Speech Analytics Solutions Evolving for Asian Contact Centers

In December 2008, Aberdeen survey shows that 31 percent of best-in-class organizations use speech analytics technologies. The increase in deployment of these technologies is driven by demanding customers who want faster services from call center agents. Contact centers are under a lot of pressure to ensure customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs.

The situation has become even more difficult due to a sour economy and managers are looking for cost effective technologies that can contribute to their bottom line.

Speech analytics is a popular technology that automatically analyzes conversations to provide management with useful information about the speakers, subject of discussion and non-speech information such as background noise. According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the wide deployment of this technology in contact centers is helping companies to bring meaning to unstructured data collected during conversation with the customers.

"By analyzing the content of customer calls, companies are starting to find the underlying causes of problems and identifying opportunities to enhance customer experience," says Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst Keith Dawson in his report: Speech Analytics in Contact Centers. "The decision on whether to deploy speech analytics as part of an overall analysis program is increasingly being made at the strategic level."

Low adoption rate in Asia

Speech analytics solutions are widely deployed in the USA but its use is still limited in the Asian companies. According to Pradip Pal, managing partner of Singapore based technology consulting firm INS Indriya, corporate businesses in this region have not yet completely tapped the power of speech analytics.

"Although customers have installed what we believe to be state-of-the-art voice recording technology, they have not been exposed to the power of extracting strategic business intelligence from contact center data," said Pal while announcing a deal with UTOPY, a provider of customer intelligence and performance optimization solutions powered by speech analytics.

Cost is another factor that stops contact centers purchasing speech analytics solutions. These solutions can be very prohibitive and companies are currently more focused on solving immediate business issues. The Asian contact center market may increase the implementation of speech analytics solutions if they are more affordable, include no hidden costs and deliver immediate ROI.

In the fast paced business environment companies will have to use technology to gain competitive advantage or even remain in business. Customers are the best source of information and analyzing their conversation in a contact center gives companies important business intelligence. This information helps them to take quick action and grow profitably. Using the right speech analytics solution can definitely give a boost to contact centers, improve business processes and increase efficiency of organizations.