# Categories

SpeechMiner extracts interaction content to categorize interactions so you can better understand why customers are calling. That is, categorization provides quantitative information (such as an increase in customer complaints or repeat interactions), as well as qualitative information (such as customers stating that they want to switch vendors because of better prices) and subsequently the intelligence you need to build more effective business strategies.

Each category is created with a specific business issue in mind. For example, a category can be created to look for interactions in which the customer displayed signs of agitation and the contact center supervisor was called in to deal with the customer. The combination of customer agitation and supervisor involvement may be used to characterize a category about service complaints.

A category is defined globally for the entire SpeechMiner implementation and interactions are automatically assigned to it during processing. When changes are made to a category's definition, the entire database of interactions is re-categorized to ensure that the category assignment of each interaction matches the new definitions.

Categories also enable SpeechMiner to:

- Find interactions with particular characteristics so that you can analyze and compare them. For example, you may wish to compare how different agents handled customer agitation during a particular sales campaign.
- Perform statistical analysis on interactions. For example, SpeechMiner can check the percentage of interactions in September in which customers exhibited agitation.

Once a category is created, all interactions in the database are scanned, and any interaction that meets the category definition is automatically assigned to it. An interaction can be assigned to one, several or no categories.

With information derived from categorization you can enhance self-service operations, leverage new revenue opportunities, increase process efficiency, enhance customer loyalty and improve first contact resolution. Categories help identify how employees and customers express themselves in specific interactions.

Four types of categories exist in SpeechMiner:

- Regular Categories: Categories that have conditions defined in the form of a logical expression. When SpeechMiner processes an interaction, the interaction is automatically assigned to this type of category if it matches the requirements that are defined in the condition. These categories can be independent (on the top level of the category hierarchy) or they can be sub-categories of other, parent categories.

- Parent Categories: Categories that contain other categories. These categories have a name and description, but do not include a logical expression. Interactions are assigned to them when they are assigned to any of their sub-categories. Any category can be converted into a parent category by adding sub-categories to it. When a regular category is converted into a parent category, the logical expression that defined the category is deleted.

- Subcategories: A category can contain one or more subcategories in a multi-tiered category structure. The parent-category is defined as a container of its subcategory. When SpeechMiner identifies an interaction as belonging to a subcategory, it automatically identifies it as belonging to the parent-category as well. For example, a 5-60 seconds Interaction Duration category contains three subcategories 10 seconds category, 20 seconds category and 50 seconds category. Any interaction associated with the 10 Minute category is also associated with the Hour Interaction Duration category. In this case, you receive data about all the interactions that were between 5 to 60 seconds and specific data about interactions that were specifically 10, 20 and 50 seconds long.

- Manual Categories: Categories that include a collection of interactions that do not fit into a predefined category. This type of category is referred to as a Manual category. A Manual category has no criteria. Instead, it is a category to which you can manually add any and as many interactions as you like without preconditions. For example, a Manual category could be used as placeholder for interactions the SpeechMiner user would like to review during routine weekly staff meetings.

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