Speech analytics is becoming an integral component of collection contact centers and Accounts Receivables Management (ARM) firms as it not only helps these firms maximize payments, but also lets them stay compliant and up to date with new rules and regulations that often prove to be more challenging.
In a call center, speech analytics technology helps analyze every single agent contact, either during or after the call. This reduces the costs and efforts involved in call center compliance monitoring. It also delivers faster response time and more importantly saves call centers from fines or lawsuits for non-compliance with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulations and the FDCPA.
According to CallMiner, a provider of speech analytics and agent automation solutions, over 11,000 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) lawsuits were filed by consumers in 2012. Cases claiming a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) were up 17 percent from 2011 while cases claiming violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) were up nearly 34 percent.
CallMiner claims that with a speech analytics solution in place, call center managers see data from 100 percent of their calls, as opposed to just 5 percent. The accuracy of speech analytics, at 90-95 percent, is also on par with manual audits. With more and better data, collections contact centers are in a better place to make real improvements.
Speech analytics solution also benefits debt collection call centers to identify risk level based on the content of the conversation. For example, the speech analytics can be used for tracking escalation language in the QA department at a credit union. By building out several different language strings that could indicate an escalated call, analysts can identify the exact language that occurred most often in escalated calls.
Another use of speech analytics is to identify the real problems and real areas of opportunity. Since the call center can review every call, it can discover the true root cause of the problem and implement the strategies for improvement and compliance.