) of a contact centre’s staff are expected to work in the office.

Companies have been focused on customer experience and customer satisfaction, but now employee satisfaction is an increasingly prominent metric as well. Recent events reminded everyone that the ultimate goal of happy customers starts with happy employees.

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The most used contact centre KPIs

At the core of being able to make your customers happy is responsiveness. To paraphrase, time is still money but it’s convenience as well. Customers want experiences that are quick and easy, and being able to provide that can help lead to loyalty. One example of this desire for convenience is in the shift towards omnichannel experiences, which has been dramatic over the last year. This McKinsey research highlights this change:

“Eight in ten B2B leaders say that omnichannel is as or more effective than traditional methods—a sentiment that has grown sharply—rising from 54 percent at the start of the pandemic to 83 percent in February 2021.

Moreover, 83 percent of B2B leaders believe that omnichannel selling is a more successful way to prospect and secure new business than traditional, “face-to-face only” sales approaches—a notable sign of confidence, given the higher cost and hurdle of acquiring new customers.”*

To illustrate the impact of this shift, when identifying and researching new suppliers, digital self-serve went from 22% in August 2020 to 34% in February 2021. That’s a 55% increase in just six months. Your communication channels and related metrics need to support this shift, and measuring responsiveness is critical to ensuring your brand is providing a convenient experience.

One final point regarding the KPIs being used in contact centres - Net Promoter Score (NPS) is at the bottom of the list. This result was a surprise. It seems I am always being asked to provide an NPS rating. The reality is that some companies are still trying to capture this insight, but many more are focusing on employee and customer satisfaction metrics to ensure they are delivering the targeted experiences. Has your company reviewed its metrics lately? Is the emphasis still on NPS? Watch this video to see customer experience analytics in action.

Using Communication Analytics to Manage Distributed Teams

Productivity didn’t disappear when many of us were forced to work remotely. In discussions with manufacturers evaluating cloud communications and methods for managing remote teams, I reminded them that they’ve been managing remote workers for years. The difference is that now they have access to better tools. True, managing multiple sites spread across different locations isn’t quite the same as managing a hybrid work environment, but they are similar. Communication analytics will work whether everyone is remote at home or at several different office locations. Here are a few examples of how communication analytics are being used by companies to effectively manage remote teams.

Visibility into Activity

In an office environment, it’s easy to walk over to your colleague’s desk and see if they are on the phone. Now, real-time dashboards display the current status of all users right on the screen in front of us. The dashboard shows who is available, on a call, busy, away, or offline. It’s also simple to customise the experience using filters to make sure the people and teams you manage are always displayed.

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A dashboard displays the status of every user

Another concern for managers with remote employees is being able to track key sales indicators and ensure they’re on track to meet targets. For many outbound sales teams, key metrics include the number of phone calls and the length of time salespeople are talking to prospects. With cloud communication analytics, metrics are constantly providing accurate data on calls and talk time regardless of location. It’s easy to filter by team or keyword and sort metrics like the number of outbound calls or the average talk time to ensure that activities with strong correlation to results are at the appropriate levels. Additionally, you can click on any sales rep and get a detailed report for their call metrics. And as a web-based application, your configured view, access, and data are the same regardless of device or location.

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Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences

Providing an exceptional customer experience requires visibility into every part of the customer's journey. This includes communication interactions across calls, chats, emails and social channels. With that insight, contact centre managers can quickly identify customer experience patterns and trends. Using the step-by-step details of the customer journeys and post-call survey results ensures an outside-in view of the contact centre experience.

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A complete view of the customer journey

For more, check out this guide providing additional information on how communication analytics are an effective way to coach and support distributed teams. Stay tuned for the next chapter where I’ll be exploring the use of AI with communications. Is it AI or bust? Are organisations finding utopia or armageddon when deploying AI? In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments about this research, I can be reached on LinkedIn or schedule a call.

*McKinsey, Omnichannel in B2B sales: The new normal in a year that has been anything but, March 2021