Speech Analytics Delay Compensation for Contact Center Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Transmission and processing delays in communication systems, such as those found in contact centers, can lead to customer dissatisfaction and inaccurate assessments of agent performance due to perceived interruptions or impoliteness, as delays affect the natural flow of conversations and are not accurately reflected in recorded calls.
Innovation Solution
A system that estimates and accounts for delays by calculating an overtalk amount based on transmission and processing delays, providing feedback to agents and analytics systems to adjust their responses and improve the perceived responsiveness and politeness during conversations, and inserts delays into recorded calls to reflect the customer's experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the agent waits to hear the customer complete a sentence before responding, then the agent appears attentive on high delay calls, but the customer perceives long pauses and may complain about the agent not listening
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of transmission and processing delays to determine the optimal timing for agent responses. By calculating the total delay (transmission + processing) before the conversation occurs, the system enables the agent to anticipate when the customer has actually finished speaking, allowing the agent to respond at the appropriate moment rather than waiting for the customer to complete their sentence in the agent's delayed hearing
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to the agent about the calculated delay and recommended response timing. This feedback loop allows the agent to adjust their response timing based on the measured delay characteristics of the communication channel, enabling them to respond immediately after the customer finishes speaking rather than after the delayed transmission makes them aware of the completion
2Productivity
If the agent speaks immediately after hearing the customer on low delay circuits, then the conversation flows naturally, but the agent may speak over the customer and appear rude or pushy
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary delay measurement and analysis before the conversation to establish the baseline transmission and processing delays. This preliminary action enables the system to calculate when the customer has actually finished speaking by subtracting the measured delay from the agent's hearing time, allowing the agent to wait for the appropriate moment to speak rather than immediately responding to what they hear
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to the agent about the calculated delay and recommended wait time before responding. This feedback enables the agent to time their response appropriately - waiting just long enough to avoid speaking over the customer on low-delay circuits, while still maintaining natural conversation flow by not introducing unnecessary pauses
3Measurement precision
If standard call recording is used without delay compensation, then the recording accurately reflects the agent's perspective, but it does not reflect the customer's experience with delays
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary delay compensation mechanism that adds the measured transmission and processing delays to the agent's recording timeline. This intermediary layer creates a transformed recording that simulates what the customer actually experienced - including all the delays introduced by the communication system - while the original agent perspective recording is preserved for reference
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the call recording with artificial delays inserted to match the measured transmission and processing delays. This delayed copy represents the customer's perspective of the conversation, allowing quality assurance and analysis systems to evaluate the conversation from the customer's actual experience rather than the agent's un-delayed perspective
Data Source
AI summary
Agents of a contact center often encounter conversational delays when speaking with a customer. These delays may be introduced by transmission delays, which include the distance between the agent and the customer, and processing delays, such as those introduced by systems and processes within a contact center. By providing an agent with information based on the amount of the delay, the agent can be prompted to overtalk the customer by a target amount. As a result, the customer may experience a more natural conversation with the agent. Furthermore, if a customer prefers more or less of a delay, such as based on their cultural norms, the delay may be modified to account for those cultural norms and better accommodate the conversational preferences of a diverse customer base.