In pursuit of more granular first-party data to better inform marketing campaigns and business decisions of all kinds, conversation intelligence is an area worth exploring.
Using machine learning and AI-enabled technology to capture, analyze, and even visualize data from customer calls at scale is leading to massive improvements in organizations understanding who they serve — and specifically what those customers need.
Conversational intelligence adds a data science layer to invoke tracking analytics.
It takes marketers beyond simple measures of how many people are connected and from which channels to answer complex customer behavior and intent questions such as:
- What trends are there in our clients’ behavior, motivations, and desired outcomes?
- How can we improve the customer experience in the most meaningful way?
- What are the topics and questions that are on the minds of our customers?
- What outcomes are achieved in our customer service agent interactions?
I recently had the opportunity to chat with her De Anna McPhersonCMO in Invoca And an expert in conversational intelligence.
In this interview, you’ll discover emerging trends in call tracking and analytics, how marketers are using first-party data collected through conversational intelligence, and the opportunities that should be on your radar as you plan for the year ahead.
McPherson shared tips to help brands get the most out of this technology and how to use AI-assisted call analytics across industries as well.
Call tracking trends and observed conversation intelligence
Miranda Miller: “Are there exciting trends or technological innovations in call tracking and analytics that marketers should watch for this year?”
De Anna McPherson: “The biggest trend of conversational intelligence we’re seeing is greater use across the buying journey, particularly to improve contact center performance.
I believe 2022 is the year that the call center officially transitions from being considered a cost center to an opportunity to increase customer lifetime value.
This means they will need new AI-powered tools to automatically analyze and record agent performance on every call. This can have a significant impact on conversion rates for search marketers who spend the budget to generate leads over the phone.
Today, many companies manually record the performance of the agent by listening to the calls, and this means that only 1-3% of the calls are recorded, leaving a large margin for error.
With AI-powered conversation intelligence, businesses can automatically analyze and record their calls.
The ability to automate question and answer processes leads to better customer experiences, which in turn leads to higher conversion rates and improved marketing performance.”
Untapped Opportunities in Conversational Intelligence
Miranda Miller: “What do you think is the greatest untapped or untapped opportunity in conversational intelligence right now?”
De Anna McPherson: Conversational intelligence is one of the last underutilized sources of first-party customer data such as digital engagement, behavior, interactions, purchase history, demographics, and more.
First-party data is growing in importance as restrictions on third-party data tighten, but how to obtain it, organize data, and act on it still leaves many companies scratching their heads.
Using conversational intelligence, companies can identify top-performing keywords, obtain data to accurately retarget and suppress advertising to prospects and customers, and gain insights into consumer behavior to guide campaign optimization strategies.
Any company that regularly has conversations with its customers needs to use AI and conversational intelligence to extract that data and make sense of it to be competitive in 2022.”
Conversational intelligence strategy for different industries
Miranda Miller: “How does conversation intelligence strategy differ by vertical? Are there differences in best practices for call tracking and analytics for retail versus auto or finance, for example?”
De Anna McPherson: “At a high level, all sectors are using conversational intelligence to achieve similar core goals, which are:
- Get more call conversions and revenue from their marketing.
- Reduce wasted ad spend and spam calls and increase return on ad spend.
- Provide experiences to convert more callers into customers or patients.
- Discover more actionable insights from calls to call centers or locations.
While the basics are the same, the customer (and patient) journeys differ from vertical to vertical—the reasons why consumers call companies, where those calls go, what a call divert is, and what constitutes an ideal telephone conversation differ from industry to industry.
For example, one of our clients in the retirement communities sector used Invoca’s AI-powered call analytics to track calls related to COVID-19 concerns, as well as the “thrust and tone” of conversations about the pandemic.
They were able to measure trends by location, and used this information to update the information they were showing on their website, and to catch residents’ and caretakers’ concerns before they could turn into situations where people leave facilities.
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The result was a drop in resident turnover already during the first year of the pandemic.
Car dealers and service networks face a different set of challenges as calls are routed to individual dealers, rather than to a central call center. Since calls are being routed everywhere, it makes it difficult to track them down and get a marketing referral.
Conversational intelligence can act as a unified unit for marketing, sales, and customer experience data, enabling them to improve marketing efficiency and sales performance anywhere.
Conversational intelligence best practices are often the same, but some tactics and strategies may differ depending on the industry and what you want to learn from the conversations.”
Tips for tracking calls and analytics success
Miranda Miller: “What advice would you give to marketers considering/considering adding call tracking and analytics to their suite this year?”
De Anna McPherson: Conversational intelligence has a lot of applications from paid media referral and optimization to sales to digital user experience.
If you’re thinking about starting conversationally smart, you can see a massive ROI even if you only focus on one initiative to get started.
Many of our successful clients who later scaled their use case started using conversation intelligence for paid search attribution and reporting, and then evolved into audience targeting and automated bids before tackling any other use cases.
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So start measuring your performance and making one change at a time – we call this the “crawl, walk, run” approach to implementing conversational intelligence across the revenue organization.
Find a partner who can provide a dedicated onboarding team and can help you develop an implementation and success plan tailored to your business.
Developing a plan, clear roadmap, and performance standards with the partner is key to gaining adoption in your organization and exceeding your goals with conversational intelligence.”
Work at Invoca
Miranda Miller: “Thanks for your insight, De Anna. Now — for the marketers in the crowd who might be looking for a new opportunity, what makes Invoca such a great place to work?”
De Anna McPherson: “Being a great place to work takes more than just perks and benefits, especially during the ‘great quit’ where we have a really exciting job market.
Invoca differs from most other technology companies in that we have this “culture of selflessness” that is focused on maximizing value for our customers and our employees.
One of our core values is ‘helping each other thrive’, and you feel that on every project you work on and anytime you ask for help – there is always someone there to support you.
It’s a great feeling knowing that your co-workers always have your back, and that you’re not just competing for the prize. This allows everyone to focus on innovation, our customers, continuous improvement, and feel good about what they’ve accomplished at the end of each day.
One of the things we’ve focused on in the last couple of years is supporting and growing our great Invoca culture with the transition to a hybrid workforce that leans towards remote working.
Fortunately, we had a lot of remote employees before the pandemic hit, so it wasn’t much of a shock to the company or people. But we’ve implemented initiatives that make everyone feel included and supported, no matter how often, if any, they’re in a physical office.
We’re currently looking at how to make the most of a hybrid approach to people who work remotely, work in the office, and gather together at events.
Everything needs to be more coordinated than it used to be – you can’t just tell people to come and not have a plan to get them involved. Organizing each meeting or event in person is more like organizing a wedding than off-site teaming up.
No detail is too small, and we pay close attention to everyone’s feedback to deliver the best possible experience for all of our employees.”
You can learn more about Invoca’s culture and browse open job postings here.
More resources:
- Call tracking and reporting: Top 7 metrics to track
- Call Tracking for Google Ads and SEO: Convert leads faster [Webinar]
- SEO status report
Featured image: FGC/Shutterstock
Image in post: Courtesy of Invoca
