Amber Hickman |
For a business to continually improve how it operates and get ahead of the competition, it must be able to understand what its customers need, identify which operational processes need to be improved, and pinpoint how to empower its employees to deliver services more efficiently. According to Tony Martino, CEO of Tollring, data and analytics play a crucial role in helping organisations to capture the insights they need to optimise performance, improve customer satisfaction and drive digital transformation.
What are some of the key areas where analytics can help businesses improve their operations?
To deliver consistently high-quality customer experiences, organisations need to have dedicated personnel that can effectively manage customer interactions, ensuring enquiries are dealt with promptly and no calls are missed. However, this is difficult for businesses to achieve if they do not have objective insight into their current processes and the ability to measure the impact of any changes they make. Analytics can allow organisations to improve the customer experience by better understanding the content and context of both internal and external communications, as well as the sentiments and satisfaction levels of the people involved.
The latest analytics solutions equipped with artificial intelligence and automation enable organisations to further improve their understanding of their people and their customers by delving deeper into different topics, keywords and sentiment across multiple conversations. These insights can assist in pinpointing which team members are able to handle conflict resolution well, who is adept at effective upselling and who is capable of swiftly transforming negative sentiments into positive ones, ultimately converting dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones.
Tell us about Tollring’s analytics solutions and how they use technology such as AI?
Tollring is working to apply AI-driven analytics across our Microsoft-based data sets including all internal and external collaborations and conversations to deliver more powerful insights to the user. We deliver three analytics-based services within the Microsoft ecosystem: Analytics 365 EX (Employee Experience), Analytics 365 CX (Customer Experience) and Analytics 365 RX (Recording Experience). Data from these solutions can enrich and empower an organisation’s overall business intelligence platform.
First, the Analytics 365 EX application for Microsoft Teams delivers instant visibility into employees’ internal engagement and collaboration within Teams. The dashboards provide a comprehensive view of call, meeting, chat and Teams activity, offering a high-level assessment of a workforce’s engagement level.
Secondly, the new Analytics 365 CX provides visual insights into Teams Phone calls, which gives an in-depth understanding of customer interactions. Metrics on call performance with insights into call queues, auto-attendants, individual users, teams and organisation-wide call patterns help to streamline call paths and optimise performance. Meanwhile, analysis of incoming call metrics, such as the percentage of calls answered and duration, enables businesses to identify how to drive efficient customer interactions. By setting targets and focusing on performance service levels that impact customers, businesses can foster long-term customer relationships.
Finally, Analytics 365 RX, which is launching in early 2024, will help make AI-driven analysis of call recordings more accessible. The solution has new powerful AI features that will automatically detect keywords and subjects and highlight the calls that matter. Being able to automatically analyse each call rather than manually selecting a few means that resources can be spent on driving efficiencies and improving working practices.
Can you tell us how is Tollring working with Microsoft and what benefit this brings to users?
Tollring prioritises Microsoft skills internally and we are gaining certifications to strengthen our technical capability and trusted partner status. Alongside this, we have built a relationship with Microsoft to gain guidance from its teams of experts.
Analytics 365 EX is a fully certified transactable Teams app, which is available in the Microsoft marketplaces, giving our customers full confidence in our product. Analytics 365 CX will soon be available in the Microsoft marketplace, and Analytics 365 RX is currently undergoing Microsoft certification. The certification process is rigorous and ensures our products meet Microsoft’s exacting quality assurance and security standards to ensure compliant call recording and user satisfaction.
How will analytics evolve in future and how should businesses prepare?
The capabilities of analytics will develop as technology advances.
The AI element is all about qualitative data. Tomorrow’s analytics will provide insights based on an understanding of your business, customer profiles and the users’ specific needs. By applying multiple sources of information, organisations will gain a greater understanding of operational elements and how to maintain a high-quality customer experience.
Businesses need to focus on digital transformation. This is not about getting the latest technology, it is about preparing to deliver on the amazing insights that are possible, and ensuring the business can easily access and aggregate previously siloed data. Unlocking siloed information will also become extremely valuable to an organisation. It’s going to be one of the biggest revolutions when people realise the value of their data and how it can help them in running their business.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.