The challenge

Cue the barking dog, road construction, ambient [undiscernible] chatter, and police sirens. That’s not sound direction for the latest action film. It’s the cacophony of characters sabotaging the experience when customers called for assistance.

Our client said, “Enough.” Background noise — from both sides of phone conversations — frustrated customers, prolonged handle times, and eroded satisfaction scores.

The solution

Recognising there’s no shushing the din that surrounds us, TTEC piloted a programme that uses AI to transform the audio experience not only for callers in an airport, out on the street, or at baseball practice, but also for associates working from home with a barking dog or on-site, with crosstalk from nearby co-workers. The HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant solution stripped out background sounds and cancelled echoes to maximise voice clarity for both caller and associate.

In two weeks, the pilot was under way using an AI-powered app that avoided need for costly telephony integration and pricey, ineffective noise cancellation headsets. Net Promoter Scores (NPS) were measured before and after deployment; post-call surveys tracked customer reports of audio issues; and speech analysis focused on language indicative of audio disruption such as “Please repeat that.”

The result

Customer-reported noise issues plummeted a whopping 99.3%. NPS rose from 75.9 to 82.7, a 9% improvement.

Whilst it was not the only cause of customer complaints, noise compounded dissatisfaction when a caller was already annoyed. The pilot revealed a high correlation between negative CSAT and noise complaints, proving that noise-free interactions made callers feel they had contact centre associates’ undivided attention, resulting in more personalised and private conversations.

Other benefits included improved eNPS and speech analytics accuracy; reduced average handle time (AHT); speedy return-on-investment; and easy lift for the client because technology integration was not needed.

The solution was subsequently deployed to 2,700 associates.