Unlocking the power of conversational analytics

Conversational analytics leverages natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to enable users to interact with data through natural language queries. Instead of navigating complex dashboards and interpreting charts, users can ask questions in plain English (or any supported language) and receive instant, comprehensible responses. 

Our experts explore some of the solutions, benefits and approaches to implementation. 

How does conversation analytics provide better business solutions? 

Employees at all levels, regardless of their technical expertise, can query data and gain insights without needing to request new reports or ad-hoc analysis. This fosters a data-driven culture across the organisation. 

Executives and managers can get real-time answers to their questions, enabling them to respond swiftly to market changes and operational issues. 

Traditional dashboards often suffer from underutilisation due to their complexity. Conversational analytics encourages more frequent use of data, ensuring that valuable insights are not overlooked and that data-driven decisions are consistently made. 

Understanding the context of queries, conversational analytics can provide tailored insights that are relevant to the specific needs of the user. 

Benefits of using conversational analytics 

Integrating conversational analytics into dashboards makes them more user-friendly. Users can engage with the data using natural language, making the experience intuitive and reducing the learning curve associated with traditional BI tools. 

When employees can easily access and understand data, their engagement levels rise. They are more likely to explore data, ask questions, and leverage insights in their daily tasks, leading to better-informed decisions. 

Conversation analytics eliminates the need to sift through multiple dashboard pages or reports. Users can directly ask what they need to know and receive instant answers. 

Providing clear and direct answers to user queries, conversational analytics ensures that the insights are actionable, and this drives more strategic and effective decision-making. 

Implementing conversational analytics into businesses 

Talan UK has a proven track record of implementing or migrating data platforms to unlock the power of conversation analytics. 

We start by identifying the key use cases for conversational analytics within a business such as enhancing customer support to allow operations to access customer information, which enables teams to retrieve real-time performance metrics and provides executives with instant access to business summaries and forecasts. 

Choosing the right technology and selecting the right conversational analytics platform is crucial. Ensure the platform has robust NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities to interpret and respond to user queries; the platform should seamlessly integrate with your existing data platforms. 

Popular conversational analytics platforms or software to consider are Microsoft Power BI with its Q&A feature, Tableau’s Ask Data, and specialised solutions like ThoughtSpot and Yellowfin. 

It’s essential to prepare and integrate your data properly, ensure data is clean accurate and up to date and where possible connect to all relevant data sources such as front-end customer systems, back-end mainframe systems, external flat file sources and other relevant databases. 

Organise data in a way that makes it easy for the analytics tool to process and interpret queries. This might involve creating data models, defining key metrics, and setting up data hierarchies. 

Effective change management and training are critical - develop comprehensive training programs to educate users on how to use the tool effectively. Provide user guides and train champions who can support and encourage adoption amongst their peers. 

Ensure everything is thoroughly tested and rolled out carefully and conduct pilot testing to gather feedback to identify improvements or issues early on. Consider a phased rollout to manage the transition smoothly and provide ongoing support with regular training sessions, detailed documentation and continuous improvement initiatives. 

If you’d like to know more about how to implement a conversation analytics solution for your business, our experts at Talan UK are ready to help.