Do Behavioral Analytics keep you up at night … or, at the very least, occupy some of your mind space during the workday?
As someone who’s more or less obsessed with the subject, I recently found myself wondering how many more of us were out there. Turns out, you and I are in good company. A quick Google search turns up over 4,000,000 results on the term. Change it to “Behavior Analytics”, and it skyrockets to nearly 40,000,000.
Those numbers piqued my curiosity (again: obsessed.) So I decided to dig a little deeper and find out what people are really looking for and finding when they type those words into their search bar.
What I discovered is that most people define Behavioral Analytics in a way that, while not exactly wrong, is incomplete. And what they’re missing can have huge implications for an organization’s efficiency, productivity and profitability.
The 2-Step Path to Profitable Behavioral Analytics
Behavioral Analytics is most commonly understood as mechanisms that track users’ or customers’ actions.
The “how” part of that equation is extremely important, no question about it. Knowing how your customers navigate your website, or through which medium they interact with you or tell their friends about you, can guide you toward critical changes and improvements that directly impact your bottom line.
But in order to fully understand that data and respond to it in the most effective and mutually beneficial way possible, you also need to know why your customers do what they do. And the central driver of people’s “why” is something behavioral analytics rarely account for: personality.
Looking to maximize your customer behavior data? The ‘how’ will only get you halfway there
Think about the people you interact with on a daily basis: your family, friends, and colleagues. Because you’re familiar with their personalities — their likes, dislikes, values and motivations — you can predict how they will respond in certain situations and automatically adjust your own behaviors and responses to them accordingly, in order to maintain peace, order and harmony.
But how do you effectively identify and respond to a customer’s personality when all you have to go on are a few words on the phone, a 140-character tweet or a one-line email?
The answer to that very 21st century question was provided over 40 years ago, when Dr. Taibi Kahler developed a communications-based personality typology called the Process Communication Model®.
This model identifies six unique personality styles, each with its own communication preferences and communication styles, which reveal “advertisements” for how they view the world, how they are influenced, how they buy and how they want be serviced.
We tend to think of visible things, like personal style or music tastes, as the main indicators of personality. But Dr. Kahler’s research shows that people communicate their advertisements just as powerfully through language — their word choices, syntax and grammar.
What’s more, these verbal advertisements become especially pronounced in situations that a person perceives as important, uncertain or unknown.
Better Behavioral Analytics Through Chemistry
A perfect example of this is when a customer contacts a company’s call center looking for resolution of a problem.
These four customers are all calling about the same billing statement issue. Yet the language they use to express their concerns is anything but the same:
Customer #1: “Can you tell me why I have to call you people every month?”
Customer #2: “I’m sorry to bother you, but I still don’t understand how this works.”
Customer #3: “This is the third time I have called after requesting it in writing!”
Customer #4: “Uh, they told me they would just take care of it.”
One issue. Four different ways of experiencing, processing and responding to it, reflecting the four different personalities of the customers involved — and offering a savvy company the opportunity to facilitate four equally positive outcomes.
Typical call center routing architecture would simply send these calls to the longest-available agent, leaving the outcome almost entirely to chance. Maybe that agent will respond in a way that resonates with that particular customer’s personality type … maybe not.
But a personality-based routing solution, such as Mattersight® Predictive Behavioral Routing, removes that uncertainty by identifying a customer’s personality type — the “why” behind their behavior — right up front, and routing them to an agent who understands what is most important to that customer and knows exactly how to acknowledge it. Someone with whom they’re likely to experience the kind of instant chemistry that makes conversations flow easily and naturally, whether the click happens through personal rapport, the presentation of facts or an acknowledgement of customer loyalty.
With a solution like this in place, everyone wins.
Customer #1 would be met with the respect they’re looking for: “You’re absolutely right, you shouldn’t have to call every month.”
Customer #2 would receive the kind of personal connection they crave: “Don’t worry, lots of people find this confusing. That’s why I’m here to help you.”
Customer #3 would be offered an equal level of responsibility: “I will personally make sure this is straightened out today. When is a good time to call you back?”
And Customer #4 would get the kind of casual support they’re comfortable with: “I gotcha covered on this one!”
The result? Four positive resolutions. Four happy customers. Four proud agents. Four efficient and effective interactions. And the incalculable ripple effect of all that satisfaction and good will.
Of course, we all want easy-to-use website interfaces and mistake-free bills. But more than anything, we want to have a sense of connection with the people we interact with. We want to feel listened to, understood and valued.
When your Behavioral Analytics solution enables you to provide that experience to your customers, they will reward you in ways that will astonish you. You will have tapped a vein of business gold.