4 Tips for Starting Your Contact Center Analytics Journey

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. who said, “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.”

Nowhere is this truer than in today’s contact center. Contact centers that capture and analyze customer data from multiple channels are rewarded with a clearer view of customer needs, and the ability to provide differentiated customer service experiences while competing more effectively.

Yet—despite the hidden value lurking in their customer data—a 2017 Forrester study found one-third of decision-makers said their contact center staff is spread too thin to use analytics to capture customer data insights.¹ These companies fail to tap into that recognized trove of rich information because they’re simply too busy with their day jobs. The last thing these overburdened teams want to do is take on what most assume is a monumental, never-ending science project.

So contact center leaders suffer in silence, missing out on critical customer insights because they lack the knowledge and resources they need to be successful.

But analytics is a lot like getting into shape: the only way to get where you want to go is to start. Start small or start big—just start.

And Calabrio can help. Here are four tips for starting on your analytics journey to get where you need to go fast.

1. Learn from the pioneers who went before you

There are benefits to being second, not first. In this case, it’s learning from peers who have already experienced success with contact center analytics initiatives. Imagine what they can teach you. For instance, which efforts delivered fast business value for them? If they had to do it all over again, how would they prioritize their analytics initiatives?

In the same 2017 Forrester survey referenced above, contact center decision makers identified these five areas as key ways they use customer information from the contact center to drive broader business transformation to:²

• Diagnose and fix common root causes of customer problems
• Identify opportunities for new products and/or services
• Create new opportunities for self-service
• Drive changes to marketing messages
• Optimize marketing messages through instant customer evaluation

2. Consider starting with insights that can be used by Marketing

Of the five ways noted above, it’s no surprise four of them involve Marketing. That’s because effective and efficient marketing depends on knowing the customer. And the only way to really know your customer is to access and understand insights derived from their demographic, psychographic, buying behavior, sales relationship and customer experience information.

Yet, according to Forrester, only 55 percent of contact centers share data with their marketing counterparts.³ This gap is an opportunity for you to jump ahead of those who began their analytics initiatives before you but who may still struggle to demonstrate tangible results.

3. Pick the right solution

This advice applies to any technology solution, but it’s particularly critical when it comes to analytics. At a high level, you want contact center analytics technology that’s easy to use and integrates with your existing systems. You want to work with a vendor who’s responsive and with whom it’s easy to do business. And, if you use an analytics platform such as Calabrio, built-in capabilities will speed your implementation by giving you pre-built, purpose-built tools designed specifically for contact center needs.

You also want to pick a vendor prepared to offer you customized assistance as required. And that leads me to my next point…

4. Ask for help when you need it

Both small and large contact center teams can struggle to start with analytics. Maybe they don’t have enough resources or the right tools to gather and utilize insights. Maybe they suffer from poor internal collaboration or dirty data. Or maybe they’re not familiar with the finer points of identifying customer segments, mapping customer journeys or dissecting the events that trigger a service interaction. Their expertise lies in working on the frontline with customers—not analyzing data or developing marketing strategies.

When you work with a vendor that offers personalized contact center analytics assistance, or “managed services,” those burdens are lifted, and you can use analytics to improve your business strategies much more quickly. Managed services for analytics—such as those offered by the Calabrio Innovation Center—help you focus on your core business, achieve economies of scale, access the right talent at the right time and leverage best practices gained from previous analytics implementations.

There you have it. Now you’re ready. It’s time to get started!

Brad Snedeker

Brad Snedeker is the Director of Customer Advocacy at Calabrio. With over 15 years in the industry, Brad has extensive knowledge of the contact center space. As Calabrio’s head of the Innovation Center, he works directly with users to teach and develop new and innovative techniques to implement customer engagement and WFO best practices.