Every year, Forrester releases its Wave report evaluating Real-Time Revenue Execution (RTRE) platforms — an in-depth analysis that scores each vendor across roughly 30 different criteria. These include everything from product vision and innovation to integrations, coaching capabilities, and, of course, transcription accuracy.
It’s a rigorous process. But if you really study the results, a pattern emerges: the rankings almost perfectly mirror transcription accuracy.
In other words, you can measure 30 different things, but they all lead you back to the same conclusion — the vendors with the most accurate transcription consistently come out on top.
The Foundation of Every Insight
That isn’t a coincidence. Transcription accuracy is the foundation on which everything else rests.
If a platform can’t capture what was said accurately, nothing downstream can be trusted. The AI scoring will be off. The analytics will be off. The coaching recommendations will be off.
If a platform can’t capture what was said accurately, nothing downstream can be trusted. The AI scoring will be off. The analytics will be off. The coaching recommendations will be off.
Every insight in a contact center platform begins with words on a page — and if those words are wrong, the system is flying blind. The expression “garbage in, garbage out” has never been truer than in this space.
Accuracy Is Expensive — And That’s the Point
High transcription accuracy doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of deep investment — in model training, noise handling, domain adaptation, and language coverage. Or, in some cases, by partnering with a best-in-class third-party transcription vendor whose technology has been purpose-built for accuracy and scale. Either path is costly, and that’s precisely what makes it meaningful.
A company willing to make that investment is signaling something important: a commitment to quality, precision, and analytical integrity. They’re building a platform that can be trusted at scale — not one that just looks impressive on a slide deck.
Start Where the Data Starts
Forrester’s 30 criteria provide a holistic view of performance, capturing everything from product capabilities to vision and market presence. But when you’re evaluating vendors yourself, you don’t need to start with all 30 metrics. Start with one.
Because if the transcription is right, everything that follows will be right.
And if it’s wrong — none of the other 29 metrics matter.
And if it’s wrong — none of the other 29 metrics matter.