Picture this: 

A distressed customer calls a helpline number expecting a quick resolution for their issue. But the call goes to IVR. With frustration mounting, the customer navigates through multiple layers of menus and after waiting for a few minutes (that seem like hours, truly) - the call is finally forwarded to a human agent. 

The agent asks the “same” questions that the customer has already answered in the previous interactions with your team. 

The customer is visibly frustrated now. 

Sounds familiar? 

Speed is king, especially in sales and customer service, where human agents have a ticking clock in the background. 

Today it’s common for customers to reach out to a brand via multiple touchpoints. For example, a customer might have made initial enquiries about a product on social media. The next time they connect with your team, they want to pick up the conversation from where they left it on social media and not start from scratch all over again. 

What if you could empower your sales reps and customer support teams with not just the basic info but also critical insights about each prospect? What if you could provide them with a cheat sheet of the prospect’s pain points, buying journey, and even preferences? 

That would help your team resolve customer issues quickly (and satisfactorily) with the least friction along the customer journey. 

One of the biggest challenges sales teams and CSMs (Customer Success Managers) face is the inability to access multiple knowledge sources while the customer is still on the call. It’s akin to asking your sales and CSM reps to reach their destination blindfolded. What if you could provide them with a trusty map instead that efficiently gets them to their destination? 

Modern technologies like AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning) and automation seem to have figured out the solution for this challenge. Investing in an AI-powered conversation intelligence platform (like Wingman) equips your team with - valuable customer insights - in real-time, helping them resolve customer issues and close deals quickly and efficiently, with no room for error. 

Conversation intelligence is the secret sauce to the success of your sales and customer service teams. If you’re wondering what conversation intelligence is anyway - fret not. We’ve got you covered. 

What is conversation intelligence & why does it matter? 

Conversation intelligence is essentially tracking, recording, transcribing, reporting, and analyzing metrics from customer conversations. Fully automated and powered by artificial intelligence, it ensures that no customer data slips through the cracks. 

It provides your sales and customer service team with actionable insights into what to do next in the customer buying journey. It also helps you refine and streamline your sales and marketing strategies to deliver the right information at the right time, personalized for each buyer. 

We can hear you saying, “Wait, we already record all our customer calls. So, why should we invest in a conversation intelligence tool?”

How is conversation intelligence different from call recording? 

Call recording is like a student taking notes zealously in class. While note-taking is appreciated, that alone doesn’t guarantee straight As in your tests. To score well, you need to learn from your notes. 

This is what conversation (call) intelligence is all about. It helps you record, transcribe, analyze calls automatically, and utilize information and data from these calls to arrive at actionable insights that help reach your business objectives. 

Conversation intelligence helps you convert call data into revenue growth - and that’s so worth it. 

Benefits of conversation intelligence for sales and CSM teams

Both sales and customer support come with their share of inherent challenges. Customer expectations and competition is on the rise. This is where conversation intelligence can help. By integrating it with your customer service workflows and sales process, you gain a significant advantage by empowering your team members to make the right decisions with the right insights at hand. 

On that note, here are the top seven advantages of conversation intelligence for sales and CMS teams. 

1. Reduce customer churn

Several customer success agents or sales reps have many tales of lost deals from when they had wrongly interpreted customer intentions. It’s their equivalent of a Tinder date gone wrong. They might have assumed that they’d bagged the renewal, but to their surprise, the customer churned. 

If you were to dissect these situations, you could notice that customer churn or failed acquisition happens mainly because the rep failed to spot the red flags in time. For example, the agent could have overlooked customer frustrations or missed a crucial follow-up as they were busy with a dozen manual tasks that could have been easily automated.  

The problem here is that existing business tools like CRM do not tell the whole story. While these tools can provide you with what went wrong after the event, they are not great at spotting at-risk prospects early on. Conversation intelligence tools, on the other hand, are adept at identifying keywords and phrases, helping you focus more on accounts that are likely to churn or not close. 

CSMs and sales reps can then use this data to create the right strategy to avoid churn and increase customer retention.

2. Ramp up revenues 

Besides reducing churn, conversation intelligence tools help your sales reps, and CSMs remain engaged and proactive on sales calls without worrying about taking notes in the background. 

The salesforce and CSMs can replay customer calls at their leisure, identifying key moments in customer interactions. Additionally, these AI-enabled tools also provide them with relevant insights by analyzing call sentiments, emotions, keywords and phrases, giving them a crystal clear picture of the customer’s buying journey, providing them with opportunities to clinch the deal or upsell, thereby ramping up revenues.  

3. Act on missed opportunities

Identifying if a prospect is upset on a call is no mean feat, especially when the sales rep is busy handling a zillion manual tasks in the background. Call intelligence utilizes machine learning, automation, and AI to spot red flags that often fly under the radar. You can identify what’s bothering the customer in real-time, focusing extra attention on fixing customer needs right then and there. 

4. Recognize the needs of customers and deliver a superior customer experience 

Today’s customers have a wealth of information and data at their fingertips. They expect brands not just to meet their needs but consistently exceed them. They don’t shy from asking, “I got so-and-so experience at brand A. Why can’t you do that?”

The bar for customer satisfaction is set so high that it’s no longer possible for sales reps to meet it on their own. You need to arm them with the most potent weapon of all - data. The key to delivering superior customer service is being not just calm and confident but also informative. Conversation intelligence tools empower your sales reps and CSMs with relevant data, helping them make smarter decisions in real-time to deliver a superior customer experience every single time. 

You don’t just satisfy your customers. You sweep them off their feet by delivering top-notch CX. It’s time to raise the bar even higher. 

5. Coach and train reps

In an ideal world, sales managers would listen to every call made by a sales rep for training purposes. But, realistically speaking, that isn’t humanly possible when dozens of sales agents and CSMs handle over a hundred calls every day. 

Conversational AI tools simplify the sales coaching and training journey. Sales leaders get a clear picture of how the rep is performing in real-time by looking at the sales performance dashboard of each rep. For example, a particular rep may do everything right but fail to explain how the product addresses specific pain points. As a result, they may fail to close deals. 

Sales managers can quickly spot this issue when they analyze the conversation analytics of this rep using conversation intelligence tools like Wingman. As a result, you don’t have to spend hours coaching the sales agent end-to-end. Instead, just fix what doesn’t work, and you’ve got a whole team of stellar sales reps. 

6. Reduce compliance and risk issues 

One of the crucial factors of being a successful sales rep or CSM is knowing when to stick to pre-written scripts and when to deviate. It’s all about striking the right balance. 

Conversation intelligence tools can help team leaders monitor whether reps are following the script or whether they are disclosing any info that can potentially risk or hurt the company’s reputation. 

As per the TSR (Telemarketing Sales Rules) released by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), failing to disclose the relevant information can attract civil penalties of up to $16,000 for each violation. That’s a lot of money down the drain, and not to forget the reputation damage. The fines shoot up higher in certain industries like banking, insurance and healthcare. 

The question to ask here is: Are your sales reps and CSMs providing too much or too little information that can cost your company a hefty fine? 

Conversation intelligence tools provide call transcription and analysis in real-time, helping you identify and catch costly compliance errors as and when they occur, thereby minimizing damages. 

7. Learn about your customer (and your brand) 

At the end of the day, your business is only as good as your customers think it is. So, a clear picture of how your customers perceive your products, services, and brand is an absolute must. 

Adding a conversation intelligence tool to your arsenal helps you shed light on customer objections, preferences, likes and dislikes, their levels of trust in your company, etc. You can find what goes on in the minds of your customers - without any bias or prejudice. Uncover what resonates with them - and do more of it to become more efficient, relatable and trustworthy. 

Leverage customer conversations for success

Customer conversations - they’re your company’s most valuable asset. Wingman helps businesses unlock the full potential of customer conversations of sales reps and CRMs. Our tool ensures that every voice in every conversation is not just recorded but truly heard and understood. 

Using Wingman, you can record calls, analyze and review deals, train reps, scale coaching and build a scalable sales machine that delivers on every sales interaction. Contact us to see Wingman in action and learn how you can leverage customer conversations for success.