Understanding Call Scores & Analytics
This guide explains, in plain terms, how Speechlytics scores calls and what the numbers on your dashboards mean. No technical background needed.
The two scores on every call
Every analyzed call gets two separate scores. They measure different things, so it's normal for them to differ on the same call.
1. Keyword Score — "Did the important words come up?"
This is a rules-based score you control. You tell the system which words and phrases matter to your business (for example, a greeting, a compliance statement, or an upsell offer) and how many points each one is worth. When a call's transcript contains those phrases, the call earns those points.
Think of it as a checklist: the more of your important phrases appear in the call, the higher the score.
2. Analytics Score — "How good was the call overall?"
This is an AI-generated score. The system's AI reads the whole conversation and rates the call's overall quality on a scale, which is then shown as a percentage from 0 to 100. It reflects things like clarity, professionalism, and whether the customer's issue was resolved — a holistic judgment rather than a phrase checklist.
Think of it as a quality grade for the conversation.
How the Keyword Score is calculated
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You define keywords. Each keyword is a group of phrases and is worth a set number of points. You decide the points.
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The system searches the transcript. It looks for your phrases in the call, and can be set to search a specific side of the conversation (the agent's side, the customer's side, or both).
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Points are awarded when phrases are found. A keyword can be set up two ways:
- Any phrase counts — finding even one of its phrases earns the full points.
- All phrases count — the points are split across the phrases, so you earn a share based on how many were found (find them all, get full points; find half, get half).
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The call's final Keyword Score is the average of the keywords that matched. If nothing matched, the score is 0.
A few special keyword rules
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Priority keywords first. You can mark certain keywords as high-priority. If any of those are found, only they count toward the score — the rest are set aside. This lets you make sure the most important phrases drive the score.
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Out-of-scope keywords. Some phrases can mark a call as "not relevant" (out of scope). These don't add points; instead they flag the call so it can be filtered out of your relevant-call reports.
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Instant alerts. A keyword can be set to email a chosen recipient the moment its phrase is spoken on a call — handy for compliance breaches or hot sales leads.
How the Analytics Score is calculated
The AI reviews the conversation and rates several aspects of it — for example:
- Customer satisfaction
- Agent clarity
- Professionalism and tone
- How effectively the issue was resolved
- Sales opportunity handling (for sales teams) or empathy and active listening (for support teams)
- An overall call score
Each aspect is rated on a small scale (roughly 1 to 5). The overall call score is the one shown on the call as its Analytics Score, converted to a 0–100 percentage. The individual aspect ratings feed the agent scorecards and radar charts described below.
What the colors and badges mean
To make scores easy to scan, the dashboards show colored badges:
Call score badge
- 🟢 Green — 90% and above (excellent)
- 🟡 Yellow — 70% to 89% (okay)
- 🔴 Red — below 70% (needs attention)
Silence badge (how much of the call was silence)
- 🟢 Green — 15% silence or less (healthy)
- 🟡 Yellow — up to 35% silence
- 🔴 Red — more than 35% silence
Audio quality badge (background noise)
- 🟢 Green — under 10% noise (clear)
- 🟡 Yellow — up to 30% noise
- 🔴 Red — more than 30% noise
Agent star rating
- A 5-star rating based on the Analytics Score — every 20 points is one star.
Automatic call flags — the system highlights calls that may need a look:
- 🚨 Escalation, 😡 Negative sentiment, ⚠ Compliance mention
- 🔇 Long Silence (more than 35% of the call)
- 📞 Short Call (under 30 seconds)
- ⚠ Low Score (Analytics Score below 50)
- 💰 Sales opportunity
Targets and settings you control
Each account has a few adjustable reference points used across the dashboards:
- Target Score — the score you're aiming for (default 50). Shown as a target line on charts.
- Silence Target — the silence level you consider acceptable (default 30%).
- Answer Score — a baseline setting for answered calls (default 0).
You can also turn features on or off per account, such as keyword matching, AI summaries, and scope filtering.
Agent scorecards
Beyond individual calls, the system rolls scores up per agent:
- Average score across the agent's calls.
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and risk percentages.
- Positive sentiment percentage.
- An "improving" indicator — it compares the agent's more recent calls against their earlier ones to see whether their scores are trending up.
- Radar charts showing the agent's strengths and weaknesses across the different quality aspects.
Where each score shows up
- Daily charts use the Keyword Score.
- Hourly charts and agent rankings use the Analytics Score.
- Targets and colored bands come from your account's Target Score / Silence Target settings and the color rules above.
So if a "score" figure looks different in two places, it's likely because one view is showing the keyword-based score and the other the AI-based score. Both are valid — they just answer different questions: "Were the right things said?" versus "How good was the call?"
Quick reference
| Question | Look at |
|---|---|
| Did agents say the required phrases? | Keyword Score |
| How good was the conversation overall? | Analytics Score |
| Was the call relevant to us? | In-scope / out-of-scope flag |
| Too much dead air? | Silence badge |
| Poor audio? | Audio quality badge |
| Which agents are improving? | Agent scorecards |