Skip to content

Question:

What is predictive analytics and how is it being used in contact centers?

Answer:

Predictive analytics is playing an increasingly vital role in contact centers. It is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based capability that utilizes data mining, statistical techniques and machine learning to identify relationships, patterns and trends. Based on the captured data, a predictive model can be built to anticipate the likelihood or probability of future events, behaviors or occurrences, as well as their potential business impact.

The potential for predictive analytics to enhance most aspects of contact centers is great, since almost every contact center application can benefit from predictive capabilities. Many contact center infrastructure and workforce optimization (WFO) solutions are beginning to incorporate predictive analytics to enhance their applications. Here are a few ways predictive analytics is starting to be used in contact centers: predicting the optimal way to route voice and text-based interactions to earn the largest amount of revenue; recommending the best products to promote for an up-sell; personalizing each customer interaction; gaining insight into employee engagement; generating fraud warnings; pre-fetching data that a human agent or intelligent virtual agent (IVA) needs to answer a customer’s question; and much more. In short, predictive analytics capabilities can help companies provide an optimal customer experience cost effectively.