New Research Finds Top Performing Companies Are Enabling Operational Intelligence in the Contact Center

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 14, 2010) - Performance improvement opportunities are often locked in the potential business intelligence that can be mined from both unstructured data (such as voice recordings, call notes and other ad hoc interactions) and structured transactional data collected in call center and CRM applications. The paper, "Unlocking Business Intelligence in the Contact Center," announced today by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), reveals that through operational intelligence, contact center agents can understand metrics such as customer satisfaction, first call resolution, SLA compliance, and customer churn/customer retention -- and subsequently act on that information in a more timely manner.

The research report delivers 26 pages of hard-hitting facts based on responses from over 70 companies, and investigates the steps top performing companies have taken to use operational intelligence to improve their contact center.

The report reveals the strategies top performing companies use to meet their performance management requirements. Aberdeen's research found:

• Sixty-two percent (62%) of top performing respondents to the study apply call center intelligence to customer communications.
• Fifty percent (50%) of the top performing respondents to the study are enabling operational business intelligence.

"Speech analytics provides a deeper variation in the data and better understanding of what is actually driving repeat calls. How can the contact center agent reduce repeat callers and increase first call resolution? The answers to these questions are well aligned with the deployment of a speech analytics solution," says Gaurav Patil, Research Analyst and author of the study. "Utilization of speech analytics in the contact center can better serve the agents to help identify the gender of the speaker, the emotional character of the speaker, the topics being discussed by the caller, or whether the caller asked a question or made a statement during the conversation with the agent."

A complimentary copy of this Operational BI research report is made available due in part to the following underwriters: CallCopy, and Voxeo.

Access a complimentary copy of the Unlocking Business Intelligence in the Contact Center. 

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Information Technology Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having studied more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen educates users to action by driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen places content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of Harte-Hanks' "customer optimization" process (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

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