Customer intelligence (CI) is the process of understanding the specific needs of your customers and analyzing all the data you have on them to serve them better, driving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer intelligence is an essential component of customer relationship management (CRM). When implemented effectively, it can provide valuable insight into customer behaviour and experience.

One example is when customers walk into a shop and leave without purchasing anything. These prospects/customers (or their visits) might not be available in a traditional CRM system because no sales transactions are recorded on the cash register. Although there was no transaction, CI can be used to determine why customers leave the store. This could be done by asking them or a store employee to complete a survey.

Customer Intelligence starts with reference data. This is basic information about the customer such as their geographical location.

The data is then supplemented by transaction data – reports on customer activity. This could include commercial information, such as order processing and purchase history. It also includes interactions with service representatives via phone or e-mail.

Agent data or customer satisfaction surveys can add a subjective dimension. A company can also use mystery shopping and competitor insight to gain a better understanding of their market position.

This data can be analyzed and placed in context with other information about industry conditions, competitors and general trends to gain information about customers’ current and future needs. It can also be used to predict their future behavior.

How to Gather Customer Intelligence

Text Analytics

Market research surveys and customer satisfaction are often analyzed via text analytics. These can be used for customer intelligence purposes to contact center notes, email, and other textual sources.

Speech analytics

Speech analytics is used to monitor phone conversations between customers and companies. It uses speech to text or phonetic analysis to locate keywords and phrases, classify calls types, and identify trends.

CRM Software

Customer relationship management software is software that helps to manage customer relationships. It can store data about the number, type, and category of prospects and customers.

Frontline data capture that may or may not be part of a CRM solution but is used by front-line agents to record subjective data about customer contacts such as the reason the customer picked up the phone.

Click tracking

Click tracking data is used to track the popularity and use of corporate websites. It can give clues about product interest and purchasing intention. A company might infer that a customer is interested to purchase a service if they spend time looking at specific products.

Customer intelligence allows for a deep understanding of how customers interact with companies and makes predictions about customer behavior. This information can be used to aid in more strategic and effective decision-making, driving customer satisfaction and creating customer loyalty.

Advances in analytics and AI are pushing the barriers for Workforce Management (WFM) and Magnus Geverts at Teleopti, a Calabrio company, says it’s time to act now to take advantage of new initiatives, starting with a data-infused WFM strategy for better human interactions and superior customer experiences.

Customer Experience (CX) is still the number one measure of strategic performance while 87.2% of organizations agree that it can be directly linked to commercial success. This reality puts the spotlight firmly on customer-facing teams and the ability to re-evaluate everything they do from the people they hire to the technology they deploy. CX has also totally revolutionized the way front-line operations such as contact centers measure their success, switching from the number of calls answered and how quickly to how well do we understand customers? Data is central to success when it comes to creating dynamic CX and actionable strategic business intelligence.

For years, technology has collected call recordings, keystrokes, e-mails and other interactions between front-line employees and customers. This information would later be analyzed by managers to assess how staff were performing and what could be improved. What if this could happen in real-time and go one step further to tell the customer service representatives (CSRs) and managers whether a customer interaction is going well or suggest how to improve it in the experience? What if this intelligence could simultaneously link to critical workforce data to ensure CSRs are properly trained, motivated and available at the right time?

Welcome to the new era of customer experience intelligence where the very best of human talents and activities combine with contextual, predictive customer analytics all in one place.

5-point plan for Customer Experience Intelligence incorporating WFM

1. Gain control of your data – how do organizations capture what really matters, then tailor it to empower staff and inspire customer loyalty? While digitalization has made life easier by automating important business processes, it has also created a world flooded with non-stop data. Success comes down to controlling data – a vital source of Customer Experience intelligence – effectively and dynamically. The beauty of WFM is its proven ability to capture critical CX data all in one place and then process and analyze it in real-time to drive the customer experience.

2. Interaction analytics – it’s the next hot thing – and it works by harnessing valuable data to give a comprehensive view of 100% of customer interactions, whether they be by voice or text. Use this powerful capability to identify the one word that keeps cropping up in every conversation or highlights when 90% of customers are asking the same question to focus on what really matters for improved CX. Advanced interaction analytics involves using data to understand what is currently happening in the contact center and applying that customer experience intelligence to generate actionable insights about what will happen next – with amazing results. McKinsey and Company found that companies that have already applied advanced analytics have reduced average handle time by up to 40 percent, cut employee costs and boosted the conversion rate on service-to-sales calls by nearly 50 percent—all while improving customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

3. Maximize human capital – use WFM to collect and share data with the HR department to identify the skills required to meet corporate objectives and build effective recruitment and succession plans. Then, use quality evaluations and analytics to detect coaching needs and automatically schedule training at quieter times. The latest WFM solutions also provide easy access to a wealth of historic data and advanced reporting functionality to speedily predict, create and search future requirements for headcount and specific skills. This is especially helpful when right-sizing during periods of organizational change or to accommodate future growth plans.

4. Put intelligence at the front end of employee and customer self-service – Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of robots, chatbots and virtual assistants boost both employee and customer experience intelligence. The more AI tools are used, the better they get – use them to monitor and process staffing data to communicate schedules with employees and then automate requests and approvals.

5. Turn WFM into WEM – it’s time to stop viewing simple scheduling as the end destination for WFM and instead embrace the full capabilities of Workforce Engagement Management (WEM). Choose a technology partner that offers one integrated suite of solutions for scheduling and forecasting while extending and automating these traditional WFM capabilities to encompass the 5 key elements of Customer Experience Intelligence: Performance Management (PM), Quality Management (QM), Interaction Analytics, Desktop & Process Analytics and Employee Recognition.

For more information on what customer experience intelligence means to your contact center, business, customers and employees visit www.teleopti.com and www.calabrio.com

About the Author

Magnus Geverts  is Chief Business Development Officer at Teleopti.

Teleopti is a global provider of workforce management (WFM) software, offering a WFM solution that is sophis­ticated, localised and easy to use. As the largest “best-of-breed” vendor, Teleopti focuses on helping contact centres, back offices and retail stores improve customer service, employee satisfaction and profitability – through optimized, automated forecasting and scheduling.