Customer experience management solution provider InMoment has teamed up with predictive analytics vendor RapidMiner to deliver a more sophisticated Voice of the Customer solution that not only provides insight on what customers are doing at different phases of the customer journey, but also why they're taking certain actions.
As the two solutions come together, InMoment's vice president of business solutions, Erich Dietz, says the technologies will enable users to become more proactive about customer support in an effort to cut down on call center interactions and prevent churn.
For InMoment, the partnership with RapidMiner comes at a significant time. Though there's been much discussion surrounding the growing importance of predictive analytics technology, the technology has only recently caught up with the hype. "The technology just wasn't there, so the value wasn't there. Businesses want and deserve more than just the 'who, what, and where.' They want to know the 'why' and that's was RapidMiner offers," Dietz explains.
One of the key pieces of insight that predictive analytics can deliver is sentiment analysis, which enables brands to tackle the 'why' component. By monitoring and developing an understanding of sentiment, companies can begin to anticipate what customers may do next and why, and take preventative or proactive measures. "The sentiment is that extra layer that allows companies to be more prescriptive and predictive,” according to Dietz. And while many vendors offer some sentiment analysis capabilities, few "drill deep enough into the experience to be proactive," he adds.
Thanks to RapidMiner, companies can zero in on problems that arise on the store level and trace them to interactions with the contact center to make improvements. For example, users can build predictive models that help identify if conversations with a specific sales associate on the floor result in calls to the contact center. "Inbound customer support calls have an immediate business impact. It means customers are unsatisfied, so if we can help pinpoint why these calls are coming in, then we can help. Perhaps that specific sales associate doesn't understand the policy—managers can then go in and retrain to otherwise improve the situation," Dietz explains.
With more users having access to predictive analytics through user-friendly solutions such as RapidMiner, companies are becoming more empowered across departments. The CEO, the product team, and the financial team all have access to the insight that they need, which leads to more "action-ability" at different levels, Dietz says.
As for implementation, Dietz says that RapidMiner serves as the Intel inside of the InMoment solution, and using RapidMiner technology should be an effortless process for InMoment customers. There's also an integration between the two solutions and Tableau, which provides data visualization capabilities. "When clients subscribe to us, it's all on one platform. The point is to have it be seamless and behind the scenes, so that customers don't really have to think about it," Dietz says.
Moving forward, Dietz anticipates that InMoment and RapidMiner could launch some co-developed solutions. "It's definitely on the agenda," he says.