What Can Audio Quality Management Do for Business?

Mike Palmer at Spearline explains what audio quality management can do for business.

Today’s enterprises face a complex network of management requirements, as real-time voice and data, and asynchronous applications compete for valuable network resources. Two elements remain ongoing challenges for contact centres, including the quality of service they offer (QoS) as well as the nature of the experience (QoE) provided.

Knowing this is key, especially because voice remains the number one point of contact for customers who want to reach support. If this experience is not executed without flaws, it can cause friction in the customer experience and impact an enterprise’s bottom line.

Any interruptions or flaws in the delivery of communications services can have a notable influence on the human-to-human conversation and quality of the voice channel. It will also impact the quality and the outcome of the conversation.

Taking the AQM Leap Is Worthwhile

Institutions that focus on audio quality management give priority to mission-critical customer communication. And investing in international inbound toll-free and toll monitoring services can have a meaningful impact on an organization – even if leadership is not aware that some of its calls fail to connect.

Consequently, decreased revenue and reduced customer loyalty may become a reality for companies that fail to leverage the strength of audio quality management. Only about 4% of consumers give feedback to support improvement (i.e. complain). Technical issues may have a repeated impact.

What Does AQM Do for CX?

Taking a systematic approach to audio quality management supports continuous CX improvement. Enterprise leaders must take a proactive stance on audio quality management. Opting to find issues before customers do means enterprises no longer rely on customers to alert them when something goes awry.

The audio channel is a technical connection between two humans. When the quality is good – the environment is suitable for a conversation. When quality is poor, it becomes a source of distraction and frustration for customers.

Studies show as audio quality decays, the credibility of a speaker’s message, too, diminishes. And reduced quality requires an intensified effort by listeners and can even affect the emotional state of callers.

IT Departments Must Embrace AQM Technology

IT departments are starting to take on more responsibility as network and telecommunications services become increasingly flexible. Where carriers used to support and manage call routing changes, teams now manage time-of-day routing, overflow, and more.

Network and telecom services cost money, and operational leadership is under pressure to manage these costs. It is this notion that often comes with a less clear service-level commitment from providers.