Unlocking Telesales Expertise Faster with Gen AI

Discover how Gen AI is being leveraged to transform telesales at SquadStack, reducing agent ramp-up time, automating knowledge management, and boosting ROI.

September 12, 2024

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11 mins

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SquadStack

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In an era of chatbots, social media, and instant messaging, you might think telesales are obsolete. Think again.

The global market for call centers is estimated at US$332.2 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach US$500.1 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2023 to 2030. 

The telesales industry is a goldmine of consumer data – exabytes of valuable information that remain largely unanalyzed and underutilized, leading to inefficiencies in training new agents and achieving a rapid return on investment (ROI). 

Currently, the time to ROI for new telecallers in the telesales industry often exceeds two months. This prolonged period is largely due to resource-intensive manual processes and prone to errors and inconsistencies.

Businesses need a solution that can transform these manual, error-prone processes into streamlined, efficient operations and reduce the time to ROI to under one month.

The Current State of Telesales Knowledge Management

Knowledge is the cornerstone for success in telesales. Yet the current state of knowledge management in many telesales operations is far from optimal. 

Manual Processes and Their Limitations

The telesales industry has long relied on manual processes for knowledge management. These involve agents taking notes during calls, supervisors listening to recordings, and teams compiling information from various sources into training materials. 

While these methods have served the industry for years, they come with significant drawbacks:

Time-Intensive

Manual note-taking and information compilation are incredibly time-consuming. This reduces the efficiency of agents and slows down the entire training process. 

Call center agents spend an average of 14% of their time searching for information during customer calls i.e., 1 hour per 8-hour shift each day.

Error-Prone

Human error is inevitable in manual processes. Misheard information, incomplete notes, or misinterpreted data can lead to inaccuracies in the knowledge base.

Even if your company uses general-purpose Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), services like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Open AI, these solutions transcribe with word error rates of 83.14%, 33.17%, and 72.83%, respectively. 

Read about our comparison of various general-purpose ASR services with our specific Telesales ASR, here

Inconsistency

Different agents may capture and interpret information differently, leading to inconsistencies in the knowledge repository.

Scalability Issues

As call volumes increase, manual processes become increasingly unfeasible, making it challenging to maintain comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge bases.

The Need for Efficient Knowledge Extraction and Management

The limitations of manual processes and the untapped potential of voice data point to a critical need in the telesales industry - efficient knowledge extraction and management. 

This need is driven by several factors:

  • Rapid Onboarding: In a high-turnover industry like telesales, the ability to quickly onboard and train new agents is crucial for maintaining productivity.
  • Continuous Learning: The dynamic nature of sales requires agents to update their knowledge and skills continually. An efficient knowledge management system is essential for facilitating this ongoing learning process.
  • Personalized Training: Different agents have different strengths and weaknesses. An advanced knowledge management system could enable more personalized training approaches.
  • Real-time Support: Agents often need quick access to information during calls. An efficient knowledge management system could provide real-time support, improving call outcomes.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: With proper knowledge extraction and management, managers can make more informed decisions about training programs, sales strategies, and resource allocation.

The industry is ripe for a revolution in how it handles knowledge – a revolution that can address these challenges and unlock the full potential of telesales operations.

This need for transformation is particularly striking when we consider the broader technological landscape. Despite the rapid advancements in AI across various sectors, the contact center and telecalling industry has seen minimal AI innovation.

By leveraging AI to automate tasks, provide real-time support, and offer personalized coaching, we can empower agents and dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of contact centers.

This is where SquadStack's AI-powered knowledge management solution enters the picture, promising to transform the landscape of telesales training and operations.

SquadStack's AI-Powered Knowledge Management Solution

Building on SquadStack's ASR capabilities, our solution excels at handling multi-lingual and code-switched conversations, which is crucial in the diverse linguistic landscape of India's telesales industry.

Extracting Insights from Call Recordings

Our system leverages Generative AI to extract valuable insights from call recordings:

  1. Automated question and answer formulation:some text
    • We extract possible questions and their respective answers from call transcriptions.
    • This includes questions specifically asked by leads and answers given by callers.
    • We also formulate additional Q&A pairs based on topics discussed during calls.
  2. Semantic similarity clustering for knowledge consolidation:some text
    • We employ a Semantic Similarity-based Clustering technique paired with Generative AI to avoid repetitive questions with different verbiage.
    • Extracted answers to similar questions are combined into one master answer, containing all relevant information in a format best suited for our use case.
    • This extraction and consolidation process occurs at the campaign level.

Processing Customer Collaterals

Our solution efficiently handles various document formats:

  1. Multi-format document processing with LangChain integration for large document handling:some text
    • We process Excel sheets, word documents, and presentations to extract Q&A pairs using LangChain.
    • A pre-processing engine uses OCR technology to handle diverse information sources within documents, including images and tables.
    • LangChain enables us to process extensive documents efficiently, leveraging Gen AI models like OpenAI, Claude, and PaLM 2, which accept limited context length.

Knowledge Sufficiency Reporting

Our system continuously monitors and improves the knowledge base:

  1. Identifying and addressing knowledge gaps:some text
    • We generate a Knowledge Sufficiency report that indicates how well we can address questions raised by leads.
    • This helps identify new questions and check if they exist within the knowledge base.
  2. Continuous knowledge base enhancement:some text
    • If new questions are not in the knowledge base, they are added, ensuring continuous improvement.
    • We use Semantic Similarity and Clustering techniques for this process.

Intelligent Knowledge Search

Our solution includes a sophisticated search engine:

  1. Semantic similarity-based retrieval:some text
    • The system searches the existing database using Semantic Similarity for similar queries.
    • If a match is found, the answer is returned.
  2. On-demand document processing for comprehensive answers:some text
    • If no match is found in the database, the system processes all documents using the QnA from the Documents system to generate an answer based on the query.
    • If no relevant information is found in the documents, a "Not Found" response is returned.

Pain Point Discovery and Not Interested Reason Extraction

Our system automatically identifies and analyzes customer objections:

  1. Automated extraction of customer objections:
    • The system extracts issues and objections raised by customers, such as:
      • Opting for a competitor product
      • Issues with existing product
      • Customer service problems
  2. Clustering and analysis of reasons for disinterest:
    • These reasons are clustered and bucketed under common themes.
    • We can identify the top reasons why customers may not be interested in a product.
    • This enables us to discover issues that can be addressed and raised with customers, fostering a collaborative approach to better understanding leads.

By leveraging these advanced AI-powered features, SquadStack's Knowledge Management Solution aims to achieve three key objectives:

  1. Quicker generation of training material
  2. Lower turnaround time (TAT) for callers receiving training
  3. Bringing time to ROI below one month, a significant improvement from the current 2+ months with manual processes

This comprehensive approach addresses the challenges of resource-intensive, error-prone manual logging and poor visibility on knowledge gaps, ultimately revolutionizing the telesales training and operations landscape.

The Impact of AI-Driven Knowledge Management

SquadStack's AI-powered knowledge management solution brings about transformative changes in telesales operations. Let's explore the key impacts.

Faster Generation of Training Materials

Our AI-driven system revolutionizes the creation of training materials:

  • Automated Extraction: By automatically extracting questions and answers from call recordings and documents, the system rapidly compiles relevant training content.
  • Real-time Updates: As new information is processed, training materials are updated in real-time, ensuring they always reflect the most current knowledge.
  • Customized Content: The system can generate role-specific or product-specific training materials, tailoring content to the organization's different needs.

This accelerated process significantly reduces the time and resources traditionally required for creating and updating training materials, allowing organizations to adapt quickly to new information or market changes.

Reduced Time to Train Callers

The AI-powered solution streamlines the training process for new and existing callers:

  • Targeted Learning: By identifying knowledge gaps, the system can create personalized training paths for each caller, focusing on areas that need improvement.
  • Interactive Training: The Q&A format extracted from real calls provides practical, scenario-based learning opportunities.
  • Continuous Learning: With ongoing updates to the knowledge base, callers can engage in continuous learning, staying up-to-date with the latest information and best practices.

This focused and efficient approach significantly reduces the time required to familiarize new callers with the system and helps existing callers quickly adapt to new information or products.

Bringing Time to ROI Below One Month

One of the most significant impacts of our AI-driven solution is the dramatic reduction in time to ROI

  • Faster Onboarding: With more efficient training, new callers can become productive more quickly.
  • Improved Call Efficiency: Access to a comprehensive, easily searchable knowledge base allows callers to handle customer queries more effectively, potentially increasing conversion rates.
  • Reduced Error Rates: By providing accurate, up-to-date information, the system helps minimize costly mistakes that can delay ROI.

By addressing these key areas, the system helps organizations achieve ROI in less than a month, a substantial improvement from the previous 2+ month timeframe.

Improved Call Quality Monitoring and Agent Performance

The AI-driven system enhances the ability to monitor and improve call quality:

  • Automated Quality Checks: The system can automatically flag calls that deviate from best practices or contain potential compliance issues.
  • Performance Metrics: By analyzing call transcripts, the system can generate detailed performance metrics for each caller, identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.
  • Best Practice Sharing: Successful call strategies identified by the system can be quickly disseminated to all callers, improving overall team performance.
  • Real-time Assistance: During calls, the system can provide callers with relevant information or suggested responses, improving their ability to handle complex queries.

These capabilities lead to consistent improvement in call quality and agent performance, contributing to better customer experiences and potentially higher conversion rates.

This technology not only addresses the industry's current pain points but also paves the way for a more efficient, effective, and adaptable telesales ecosystem.

The Future of AI in Telesales Training

As we look ahead, the role of AI in telesales training is set to become even more pivotal. Two key areas of development stand out

Ongoing Improvements in Speech Recognition and NLP

The field of AI, particularly in speech recognition and Natural Language Processing (NLP), is advancing at a rapid pace. For telesales training, this means:

  • Enhanced Accuracy: Future improvements in speech recognition will lead to even more accurate transcriptions, especially in noisy environments or with diverse accents.
  • Deeper Understanding: Advancements in NLP will allow AI systems to grasp context, idioms, and subtle nuances in conversation more effectively.
  • Emotion Recognition: AI will become better at detecting and interpreting emotional cues in speech, helping trainees understand and respond more effectively to customer sentiment.
  • Predictive Analytics: AI systems will not only analyze past conversations but also predict potential customer responses, allowing for more proactive training scenarios

These improvements will result in more sophisticated training modules that can simulate a wider range of real-world scenarios, preparing telesales agents for virtually any customer interaction.

Expanding into Diverse Vernacular Languages

India's linguistic diversity presents both a challenge and an opportunity for AI in telesales training:

  • Multi-language Support: Future AI systems will be capable of handling an even wider array of Indian languages and dialects, making training more inclusive and effective across different regions.
  • Code-switching Mastery: AI will become more adept at understanding and processing conversations that switch between multiple languages, a common occurrence in Indian communication.
  • Cultural Context: Along with language, AI will be trained to understand and incorporate cultural nuances specific to different regions, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of training materials.
  • Localized Training Modules: This linguistic expansion will allow for the creation of highly localized training modules tailored to specific regional markets and customer bases.

By expanding language capabilities, AI will enable telesales operations to reach wider markets more effectively, with agents trained to communicate fluently and culturally appropriately in various vernacular languages.

As these advancements unfold, the future of AI in telesales training promises to be more personalized, culturally attuned, and effective. 

Organizations that embrace and adapt to these evolving AI capabilities will be well-positioned to lead in the competitive telesales landscape, offering superior customer experiences and achieving better business outcomes.

Ready to revolutionize your telesales training and boost your ROI? Don't let your competition get ahead. 

Book a demo today!

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