Spearline has conducted millions of test calls worldwide, resulting in billions of data-points. The most popular tests the company performed last year, looked for imperfections in connection and audio quality. Spearline even tested for latency, and conference dial-out, to name a few more.
In an interview with UC Today, Matthew Lawlor, Co-Founder, and Chief Technical Officer, Spearline, said testing for latency is the key to ensuring top-notch customer experiences, adding:
“As customer requirements expand, Spearline will respond with innovations that expand and enhance our testing capabilities fivefold to meet international demand”
And the company has good reason to respond this way. According to a recent whitepaper put out by the company, one-in-25 calls fail to connect, despite network monitoring.
Opening up about the real dangers of lag, Lawlor told me about one of Spearline’s customers that had connectivity issues spanning 30 hours. With an estimated 4,000 customer calls affected, he added, “Only one customer complaint reached the telecoms team.”
Such a low rate of customer complaints could imply enterprises should not rely on consumers to make them aware of problems with networks.” The complaint, according to him, came 13 hours after Spearline tests first reported the issue.
Is Latency Impacting Enterprises?
Latency or lag as it is also called impacts businesses of all sizes. Lawlor added you can reduce latency if network managers are aware of it. In the case of lag, awareness gives business leaders the chance to make adjustments to their services so latency decreases.
Latency (the time between when you speak, to when the other person hears your voice) is the issue most fail to address, he told me. “If latency values are high, it can lead to elevated difficulty in conducting conversations and cause frustration.” This is the kind of defeat enterprises aim to cut when testing for latency. Such delays in audio can impact CX, especially when it comes to conferencing where larger numbers of people are trying to speak at once.
Delays could lead to high customer churn rates that impact a brand’s reputation. And meetings with potential customers may not occur due to latency, too. Frustration and disappointment with the quality of calls could lead to a customer dropping calls and losing faith in your business, he continued.
“For Spearline, it comes down to making sure the quality of calls is high to give customers the best possible experience”
Troubleshooting, Identifying Patterns and Proactivity
In the end, troubleshooting is paramount to avoid issues like this on the front end of things and to ensure customers remain satisfied with the service they receive. Such advanced tests can even help identify patterns in audio quality so you can pinpoint where carriers aren’t holding their weight.
The next step is optimization, rather that’s real-time or after the fact.
Accountability is key in the telecoms business, and that’s what testing allows enterprises to do, hold themselves and partners accountable so they can provide the best possible service.
