Nic Laschinger, CTO, Euphoria Telecom
If I told you that there is a tool that can provide you with deep business insights ranging from customer experience to productivity and sales, would you consider spending your money on it? What if I told you that you probably already have one and you’re just not using it right?
Have you guessed what it is yet?
Your business phone is like an undercover agent – unassuming and very good at gathering intel. As its handler, it’s your job to decipher that data and use it for good. Here’s a breakdown of what your phone knows, and how you can use it to your advantage.
Customer care: Phone data is a goldmine for improving customer support. By analysing patterns like call numbers, hold times, caller sentiment and abandoned or missed calls, companies can identify service issues and improve the overall customer experience. Volume, frequency, and repetition of calls are also important indicators of customer sentiment.
Cracking the code: Even basic call data can be invaluable. By identifying peak call times you can scale resourcing up or down for specific times, days and events – improving efficiency and saving money. If your data is showing high numbers of abandoned or missed calls, customers are likely falling through the cracks. Bringing on more people to better manage loads, using callback systems, or re-routing calls will help you plug the gap. The result is a less frustrated customer, who is unlikely to pick up the phone to your competition instead.
Sales support: Your business phone is a powerful sales intelligence tool. By looking at call duration and frequency, conversion rates and by studying sales calls, companies can uncover what (and who) is working, and what isn’t. This data is also invaluable in determining which advertising and marketing campaigns are resulting in real leads, and ultimately, delivering a return on investment.
Deciphering the data: Unlike in the customer care department where frequent calls generally indicate a problem, in the sales department a frequent caller is more than likely a hot lead. Diving deeper and coupling this data with an analysis of call recordings will give you even more insights to improve sales. These recordings can show you where people are hitting walls and what top performers are doing right so that you can replicate it. Transcription tools can make this process even simpler so you don’t have to listen to every recording.
For example, if your data is showing that there is a higher conversion rate when online quotes are followed up with a personal phone call within 24 hours, you could build this into your business systems and make it a part of the sales team’s KPIs.
Team productivity: Your phone system is an excellent performance management tool which can identify sleeper agents (not the espionage kind, the kind who are asleep at the wheel), allowing you to measure performance based on calls handled, customer satisfaction scores, and resolution times. If issues aren’t being resolved the first time around, you’ll see high repetition rates which could be an indicator that your agents aren’t being thorough enough.
By studying who’s calling, how often, for how long, and what happens during those calls, businesses can improve workflows, allocate resources more effectively, and reduce time wasting.
Solving the case: If your data is showing that team members are getting stuck on time consuming calls it’s important to investigate why. Are they having to explain complicated returns processes which could be detailed on the website or with an emailed infographic instead? Similarly, if calls are backing up, look at the number of low-level repetitive calls your teams are managing and investigate whether online, app or virtual agent queries will improve productivity.
Data-driven decisions: In a world where data drives decision-making, your phone system is an often overlooked source of strategic intelligence. If you’re looking to understand your operations, your customer relationships, and your team’s performance better, it should be your first port of call. Acting on what that data reveals, could fundamentally change your business for the better.
