Analytics are a key tool to help drive improvements in your phone channel - ultimately leading to lower costs, fewer calls to agents, a more "friendly" IVR that callers are happy using, and event helping to effectively measure customer satisfaction.  

But choosing the right analytics "package" can be challenging. How do you determine what the business value of an analytics investment will be for your particular situation? And what kind of package should you invest in to prove out that business value?

Let's be honest - vendors want you to commit long-term to using their analytics tool. After all that's their business right?  So if there's great business value for you in such a long term commitment, great. But, if you're not sure - here are a few tips for getting started with Analytics and figuring out what their business value is to you.

When evaluating analytics packages (and vendors), consider the following:  (Keep in mind that the pricing for each are ballpark amounts, but should include both consulting services and tools.)

• Snapshot
  As the name implies, this approach takes a snapshot of your data (typically a week or two worth of data), analyzes that data and then provides you with an analysis of how your phone channel is working. You can then use that data to make IVR and/or agent-side improvements. Calendar time for analysis is about 6-12 weeks. And at $75k-$150k, this is the least expensive way to use analytics and still get some actionable results to help improve your call center.
• Single Cycle
  This approach does everything that a Snapshot approach does, but it also includes another analysis after you make improvements. This ability to measure the same metrics before and after changes allows you to really nail down the business value of your analytics investments and can help you justify any further investments. Calendar time is typically 6-12 weeks for the initial analysis and an additional 4-6 weeks for the follow-up analysis. Ballpark pricing is $150k-$200k
• Continuous Improvement
  This final approach runs an ongoing set of "Single Cycles," one after another and establishes ongoing trend patterns for your analytics metrics. Although vendor tools typically can show an analytics metrics dashboard in Snapshot or Single Cycle as well, metrics trending over many quarters is only possible with a Continuous Improvement approach. This approach is ideal because you can build it into your company governance process. This allows you to continuously drive improvements into your phone channel based on observed ongoing trends of your Key Performance Indicator metrics. These engagements are typically a one-year contract to deliver about a cycle a quarter.  Ballpark price is $400k-$1M.

In my opinion the best approach is to try a Snapshot or Single Cycle to first prove out the business value of an analytics investment. If things go well, you can then consider investing in a 12-month Continuous Improvement engagement. Don't rush into making a long-term investment in a 12-month engagement simply because "it seemed like a good deal" or "it was part of an upgrade" - chances are it will end up as nothing more than "shelfware."