Speech analytics set for lift off in contact centres

UK contact centre industry expects close to doubling of speech analytics usage by the end of 2012 with one in eight UK contact centres expect to implement a solution within 12 months

New research published by ContactBabel, the contact centre industry analysts, reveals that UK businesses expect the use of speech analytics solutions to jump from a current penetration rate of 14% to 26% within 12 months. 

Although 57% of respondents - the majority of these in sub-100 seat contact centres - do not have any plans to implement speech analytics, the installed base industry-wide is expected by contact centre managers and directors to be close to doubling within 12 months. 

Plans for speech analytics	Proportion of respondents
Currently use, no plans to replace/upgrade	11%
Currently use, looking to replace/upgrade	3%
Likely to implement < 12 months	12%
Likely to implement > 12 months	9%
No plans to implement	57%
Don't know / NA	8%

Source: The UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers' Guide 2011 - 9th edition (study of 208 UK contact centres)

 "The UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers' Guide (9th edition - 2011)", is a major study of 208 UK contact centre operations, looking at all areas of contact centre performance, investment, technology, HR and strategy. It is available entirely free of charge from www.contactbabel.com/reports.cfm. An in-depth research-based guide, "The Inner Circle Guide to Speech Analytics" is also available on the website.

The reports' author, Steve Morrell, commented: "Speech analytics offers a new way of looking at customer contact, as businesses can discover why their customers are calling them - rather than just processing calls ever more quickly and efficiently - meaning broken business processes get identified and fixed, and customers are served better, for less cost. Through understanding the content of vast volumes of calls, without having to listen to each one, the level of actionable insight that speech analytics can unlock is potentially very high.

He added "Speech analytics solutions have become mainstream, especially in larger operations where high call volumes offer great opportunities for insight and improvement. Although speech analytics is seen as very expensive and complex, the reality is that there are very different levels of price and functionality. Speech analytics can be used for agent compliance, quality monitoring, customer and competitor insight and business process optimisation. It's still a maturing technology, but it has huge potential benefits and takes contact centre technology in a different direction."

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