Case Study: Financial
Speech analytics improves NPS® by 3% and enables migration of 75% of agents to WaH
HGS’s application of speech analytics addressed a company’s migration concerns while improving call quality
+3%increase in NPS
75%of agents shifted securely to work at home
100%of work-at-home agents monitoredClient background
The client is an American-based company with a long-standing relationship with HGS and currently operates in 4 locations globally.
Business challenge
Prior to the pandemic, all customer service agents worked in highly-secure office environments. . The concept of working from home was entirely new. Facilitating the agent work-at-home migration required major operational and technological changes.
Industry data security standards (PCI-DSS) were ongoing concerns in early 2020, particularly as government officials warned of increased malicious cyberactivity. With a widened organizational attack surface and agents handling personal data at home, the client was understandably nervous.
The solution
Internal and external applications of a speech analytics tool addressed the client’s concerns about agent work-at-home security and customer satisfaction during the pandemic.
Speech analytics for privacy, security, and compliance:
To facilitate work-at-home, the client first needed to upgrade several contact center systems. Once updated, HGS supplied employees with WebEx, webcams, training, new policies and procedures, two-factor authentication, and more to ensure a consistently high level of compliance, privacy, and security. Many of these items were new. Combining speech analytics with webcam audits ensured agent adherence, data security, satisfaction, and home-office hygiene (i.e., no paper, pens, cell phones, eavesdropping family members, etc.). Queries were also developed (e.g., background noise, disturbance in the line, muffled voice, sound is not clear) to evaluate technical aspects of home office configurations. Targeted support based on speech analytics findings made agents — and, in turn, customers — feel heard. Attrition and churn numbers decreased.
Speech analytics for business continuity, agent health and safety, and agent reorganization:
HGS business analysts created multiple queries to understand COVID-driven customer sentiment and call-mix changes. Using carefully selected keyword search strings (e.g., COVID nineteen, pandemic, coronavirus, lockdown, relief plan), HGS analysts were able to share real-time voice of the customer data with decision makers.
Findings revealed that calls became more complex, and that this type of inquiry that usually represent 2-3% of calls, had increased to 16-18% during Covid-19. This prompted HGS to assign some agents to alternate queues as everyone transitioned to work-at-home.
Speech analytics for quality and customer satisfaction:
The client has used speech analytics to better understand and serve its customers since 2017. Customer complaints are typically the focus of the queries. Findings led to improvements in training, coaching, and scripts, for example. The entire management team has access to speech analytics.
When agents started work-at-home, instead of relying on traditional quality and performance monitoring (i.e., retroactive call samples), HGS mined 100% of real-time interaction data. Using speech data enabled the team to make dozens of tweaks to the operational approach, to maintain service levels, and to improve customer satisfaction.
Results
The pandemic brought much uncertainty, but speech analytics inspired confidence in decision making. Data helped the client to keep agents safe and to deliver excellent customer service.
Customer wins
100%of service and quality levels achieved despite a reorganization to address volume shifts and agents’ own COVID-19 concerns
100%work-at-home agents monitored
for security compliance with speech analytics
Client wins
+3%increase in NPS®
despite a major shift in call types due to the pandemic
100%of real-time customer interactions reviewed with speech analytics to gauge satisfaction and learn from the voice of the customer (compared to the original approach of sampling ~20% of calls retroactively)
