Speech Analytics versus QA Software

These two categories get mashed together in demos because both start with a recording. They answer different questions.

Speech analytics

Speech analytics transcribes calls and lets you ask what was said: which topics are rising, which phrases predict a complaint, where customers repeat themselves. The output is a pattern across thousands of calls. Nobody signs it. Nobody is coached from a single cell of it unless a person goes and listens.

In South Africa, a product like Callbi is built for this job, including mixed-language calls. Tethr and Gong sit in the same family for experience analytics and for sales calls.

QA software

QA software holds the scorecard. An interaction gets a score, a compliance result, an analyst’s name, and a next step — coaching, a warning, a dispute. The output is a decision about that interaction and that agent. Calibration exists because two people must be able to reach the same decision.

QUALICORE is in this category. It can draft the form from a transcript. The transcript can come from your speech-analytics tool, your phone system, or a file. The programme does not require you to buy a new recogniser to score a call.

Which one to buy first

Buy speech analytics first if you do not yet know what customers are calling about and you need the map.

Buy QA software first if you already know the standard — disclosures, process, behaviour — and you cannot prove that agents meet it. A map of topics will not give you an audit trail.

Buy both if you are a large regulated floor. Feed themes from analytics into the scorecard as new criteria, then score those criteria properly. Do not expect one logo to be excellent at language coverage and at evaluator calibration. The South African comparison is written around that split on purpose.

If you are unsure which shortlist you are even on, use how to choose QA software before you book the second demo.