“You People!”

How Problematic Language Can Actually Help Your Business

It’s no secret that being a call center agent is a balancing act. Not only are your agents solving hundreds of customer issues in rapid succession, they’re doing it while trying to maintain the good name of your company. Not surprisingly, when your call monitors hear phrases like “Angry”, “Annoyed” or even the dreaded “You People” — chances are something is amiss.

Embrace the Data

When you’re analyzing thousands of calls per day, it’s not enough to just search for these problematic words, flag the calls and educate your agents. Instead, you should embrace this data and use it to dig deeper into the underlying, systemic issues that are plaguing your business.

“You people” can mean a number of different things: it can be the customer’s way of categorizing your entire industry, it can be used to express their anger with one aspect of your company, or it can simply be their way of venting frustration on a specific issue that may be easily alleviated. Whichever the case, it’s always best to avoid putting your agents in a position to defend the company over something that can be addressed before your customers feel the need to call.

Get to the Heart of the Problem

Most speech analytics platforms promote the importance of identifying key words and phrases, but a truly good analytics solution will take it a step further. A robust platform, like speechIQ, will help you bucket words and phrases into categories that can determine communication inefficiencies throughout your entire organization. A sophisticated platform allows you to target “drivers” or pain points that may be resolved through other touch-points before they reach the call center.

Perhaps your customers don’t feel like they were made aware of a certain issue, or maybe they felt like they were not given the price discount they were promised. These issues can be easily solved with a triggered email — or by simply improving the user experience on the website.

Whatever the problem, it’s always better to be proactive instead of reactive. If you’re hearing potentially problematic language in your call data, take the time to address the areas of concern before they reach the call center. This approach will improve the overall success rates of your agents and enhance your customer relationships.