Operative intelligence boosts customer satisfaction in contact centres by revealing actual needs

Operative Intelligence Helps Contact Centers Understand Customer Needs

A company may have a good contact center, but ideally they are able to help customers before they need to make a call. Proactive customer service is key to reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction.

Operative Intelligence, a Melbourne and Los Angeles-based startup, helps contact centers figure out what customers want more quickly, improving automated inquiries and cutting down on wait times. The company announced today that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures with participation from Wonder Ventures.

Founders’ Background

Operative Intelligence was founded in 2019 by brothers Peter and James Ianesk, who have spent 25 years working in customer service and contact centers. The brothers’ experience and expertise in this area are a key factor in the success of their company.

A Solution to an Ongoing Problem

More than 10 years ago, James developed a methodology to find out why customers were calling a large Australian health insurer. At that time, contact center systems didn’t have that information, so James came up with a manual system to analyze thousands of Post-It notes transcribed by contact center representatives from customer calls. Those notes were analyzed by a team using the ‘5 Whys’ system for finding the root cause of a problem.

As a result, James was able to help that contact center increase its net promoter score 5x. The brothers continued to work on their method with high-growth tech companies and three years ago, started looking for a way to turn it into a software system.

The Problem Remains

"What we found 10 years on was that all the contact centers we had worked in continued to experience the same problems and there still wasn’t a solution in the market that surfaced the type of insight that contact centers and businesses need to better meet the needs of their customers at scale," Peter, Operative Intelligence’s CEO, told TechCrunch.

How Operative Intelligence Works

Operative Intelligence gives contact centers data about why their customers are contacting them without the need to spend time shifting through different sources of data. The fully automated platform analyzes customer inquiries through several channels, including phone calls, emails, chat, web requests, social media, online reviews and customer warranty requests.

Then it delivers reports on the root causes of why customers are contacting businesses. Its platform also breaks down customer inquiries into prioritized lists. One details customer pain points and what they cost the business each year in service costs. Another one is of inquiries that can be completed through self-service and its potential ROI.

Operative Intelligence also produces reports on contact center performance by site, team and inquiries, and agent effectiveness by inquiry type. The platform’s main goal is to help businesses understand their customers’ needs and improve the customer experience.

Real-World Results

One of Operative Intelligence’s customers used its data to prioritize fixing customer issues over deploying new features, which James said resulted in a 32% reduction in their call volume and a seven-figure reduction in service cost. Another moved more than half of their call volume into digital channels and reduced the time spent on phone calls by 23%, using best practices identified by Operative Intelligence.

Competitors

The startup’s main competitors include NICE Nexidia, CallMiner and Call Journey. James said Operative Intelligence differentiates as the only platform that can automatically identify the root cause of a customer inquiry, requiring no model training or business tagging of data and providing actionable insights for businesses to improve their customer service.

Future Plans

Operative Intelligence plans to use its funding to further develop its platform and expand its team. The company aims to help more businesses understand their customers’ needs and provide better customer service.

By reducing wait times and improving the customer experience, Operative Intelligence can help businesses build trust with their customers and increase loyalty.

Conclusion

Operative Intelligence is a game-changer for contact centers. By providing actionable insights into customer behavior, the platform helps businesses improve the customer experience and reduce wait times. With its funding, the company will be able to further develop its platform and expand its reach, helping more businesses provide better customer service.

The future of customer service looks bright with Operative Intelligence at the helm.