Speech Analytics Success Series Part Three: Focus

Last article I spoke about the need for ownership of your Speech Analytics program. This week I am going to talk about the third ingredient – focus. One of the biggest challenges Speech Analysts face is that speech analytics may not be their only job. They are often pulled between Speech and Quality or Speech and WFM, or any other type of reporting or analysis. And without a clear owner of Speech, it becomes their second job rather than their first. Speech Analysts need to be dedicated to the Speech Analytics program. Doing it part time will lead to Speech being viewed as a secondary tool, rather that the primary driver of insight it is.

Another area of distraction is the use of speech analytics as reporting tool, rather than an insight tool. Stakeholders are used to dealing with reports. They use them all day long to manage their call centers, so it is natural that Speech’s capability would be thought of as a report providing data rather than insight. This is a difficult dynamic for a Speech Analyst to manage so they must rely on the Sponsor to educate the Stakeholders about the need to focus on Speech as an insight tool.

The last area I wanted to touch on was how to focus on the process of Speech Analysis. Speech can be a laser. With the ability to drill through multiple categories or crosscut by meta data it is possible to be focused on one problem regardless of how big or small. By refining your data subset, you will be able to bring insight and an ROI that you can stand behind.

Remember that a successful speech analytics program is not just one ingredient. Next time I am going to talk about the next ingredient for success – The right people.