Guest contributor |
Microsoft Teams has been a significant enabler for businesses of all sizes and markets globally. With its unified calling, chat and video capabilities, Teams has revolutionised the way organisations communicate and collaborate both internally and externally.
By combining apps from Microsoft’s marketplaces into Microsoft Teams deployments, further advantages can be unlocked.
Analytics is now an expectation, rather than a ‘nice to have’, as organisations seek a heightened level of insight and understanding into both workplace dynamics and customer experience. Sophisticated insights were previously only viable for large enterprises, but are now accessible to businesses of any size.
What makes the latest generation of analytics so powerful is that it can seamlessly operate across both Teams and traditional telecoms platforms. Through comprehensive analysis of calls and collaboration, organisations can attain unprecedented insights into customer experiences and productivity levels.
A journey into analytics
Many organisations rely on analytics as an aid to delivering exceptional customer experience so, as a result, call analytics is often the first to be deployed. It delivers insights into the responsiveness of customer-facing teams, shedding light on factors such as promptness in answering calls, unreturned missed calls, and why customers have abandoned calls. Armed with this information, the organisation can allocate appropriate resources to ensure the customer has a good experience.
Call analytics allows organisations that are transitioning their calls from a traditional phone system to Microsoft Teams Phone to maintain customer service levels and ensure there is no decline in customer experience.
Once an organisation is leveraging call analytics, many then add recording into their operations. While some may initially adopt call recording for practical reasons such as compliance and dispute resolution, it can now provide a wealth of AI-powered enhanced intelligence. Reviewing recordings is made easy through transcription and automated keyword analysis. Customer sentiment can be assessed, and strategies can be devised to replicate favourable outcomes and learn from those that were less favourable.
AI-based call recording coupled with call analytics is a powerful combination. Identification of negative sentiment, for example, prompts managers to review not only the keywords within the conversation (and at what point the call was negative, such as if it started that way but ended positively), but also to review call analytics trends such as a deep dive analysis of call queues, ring times, missed calls, staffing levels, customer call flows and why customers are left without attention. Similarly, reviewing positive sentiment can point towards replicable learnings from both the content of the calls and the way calls are handled by the call queue.
It is common knowledge that contented staff contribute to a positive customer experience. Staff wellbeing is a huge consideration for most businesses, especially those with hybrid working policies. Internal collaboration analytics is another powerful tool to add to the mix. Teams is an often-forgotten source of data but can help to determine staff productivity and wellbeing, helping to identify if staff have the right support.
For the many organisations working in a hybrid environment, this level of analytics helps maintain consistency and enables managers to understand if people are less effective at the office or while working from home.
Forward thinking management teams are leveraging Microsoft Teams to gain deeper insights into their organisations. With APIs facilitating integration of analytics within business systems, managers can craft a unified dashboard encompassing all essential information, including call performance metrics, workplace insights and corresponding call recordings. The ability to combine all three areas amplifies the value the insights provided, offering a comprehensive picture of the customer experience in one convenient location.
For further information, visit the Microsoft Teams analytics page on the Tollring website
Hilary Oliver is chief marketing and experience officer at Tollring