At SFR, Intelcia embeds AI: +15% fibre connection rate

On a mission for RED by SFR, Intelcia saw a rapid ROI (return on investment) in the roll-out of fibre, after a complex start-up: +15% on performance. The project demonstrates that AI, particularly when embedded in a speech analytics tool, can generate sales performance, and that it is not the enemy but the perfect companion for sedentary salespeople.

What can be done about lost sales of fibre optic subscriptions due to missing information? Intelcia was called in to help solve this crucial challenge by this telecoms operator with its focus on all things digital. The solution they came up with involved a combination of speech analytics and reinforcement using generative AI. Deployed in four weeks, the solution helped the operator gain fifteen points in the connection rate, generated hundreds of additional sales and income equivalent to ten times its investment for Intelcia. Read on.

Faced with a significant drop in monthly fibre optic sales, RED by SFR had to react. And while a change of customer mindset is one cause, it is far, far from being the main one. A wrong address, incorrect information, a poorly communicated time slot, difficulties for the technician to access the technical room, a refusal by the customer to upgrade the socket, or even a customer advisor who, to avoid going through the long list of questions, bets on “it's make or break” and a sale immediately becomes null and void.

As a result, the connection rate for monthly fibre optic sales is stagnating. This means that a few hundred unconnected sales per month escape the operator's revenues, and so much unpaid effort for Intelcia and its customer advisers. Because remuneration is indexed to sales validated and connected, any sale that does not result in a connection to the operator's internet network is a dead loss for the BPO partner.

Backs to the wall, telesales as a training ground
We need to find a solution to break through the glass ceiling that is preventing connected sales from reaching even greater heights. Speech analytics appears to be the way forward. The solution? Automate the checking of the connection checklist. Roughly speaking, where quality controllers could only listen to four calls per advisor over the course of a month, automating the control via speech analytics boosted by generative AI covers all or almost all the sales made (see box: A technological approach in 5 steps). It's a good idea, and telesales is a good place to try it out. Because when it comes to measuring the impact of such a solution, what other activity is more appropriate than sales? Those made and those lost have a direct impact on everyone: the customer who takes out the subscription, the telecoms operator who places the order, the BPO partner who provides the service and the customer advisor on the front line. ‘All the more so since a successful project would further test the solutions as designed and offered to Intelcia's customers’, stresses Abed Laraqui Housseini, Customer Director at Intelcia.

In detail, the solution had to enable calls to be analysed and non-compliant sales to be identified, customers to be called back to complete the information in order to maximise the probability of a connection and therefore a sale, and customer advisers to be upgraded more quickly. To give the project the best possible chance of success, everyone pitched in: Evoluciona, Intelcia's consulting and innovation arm, for steering, configuring the tool, managing change and maintaining the solution; the Quality teams for building a connection checklist in line with operational requirements; the Account Managers and Quality & Training Managers for structuring the operating procedure and facilitating adoption in the field; the technology service provider for injecting calls and optimising scores; RED and Intelcia management, committed sponsors; the IT Department for making flows reliable via SFTP and the Team Leaders for coaching advisers.

+15 points on the connection rate, but initially...
It's a plunge! Fibre optic sales are yo-yoing with the hearts. This is because, in order to accommodate the new solution, they plummet at first, contrary to the expectations placed in the implementation of this solution. Developed and deployed in just 4 weeks, the solution that had raised such high hopes seems to have stalled at the start. There's a simple reason for this: those who are supposed to benefit from it initially see it as a threat. ‘Initially, there was resistance due to a lack of understanding of its impact and the fear of being “monitored” by quality controllers,’ explains Abed Laraqui Housseini. So we had to get the staff on board, which we did through explanation sessions to give meaning to the project, and training on how to use the tool. Once it had been adopted by the customer advisers and their team leaders, we noticed a change in mindset towards the tool: it instantly became a performance partner for them", he explains.

The results speak for themselves: the connection rate has jumped by 15% in just a few months, and overall customer satisfaction is up by one point. The potential in terms of sales for the operator is also promising.

For the BPO player, the introduction of speech analytics has been a breath of fresh air for its turnover. It generates additional monthly revenues equivalent to ten times the investment made, i.e. 45,000 euros.

Customer advisers have also benefited: in addition to a 17% increase in their bonuses, the number of advisers achieving their targets has also risen, from 52% to 66%. With a real increase in skills in sales best practice.

H.C., a consultant specialising in improving the operational performance of call centres, particularly in the tourism sector, confirms these options: at Corsica Linea, in cruise sales, at Club Med, wherever speech analytics tools have been deployed, the right ones, installed in a short space of time, the performance of sales or customer service teams has risen sharply. ROI is generally achieved within six months of installation.

A concrete example of the implementation of a speech analytics solution supported by generative AI that delivers results! Lessons learned from Intelcia's Fibre case study.

A five-stage technological approach

1. Consolidation of the requirements of each item and formalisation of customer feedback, for an analysis grid that is faithful to the realities on the ground.

2. Configuring the platform: automating the extraction and filing of calls, building processing environments, configuring grids.

3. Integration of Generative AI into automated quality control on a test sample. The convergence of manual and automated analyses confirmed the reliability of the system. This is the real breakthrough.

4. The extension of the system to a wider perimeter, analysing deviations and trends with an unprecedented level of precision.

5. The implementation of a targeted business recall process, enabling non-compliant sales to be corrected on D+1 and securing every stage of the customer journey.

Accor, Santiane, ANTS, Intelcia's loyal and new customers 
‘The smallest of the big BPOs’, as Intelcia and its CEO, Karim Bernoussi, like to describe themselves, have managed to continue signing deals, such as the one with Accor. From Egypt, the call-centre managed by Nidal Afid answers and manages reservations for customers in the Middle East. 

Intelcia recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of its exclusive partnership with Santiane, one of the brokers in good shape at the moment, headed up by Pierre-Alain de Malleray.

In the insurance sector, Acheel co-founder Francky Défossé recently gave a similar testimonial at the 2nd New Biz Forum. In his call-centre in Fez, he has deployed a speech analytics tool. Read more here.

Front page photo: one of Intelcia's call centres in Morocco.