3 Ways to Use Big Data to Improve Customer Service in Your Call Center

Oxford defines “big data” as “extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.” Big data is of special interest to businesses that wish to gauge their consumers’ preferences and ideas regarding customer service.

A recent survey from Software Advice, a web-based reviews center for helpdesk systems, on how to improve call routing using big data revealed some interesting findings:

1. 67 percent of people over 65 tend to prefer slower paced customer service calls, while only 57 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds prefer more time consuming attention.
2. 24 percent of city residents prefer agents around their age, while only 10 percent of rural residents and 9 percent of suburban residents valued this.
3. Casual engagement was preferred by 49 percent of Midwestern callers, 36 percent of Northeastern callers preferred formality.
4. U.S.-based agents were preferred by 78 percent of 55-64 year-olds, while only 48 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds had this preference.

These findings highlight the fact that customer service is practically unique to the individual – however there are some trends and consistencies depending on the caller’s characteristics. Their age or location may determine by whom and how they wish to be addressed, which presents a challenge to call centers hoping to offer personalized attention. Yet by knowing these facts, call center agents, teams and departments can tailor their approach and demeanor to each customer, enabling them to provide a more personalized experience.

So how can your team use big data to provide top-notch customer service? By considering the following:

Customer Insight

Once companies obtain information about the specific preferences of their customers, they can provide personalized service. As such, in order to be effective, agents must have access to customer information such as their previous interactions, support requests, emails and notes, as well as data from CRM, Helpdesk, back office solutions, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn directly in their call center software interface. This will allow agents to personalize their conversations according to the caller’s unique characteristics in an effort to increase interaction quality.

Data Analysis

It is one thing to have data, but it’s another to actually put it to good use. In order to make the best use of your data, your analysts should work with data experts to develop solid conclusions that will help drive decision-making. This should include optimizing your customer segmentation and customer journey mapping, as well as developing a comprehensive understanding of which agents are best suited to handle certain calls. To improve the customer experience, your call center will need to account for customer data that is both quantitative (transaction amounts, number and frequency of interactions, etc.) and qualitative (data from customer surveys, call transcriptions and voicemail recordings). Doing so will put them on the fast track to understanding your customers, providing this information to your agents in real-time and optimizing the service your agents provide their customers accordingly.

Training

Adequately training managers to utilize data to advance customer service is essential.   Empowering managers and supervisors to base interactions on accurate data will result in fact-based decision making, rather than impulsive and ultimately futile responses to problems. This will go a long way to helping them coach their agents to success and making more sound decisions that will have a measurable impact on their team’s performance.

Call center software solutions that feature live call monitoring, call recording and comprehensive reporting can drive data analysis and sound decision-making. Moreover, leveraging call center software that integrates with the business tools you love to use so that contacts, cases, tickets and relevant customer engagement information synchronize between both systems will help companies create a unified and seamless environment where agents always have pertinent facts on hand. As such, if your team would like to leverage data to make more informed decisions, equipping them with call center software with the aforementioned features is a great place to start.