Contact centers are more than just hubs for handling questions, issues, and complaints. The conversations that happen in the contact center shape the customer experience and drive brand loyalty. One of the pivotal technologies transforming the landscape of contact centers is transcription, offering companies crucial insights into their interactions and serving as the basis for quality control, employee training, staffing and scheduling logistics, and much more. But in order for businesses to gain value from transcription technology, those transcriptions need to be reliable, accessible, and accurate—no matter who is speaking.

Facilitating multilingual support

For organizations that serve customers globally, providing support in multiple languages is crucial to providing a positive experience. The transcriptions within 8x8 Speech Analytics support 45 languages and are designed to be robust across diverse datasets, with a focus on zero-shot performance. This means the underlying transcription technology performs well even on data it hasn't seen before, making 50% fewer errors than other models trained on smaller, more specialized datasets. English, Italian, German, and Spanish have some of the lowest Word Error Rates (WER). For instance, the large model has a WER of 0.15 for English and 0.16 for Italian. This advanced transcription technology ensures that non-native speakers receive the same level of service as native speakers for most languages.

Excellent translation, across all regions and dialects

The importance of accurate transcriptions doesn’t start and end with native English speakers, and needs to be just as reliable no matter a speaker’s dialect or accent. The underlying transcription technology that powers 8x8 Speech Analytics is trained on a large and diverse dataset of 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervised data. This extensive training helps it manage different accents more effectively compared to previous models. Specifically, transcriptions generated from the latest model that powers 8x8 Speech Analytics demonstrates low word error rates (WER) for several English accents, such as American, British, and Indian. This ensures that regardless of common accents within the same language (English) accurate transcriptions can be generated that drive positive customer experiences.

Enhancing the customer experience

Accurate transcriptions ensure that every customer interaction is meticulously documented, enabling contact centers to provide personalized and responsive service. When agents have access to precise records of past conversations, they can quickly understand a customer’s history and preferences, leading to more efficient and tailored interactions. This level of personalization not only satisfies customers, but also fosters loyalty and trust in the brand.

Improving agent performance and training

Quality transcriptions serve as valuable training tools for contact center agents. By analyzing successful and unsuccessful interactions, trainers can identify best practices and common pitfalls. New agents can learn from real examples, accelerating their onboarding process. Additionally, supervisors can use transcriptions to provide targeted feedback, helping agents refine their skills and improve their performance over time.

Ensuring compliance and reducing liability

In many industries, contact centers must comply with stringent regulations regarding customer interactions and data handling. Accurate transcriptions provide a verifiable record of conversations, which is crucial for demonstrating compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. This not only reduces the risk of penalties and legal issues but also protects the business from potential liabilities arising from misunderstandings or disputes. And speaking of trust, speech analytics providers like 8x8 never utilize customer metadata to enhance our transcription services, and this information remains securely within our cloud database.

Transcriptions – the cornerstone of a modern contact center operation

From enhancing customer experience and agent performance to driving data-driven decisions and ensuring compliance, precise transcriptions are a cornerstone of modern contact center operations. By investing in advanced transcription technologies, businesses can unlock new levels of efficiency, insight, and customer satisfaction, ultimately securing a competitive edge in today’s dynamic market.

For businesses seeking to transform their contact center operations, embracing accurate transcription solutions is not just an option—it's a strategic imperative. Check out the 8x8 Speech Analytics datasheet to start your journey towards excellence today and discover the myriad benefits that accurate transcriptions can bring to your contact center.