Customized Voice Recognition Software Development

Call Center IVR Technology: The Benefits of Segmenting and Analyzing Caller Profiles

2010-01-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

We’ve all screened our personal calls from time to time, but many companies overlook some of the benefits of using call center IVR to analyze a caller’s profile. Call center IVR technology can be applied in different ways to address different callers. How can identifying your incoming calls improve your call center IVR? The information you gather about callers based on their phone numbers can be applied in various ways to improve customer service with your IVR technology:

1) Caller location: Have to put a caller on hold as they wait for an agent? The hold function provided by the call center IVR can be different for a caller in Chicago than a caller in Richmond—you might tell the caller in Chicago about a new store opening nearby, for instance. Your call center IVR may also benefit from changing personas according to location. A call from New York might respond more positively to an IVR with a New York accent, for instance. A caller from Oregon might not relate to a persona with a Southern accent, and so on. Consider customizing personas and sales pitches based on different locations for maximum impact with your call center IVR.

2) Language: If you have an incoming call from Mexico, it’s to your advantage to have your call center IVR respond in Spanish. Even if your call center IVR does not need to address most international calls, language preference is worth addressing. Callers from Quebec City will be much more responsive to a French call center IVR, while many callers from Southern California will appreciate a Spanish option.

3) Caller profiling: Many callers to a call center IVR will be repeat callers, and tracing repeat callers can yield many advantages for a call center IVR. A database of caller profiles and history is a great source of information for IVR technology, from customizing sales pitches to personalizing greetings. A recent article on TMC Net segments callers into different types and suggests that it may even be appropriate to segment callers based on their loyalty to the company. Callers with a history of being demanding or difficult, for instance, could be sent through to senior agents who would be better equipped to serve them. By keeping a record of repeat callers, a database of caller profiles can be used to service them accordingly with the call center IVR technology.

IVR System Development: Forecast for 2010

2009-12-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

2009 is drawing to a close. What will 2010 bring for IVR application development? Certainly IVR applications will continue to grow and evolve with time. I believe that many of the trends I’ve discussed in my IVR system blog will continue to progress, enhancing IVR usability and improving call center processes.

Here are some of my specific predictions for IVR system development in 2010:

1) Voice biometrics: In a recent blog I addressed the move towards voice biometric security. Companies that rely on passwords and security questions will begin to be seen as less credible than those implementing voice biometric security in their IVR application. Especially for financial and healthcare institutions, voice biometrics will become the norm for IVR application security. According to Opus Research, the voice biometric market for IVR applications is projected to reach $800 million in revenue by 2011. Read my recent blog on voice biometrics.

2) IVR hosting: 2010 will see the continued move towards hosted solutions. Hosted solutions are available from many vendors for the most advanced speech technologies. Companies will take advantage of low costs for fast-track enhancements of their IVR systems with the latest technologies. On-premise solutions will always be used in some call centers, but their market share is likely to decrease in coming years. Read my past IVR blog for more on hosted vs. on-premise IVR application development.

3) Multi-channel IVR integration: IVR used to be a silo contact channel, much like other channels. In 2010, the shift towards integrating support channels for more efficient interaction and enhanced customer experience will increasingly extend to IVR as well. IVR will become a part of the integration of support channels, benefiting from and contributing to a central data repository of all customer interactions. Read my past blog for more information on multi-channel synchronization.

4) Self-service IVR applications with voice recognition: Touchtone menu options are increasingly perceived as tedious, and yet in past companies have not always implemented speech recognition. As the technology behind voice recognition for IVR systems has matured, more and more companies will capitalize on it and move towards user-friendly self-service IVR applications with speech recognition.

5) Increased budget for IVR system development: The economic downturn made companies hesitant to invest in technology, even when updated IVR technology could reduce operational costs and enhance customer satisfaction. In 2009, budget constraints didn’t allow for the implementation of such new ideas. Now, as economic conditions are more conducive to long-term investments, companies across the board will be ready to invest more in their IVR application development.

Whatever the trends are, it’s important to always perform ROI analysis and ensure your IVR system will be efficient and enable you to reach your business goals. Contact Crimsonet if you have any questions regarding the efficiency of your IVR system.

And of course, wishing you a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

A Hosted IVR System: For Low-Cost and Fast Implementation

2009-11-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

Small and medium-size businesses may initially lack the resources to invest in an updated IVR system. The initial deployment and operational costs can be high, certainly, and that’s why I always emphasize the importance of ROI analysis—to ensure that the investment pays off. A good way to reduce costs and the headache of operational start-ups is to use hosted IVR applications. This practice of IVR hosting is increasingly growing in the IVR system industry.

What are the benefits of hosted IVR?

1) Reasonable Initial Investment - IVR hosting is a good option to minimize initial deployment costs for business.

2) Quicker Implementation - Hosted IVR has a quicker deployment time than traditional on-premise call center IVR.

3) Increased Scalability and Flexibility - With hosted IVR, a company can accommodate changing call volume, with the ability to easily accommodate peak call volume periods while paying for only as much as is being used.

4) No-Fuss Equipment – First-class equipment is available and maintained by the hosting provider, including: servers, software licenses, power, communication lines and bandwidth.

As a business grows, the cost of IVR hosting grows with it. While an on-premise IVR system will have a high initial deployment cost and a fixed billing rate that should accommodate the peak call volume to be supported, the charges on a hosted IVR system are directly proportional to the call volume. Should the call volume render the cost of IVR hosting more expensive than an on-premise IVR system, the solution can be repatriated, or moved from the on-demand costing model to dedicated managed servers.

A recent SpeechTech article on IVR hosting points to the surge in hosted call center IVR systems. Ultimately, whether a company invests in hosted IVR or an on-premise solution depends on their unique priorities and long-term goals. Before considering a hosted IVR system solution, companies must assess a multitude of factors, including:

Technology, platform, scalability, integration capability, contingency/backup capabilities, development environment and resources, reporting and analytics, functional capabilities, management tools, ongoing service and maintenance, optimization capabilities, customer references, vendor responsiveness, financial strength, and planned research and development investments by the vendors they are considering.

If flexibility and low deployment costs are important in developing your company’s IVR system, it may be worth checking into IVR hosting. There is no doubt that the trend in the call center IVR industry is increasingly moving towards IVR hosting. If you would like to know whether you should invest in hosted IVR system, contact Crimsonet.

Getting The Highest Security for your Voice Recognition System

2009-10-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

Many functions on a call center system will require some form of caller authentication, whether through the call center IVR system or through an agent. The form this caller verification process takes says a lot about a company. It’s not enough for an agent or voice recognition system to pose a sequence of security questions anymore. Callers may feel uncomfortable if all it takes is their mother’s maiden name to access their accounts. In fact, the call center of my own cellular services provider asks two simple security questions to establish my identity, and they are quite easy for a potential fraudster to seek out—my birthday and mother’s maiden name! Each time I call this company’s call center IVR system, I must go through the same rigmarole answering these questions.

Aside from security questions, even a lengthy numeric password is not always secure. Passwords can be stolen, or callers may simply forget. Highly sensitive transactions—banking transfers, for instance—need to be executed in a way which makes the caller feel their personal information and accounts are safe, and which protects against fraudulent access.

The importance of call center security must not be under-estimated. Fraud is a prevalent concern. An August article on DigitalTransactions News reports on the trend towards call center fraud. Through increasingly sophisticated means, such as online phishing, fraudsters are gaining access to personal information and using it to access highly confidential personal accounts via call center IVR systems and call center agents. The consequences can be devastating.

Of course, many call centers work very hard to gain customer trust and keep the incidence of fraud as low as possible, but it is clear that the problem is rarely resolved. So whatever your current authentication system for your call center, it is important to ask yourself how your company can take it to the next level.

So what might be the best route you can take? Voice biometric technology.

The benefits of voice biometric technology are clear. Rather than authenticating callers based on something they know or have (such as a password or security chip), voice biometric technology zeroes in on something they are—the sound of their voice being a uniquely individual characteristic which cannot be replicated. Having a dynamic clearance procedure, in which the caller must repeat a different phrase for each call to the voice recognition system, guards against the possibility of voice recording.

The process saves times and reduces errors, thus improving caller experience. Voice biometric technology dramatically reduces the false acceptance rate with an agent or voice recognition system, and similarly limits the false rejection rate. Quality voice biometrics will function regardless of the caller’s environment, mood, or intonation. Advanced speaker verification technology can even authenticate a caller as he or she is speaking freely with an agent.

I have noticed the technology is growing more and more prevalent in the call center systems of both high-security institutions and other product/service providers. My advice? No matter whether you are a bank, a service provider, or an insurance company, if you have a call center IVR system in place, it pays to invest in the most up-to-date and secure authentication technology.

For more tips on your authentication process or call center IVR system, and to see what other measures you can implement to improve your call center IVR system, feel free to contact me and describe your specific situation.

Rate your Call Center IVR System: Take Crimsonet’s Self-Assessment Tool

2009-09-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

I’m always blogging about different tips for an effective call center IVR system. Personalization, caller surveys, multi-channel synchronization—these are just some of the many characteristics of a winning call center IVR. A poor IVR system can frustrate callers to no end, but a well-designed IVR is a great boost for your company’s image and can decrease costs considerably.

But with so many factors to consider, it can be difficult to know if your IVR system is meeting its full potential. I’ve had a few people ask me how to assess their call center IVR system, and I invariably go through the same points. While I can’t give any solid assessment without more in-depth information, I have developed a list of measures covering modern effective IVR functions to quickly assess the effectiveness of a call center IVR system.

The result is Crimsonet’s Self-Assessment Tool for Call Center IVR Systems. Take this ten question assessment to determine the effectiveness of your IVR system and learn areas where you can potentially improve your call center IVR. Assess your IVR system on personalization, script adaptability, security, agent access and more. By implementing some of the listed suggestions, you can decrease hold times and drop rates, and increase caller satisfaction and profitability.

To learn how you can strengthen your call center IVR system, take the self-assessment now!

Empathize with the User of Your Interactive Voice Response System

2009-08-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

It can be maddening to interact with a poorly designed interactive voice response system. Even when the script is perfect, there are times when callers may feel stuck and alienated. The trick is to put yourself in the caller’s shoes. How often do you use your own interactive voice response solution, after all? Probably never—but if you can empathize with your callers, you’re on your way to developing a much more user-friendly interactive voice response system.

A recent TMCnet article about interactive voice response for smartphones offers some interesting statistics about where and when users feel comfortable with voice response system solutions. Users felt comfortable using a voice response system:

…while shopping or running errands (88 percent), waiting at appointments (80 percent), walking between places (78 percent) or visiting friends (68 percent). Survey respondents also said they would feel comfortable using voice to perform tasks on their smartphones while walking (93 percent), exercising (92 percent), and shopping or running errands (87 percent), according to the study.

On the other hand, some users felt awkward using interactive voice technology with a smartphone when in a restaurant, with only 71 percent of respondents feeling comfortable.

These statistics show how important it is to empathize with callers and their surroundings. Sometimes callers will prefer touchtone to using an interactive voice response solution. Users need to know they have the option of switching back and forth. So when the time comes to dictate personal information, like an account number or address, have your interactive voice response system remind callers that they can use touchtone OR speech to communicate with the system.

A few other tips for empathizing with callers:

• For self-service interactive voice response transactions, make it clear that an agent is available at any time, and give clear instructions on how to reach one. I have seen many companies discourage callers from zeroing out to save on agent costs, but many callers end up feeling alienated and frustrated if they are refused agent service.

• If your interactive voice response solution plays music while callers are on hold, be very careful selecting what is played (I generally discourage the use of hold music, in part because it can be very difficult to select something which will appeal to everyone). Classic rock will not fit a life insurance company, and Beethoven may not work for a cellular services provider targeting a young demographic. Think about how irritating it would be to have to listen to a song you can’t stand!

• Avoid long-winded error messages. “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you, can you please repeat that?” may sound polite, and would be appropriate coming from an agent—but from an interactive voice response system repeating it over and over, it can be infuriating and time-consuming. The fact is, no matter how advanced the design and script of your interactive voice response system, sometimes it may not be able to understand callers—if they happen to walk by a deafening construction zone, for instance. So keep error messages short and forward callers to an agent if they fail to make themselves understood after multiple tries.

There are many other ways to develop a user-friendly interactive voice response solution. Try out your own voice response system to see where callers may get frustrated. By putting yourself in the caller’s shoes, you’ll be in a great position to boost the effectiveness of your interactive voice response system solution.

Marketing in a Down Economy: Your Call Center IVR System Can Help

2009-07-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

I always advise companies to establish the ROI before starting call center IVR system development. Often the ROI on an IVR system goes beyond just the financial. One potential benefit of a call center IVR system is the opportunity to market your company’s image. Marketing can prove especially expensive during an economic slowdown, and considering your marketing plan while planning call center IVR system development is a great way to cement your company image.

So use your call center IVR system to greatest advantage—create a voice user interface which reflects your company. The IVR system persona, the hold function, the tone and the content of the call—all offer a great opportunity to project a specific impression of your company.

Take, for example, the call center IVR system of the company Apple. They target a hip, cutting-edge market. Waiting on hold with Apple, you are met with folk rock, the music of choice of much of the company’s demographic. Why is this valuable? It further contributes to the company’s image as creators of youthful, modern, and up-to-the-minute technology. (Of course, ideally you won’t have a hold time at all, and a well-developed IVR system will help minimize the time spent waiting)

Aside from targeting your hold music or narration, what else can you do to market your company with your call center IVR system? Consider:

1) Inserting your company slogan in the IVR system script. It should be innocuous, of course—you don’t want to be invasive or irritating—but simply dropping a slogan at the beginning and end of the call center IVR call can emphasize your company’s strengths and keep them in the caller’s awareness. One strategy is to integrate the slogan in the company name—for example: “Welcome to Bank of America, the Bank of Opportunity”, or “Thank you for calling Allstate Insurance, where you know You’re in Good Hands”.

2) Create a strong call center IVR persona. I touched on this briefly at the end of a previous IVR system blog on the ITExpo East 2009 conference. Ask yourself, who does your company serve? Is your persona relatable for that audience? An insurance company which emphasizes security, for example, should have a persona which exudes calmness and confidence. A financial services company targeting students and first-time homeowners might gear towards a more youthful voice and demeanour.

3) Use your call center IVR system to target sales. See my previous IVR development blog for more on this topic. If a caller is waiting on hold for a particular service or product, you can enhance your caller’s knowledge about relevant issues or just inform them about complementary products/services. You’ll see sales rise almost instantaneously.

4) Think outside the box with your call center IVR development. Sometimes just being different is enough to get your company noticed. A recent TMC article discusses the stigma that IVR systems are “boring”. Add a little zest to your IVR system script. When applicable, have your IVR system wish callers a happy birthday. Insert a holiday greeting. Or, if it fits with your company’s image, you can even consider injecting a little humour in your IVR script development.

The bottom line? Make sure your IVR system is consistent with your company’s marketing image. Keep your IVR system relevant, keep it useful, and make sure it is beneficial for callers. You’ll soon see the impact on sales and ROI.

Maximize your Call Center IVR Technology with Expanded IVR Scripts

2009-06-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

I recently called a large financial organization and was surprised when their IVR system directed me to an agent. Their IVR technology could easily have resolved the call—but after being walked through multiple menus, I was sent through to the customer service department.

Call center IVR systems that are optimally designed should minimize the need for agent assistance. Thus, call center IVR technology can free agent time considerably. Much of the ROI on IVR systems comes from the benefit of self-service call center IVR. But what happens when callers zero out to an agent because they experience difficulty with the call center IVR? More often than not, these incidents of zeroing out are easily avoidable with an expanded IVR system script. An expanded IVR script serves to anticipate and address caller needs in any situation.

The more call center IVR technology can anticipate caller needs, the lower the need for agent involvement, and the greater the ROI on a call center IVR system.

That’s why it’s critical to understand why callers may choose to speak with a live agent rather than interact with an IVR system. When a caller encounters an issue that cannot be resolved by the call center IVR, he or she will zero out. The solution is to customize call center IVR technology to address the unforeseen scenarios which may arise in interactions with an IVR system.

A case in point—I recently met with a client who was looking to cut 35% of his call center costs by updating his call center IVR system. A quick analysis showed an expanded call center IVR script could easily accomplish this goal. Callers were frequently zeroing out to live agents for simple issues that the call center IVR could handle. For example, callers often phoned to verify the particulars of their insurance coverage and were sent through to agents for this simple task. Not only were agents overloaded with a high volume of calls, but callers were unsatisfied with lengthy hold time. This issue could easily be remedied with a change to self-service call center IVR.

You may have had to zero out to an agent when interacting with IVR technology. If so, you know how incredibly frustrating it can be. In fact, there are many challenges that can be resolved with expanded call center IVR scripts. Callers may forget their account password and zero out to an agent to recover it. They may have lost their account number. They may not be able to complete a self-service call center IVR payment because their billing address is not up-to-date. In many cases, an agent will just go through a predefined sequence of questions that call center IVR technology could handle independently.

All it takes is an expanded IVR system script and a high awareness of caller behaviour. By isolating moments when callers zero out, you can develop call center IVR technology which will never leave callers waiting for agent assistance, frustrated with the lengthy hold time.

Personalizing Your Call Center IVR System for Better Service

2009-05-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

A recent TMC article, “Ten Tips for Improving IVR Functionality”, got me thinking about the elements of a caller-friendly IVR system. Two of the ten items touched on personalizing call center IVR for better service, and I think this is a very important and often underestimated part of quality IVR systems. As much as possible, call center IVR systems ought to be personalized to callers to be effective. This means not only customizing the functioning of the IVR system, but also giving the call center IVR system a human touch.

The fact is that every caller is unique, and an IVR system needs to be able to handle different callers with different needs. A good call center IVR system will be programmed to handle as many different situations as possible. A personalized IVR system will impress callers and make the call center IVR seem more like a person. After all, the more individualized an IVR call, the more it will simulate human interaction.

What are some ways to personalize your call center IVR system? As the TMC article points out, you can integrate the IVR system with your customer database (see my previous blog which touches on IVR customer profiling). An IVR system can also customize error messages, avoiding those generic errors which can be so frustrating.

Here are a few more ideas for personalizing your call center IVR system:

1) Have the IVR system address callers by name. Any salesperson knows that addressing a prospect by name creates instant rapport. Whenever possible, have your call center IVR system do the same.

2) Have the IVR system prompt sales based on past purchase history. I talked about this a little in a past IVR blog. Use the IVR system to analyze the caller’s buying habits from past call center IVR interactions. This kind of personalization can be a great way to boost sales.

3) Have the IVR system offer different satisfaction surveys based on the context of the call. Callers will only answer surveys if they are approached at the right time. A prospect calling just to inquire wouldn’t be able to rate company performance the way a loyal customer could. Read a past call center IVR blog on surveys for more tips on this subject.

4) Tailor the IVR hold music/narration according to each caller. Use the hold narration to promote different company offerings according to specific caller profiles and watch your sales rise.

5) Accommodate repeat callers by anticipating their needs. Have your IVR system predict the caller’s needs based on call history. For example, depending on who is calling, as well as recent transactions, the IVR system may ask “Would you like to check your balance, Mr. Jones?” or “Would you like to pay your credit card bill, Ms. Smith?”.

Personalizing your call center IVR means giving the IVR system a more human touch, as well as developing the apparent spontaneity and intelligence of the system to increase caller satisfaction. The more you succeed in making the caller feel important, the more effective your IVR system will be.

Call Center IVR Surveys: Develop an IVR Interface that Works

2009-04-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Call center IVR surveys are a great way of getting feedback and promoting your business. My previous IVR blog post handled some of the applications and benefits of voice recognition system surveys. Like any voice recognition system project, a call center IVR survey needs a good interface to be effective. Here are some tips for developing a great IVR system survey:

• Call center IVR surveys should never be the focus of the call. Callers should have the option of responding to a survey at the end of the call, but ultimately the voice recognition system should focus on meeting caller needs. With good service, a caller will be more likely to respond to a call center IVR survey.

• Keep your voice recognition system survey brief. If possible, avoid going over five questions. You want to keep the drop rate down—nobody wants to spend all day interacting with your voice recognition system.

• Have a consistent response pattern for your call center IVR survey. It’s easy for callers get confused, so make things as straightforward as possible. Use yes/no questions, or implement a simple rating system, but don’t mix things up with your voice recognition survey. You don’t want to end up with inaccurate responses if your call center IVR survey is so complex that callers make a mistake.

• Allow callers to make open comments at the end of your call center IVR survey. Some callers will have feedback that doesn’t fit in with your voice recognition system survey. Give them the opportunity to submit feedback at the end of the IVR call.

• Don’t leave the same call center IVR survey up for months on end. Unless you’re rating agent performance, there’s rarely a case for leaving the same voice recognition system survey up. Repeat callers to your IVR system will quickly get irritated if they are constantly asked for feedback on the same issue.

• Offer an incentive for completing the call center IVR survey. Not many callers want to give up their time answering questions for a voice recognition system. Make it worth their while—offer discounted shipping, or a chance to win a prize—any incentive will increase your IVR survey response rate.

• Have a simple command for the call center IVR to repeat survey questions. Callers may not always understand and will need to hear the question again. Avoid mistaken responses by configuring your call center IVR survey to have an easy repetition command.

With a good IVR survey interface, you’ll have more responses to work with and you’ll cast your company in a much better light. Read my last IVR blog to learn about some common applications of call center IVR surveys.

Call Center IVR Surveys: What are the Benefits for your Business?

2009-04-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Voice recognition systems aren’t necessarily just used for customer service and sales. Call center IVR can also be used to implement surveys. There are many short and long-term benefits to implementing a voice recognition system survey. It’s just a matter of properly developing the interface and questions. So what are some of the uses and benefits of surveys for call center IVR systems?

Applications of Surveys for Voice Recognition Systems:

1) Business Intelligence: Voice recognition system surveys offer a great opportunity to find out how customers feel about your company. Call center IVR systems can get valuable feedback from callers to improve business processes. Not only will you give clients the chance to voice their opinion, but with a good call center IVR survey, you’ll know what changes to make to keep them coming back.

2) Rating Agent Performance: Consider using your voice recognition system to rate agent performance. The feedback is great for training and quality assurance, and callers can use the call center IVR system to express their frustration or satisfaction with an agent. The effect of implementing a performance survey often quickly improves agent sales performance and increases customer satisfaction.

3) IVR Customer Profiling: Voice recognition systems can boost sales results by creating pre-sale client profiles. Sales can then target potential clients according to particular caller characteristics. This can be very helpful in identifying both up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. For example, if a caller has recently purchased a flat-screen TV, the caller may also be interested in a promotion on DVDs. Use your voice recognition system survey to get a picture of different demographics and learn which callers prefer which products. Call center IVR surveys are a good way to create such profiles.

4) Rating Voice Recognition System Performance: A new call center IVR system can take some adjustment. Especially in the first phase of deployment, it is important to get feedback. Callers will appreciate the opportunity to weigh in on any usability issues with your new call center IVR system, and a voice recognition system survey gives them the chance to do so. While they’ll appreciate the chance to sound off, you’ll get immediate performance feedback from your call center IVR system.

Call center IVR systems, when done right, can increase your business ROI over both the short and long-term. Learn how to increase your business returns—develop custom surveys for your voice recognition system.

Watch for an upcoming post with tips on customizing your call center IVR survey.

Develop a Better Call Center IVR System with Multi-Channel Synchronization

2009-03-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Call center IVR systems are often treated as isolated customer service channels. But with good synchronization with other channels, IVR systems can be strengthened and offer even better call center IVR service. This is something I mentioned briefly in a recent blog about ITExpo, with the point that multi-channel communication is one of the leading trends in the industry. Nowadays, it’s important not just to have these various channels available, but also to make sure call center IVR systems are synchronized with other channels, consolidating the accumulated client experience. Multi-channel synchronization between call center IVR systems and other channels achieves better efficiency, better service, and increased trust.

What do I mean when I say multi-channel synchronization between call center IVR systems and other client channels? Implementation will depend on the call center, but there are many examples:

Make information from other channels available to the call center IVR system: Nothing is more irritating to a customer than having to repeat information. So, if they’ve just filled out a web-based order form and called your call center IVR to confirm the shipping date, all of the information they filled out should be available to the IVR system or agent. No need to ask for address or contact number again — the IVR system should already have this information stored.

Use other channels to confirm self-service IVR system orders: This is a simple way to build customer trust. When any kind of self-service order is placed with a call center IVR system or agent, send a confirmation email with all of the relevant information for easy reference.

Use SMS message confirmation for on-the-go IVR system callers: If your call center IVR system caters to mobile users, take advantage of it! A great opportunity to use targeted SMS messaging, for instance, is self-service directory assistance. After providing a business address and phone number, a text message is usually sent to recap the information for easy reference.

Promote different channels: Make sure customers are aware of the options above and beyond your call center IVR system. Encourage people to visit your live chat support or website while on hold; offer to subscribe them to SMS updates. The more tools at their disposal, the greater customer satisfaction—but first they need to know about them.

Multi-channel IVR system synchronization can impress your clients and offer better service. Update your call center IVR system with stronger synchronization between channels and you’ll soon see results.

Boost Sales with Customized IVR Voice Recognition Software

2009-03-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

Customized voice recognition software and IVR systems in call centers are usually associated with improved customer service. It’s true that when properly implemented, IVR systems and customized voice recognition software can significantly increase caller satisfaction. That’s why in past blogs I’ve focused a lot on how important it is to update your IVR system for better customer service.

But the question is, can IVR and customized voice recognition software also boost sales? After all, it’s important to keep business goals in mind when implementing an IVR system. I recently read an article on TMCnet which brought up the common divide between sales and customer service. The article points out that “organizations may be more successful if they ha[ve] a more direct link between service and the sales process”.

And in fact, with proper tailoring, call centers can do a lot to boost sales with IVR and customized voice recognition software. Here are a few suggestions for customizing your IVR and call center system to increase sales:

When customers are on hold waiting for an agent, why not have the IVR system tell them about your latest product or promotion? Instead of listening to irrelevant hold music, callers will get valuable information that can lead to sales. Customized voice recognition software can even tailor the respective product according to the caller’s particular characteristics or history of calls. For example, if they’re calling from a particular location, why not have the IVR system tell them about a new branch opening nearby?

IVR systems can consolidate information much more quickly and efficiently than a live agent. Use customized voice recognition software to collect information to up-sell and cross-sell. Based on location, gender, and caller history, the IVR system can establish the best sales recommendations before passing callers on to agents. The result? More sales, and a greater return on investment.

While it’s inadvisable to bombard clients with unsolicited sales calls, clients will be much more receptive to automated IVR reminders, whether for shipping dates, appointments, or account renewals. Soft sales prompts can be added to the end of IVR calls to increase sales. For example: “This is an automated message for Mr. Joe from ____. Your couches will be shipped at ____. For further inquiries or to learn more about our matching product of the month, please stay on the line.”

Customized voice recognition software and IVR systems are a valuable and often overlooked avenue for boosting sales. As the TMC article points out, “By more closely aligning the sales process with customer service and support, [a] company is more likely to enjoy a growing revenue base while the customer receives a consistent and enjoyable experience.” Particularly in the face of the current economic situation, it is crucial to identify issues that can increase the level of client loyalty or opportunities to cross-/up-sell the existing client. This may definitely change the result of ROI analysis on your planned IVR system.

My Experience at ITExpo East 2009: Improve IVR Software and Call Center Efficiency

2009-02-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

I recently attended as a panellist at the ITExpo East 2009 Conference and participated in the call center track of the conference. The focus was predominantly on increasing call center productivity and enhancing the customer experience. There were many ideas in this direction, including the use of voice recognition and IVR software. It was both informative and valuable to learn the various methods that call center executives and vendors had developed to handle common call center challenges.

Here are a few trends impacting the call center arena that were discussed in the conference presentations:

Call center customer service is no longer a one-channel practice. Companies should provide as many communication channels as possible to appeal to different customer segments at different times. For instance, youth often prefer SMS or IM communication; however, older people may prefer IVR software service.

Collecting, analyzing, and mining call histories can improve call center efficiency by allowing agents to use that data when serving clients. With advanced data search and retrieval, a call center can provide more efficient customer service. Agents can easily use the past experience of other call center agents.

In the same vein, mining the call histories of a call center enables agents to provide excellent customer service. Agents can acknowledge prior client activity and act accordingly. For instance, “I see you’ve sent an inquiry email already... We’re working on that, and you can expect a response within 24 hours. What else I can help you with?” Taking this a step further, a call center agent could proactively call a client to update him on the progress of a recent inquiry.

One of the more intricate methods of improving customer service in a call center involves real-time use of analytics data. For example, advanced call center analytics can correlate between clients and agents to establish better service. By categorizing agents and clients and matching them accordingly in real-time based on past experience, call centers can ensure that a client is routed to the best agent according to their characteristics. Similarly, calls can be rated on importance and prioritized accordingly.

These points are just the tip of the iceberg. And of course, I was always thinking about how these ideas can be applied to voice recognition and IVR software for call centers. More than ever, IVR software needs to be more caller-friendly and fully integrated as a call center channel in order to be effective. It’s not just about cutting costs anymore, but also providing exceptional customer service.

So how might some of these ideas apply to call center IVR and voice recognition software?

IVR software should only be used when it is the best channel for a transaction or service. Some callers may prefer voice recognition when they are in the car, and touch-tone when at home or in public (assuming they both fit that transaction); some clients may prefer the web for certain transactions, and IVR for others. The point is that clients should not be forced to use IVR and voice recognition software, but be given variety of options.

Ideally an IVR software system should contribute data to the central historical data like the other channels.

IVR call flow should adapt according to the caller and historical data. For example, a caller who has demonstrated difficulties with an IVR transaction in past should be sent straight through to a call center agent. Or a caller may be greeted thus: “Hello, Mr. Smith; I see that you have had difficulties completing your bill payment on our website. Would you like to do it over the phone?”

Finally, for a given application, different IVR personas could be matched to different caller personalities to better connect with callers. Younger callers might have an upbeat, more quirky persona, while more mature callers might be greeted with a professional and matter-of-fact IVR software persona.

There are endless ideas for customizing IVR and voice recognition software according to call center and client needs. Implementing these kinds of measures can save on agent costs, at the same time enhancing customer service, and thus improving call center efficiency as an integral part of a more efficient contact center.

Why You Need Customized Speech Recognition Software in an Economic Downturn

2009-02-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

Investing in speech recognition software consulting during an economic downturn isn’t always a call center’s first priority. But, as a recent article on TMCnet points out, contact centers can benefit from IVR investments all the more during tough times. Among other tips for navigating the current downturn, the article cites IVR and customized speech recognition software:

If you haven’t done any business process or continuous improvement studies to reduce costs and improve efficiency in a while, now is the time. You might look into tuning up the IVR to increase usage — for most call centers, even a 1% gain in use represents substantial dollar savings. Sometimes even partial automation applications can provide a cost savings.

In addition to the financial benefits of customized speech recognition software, there are other perks:

Speech is meeting the promise of increasing customer satisfaction, increasing IVR containment, and shortening calls.

In other words, the article shows that customized speech recognition software is one of the few ways a company can both improve caller satisfaction and cut costs. But companies may be understandably hesitant to take on risk during a period of economic uncertainty. In order to be truly secure, a big IVR project requires a serious ROI analysis. Experienced speech recognition software consultants are able to perform in-depth ROI analysis for IVR and speech recognition projects,identifying trends in your IVR system that may not be visible to the inexperienced eye. A comprehensive ROI analysis will surface the issues that need to be addressed before you embark on any IVR project.

But how does ROI analysis work for IVR and speech recognition software? ROI analysis is a complicated process requiring detailed knowledge of call center metrics and caller behavior. With multiple interacting variables, the matter of detangling the interaction between call volume, drop rate, and hold time is neither simple nor straightforward.

Interested in performing ROI analysis on your next speech recognition software project? To learn more about how ROI analysis for IVR and speech recognition can make all the difference in an economic downturn, read the new Crimsonet white paper.

Top 5 ways to Update your IVR System in 2009

2009-01-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

It’s a new year, and the capabilities of voice recognition are advancing for a better caller experience. To improve the way you service your clients/prospects, it’s important to stay abreast of technological trends and keep up with IVR software development. So what can you do to make sure your IVR system is ready for 2009?

If you haven’t already, get rid of your IVR’s tedious touchtone menus. Have a customized voice recognition system that anticipates caller needs and recognizes their spoken instructions without the need for dialing. For example, callers may verbally ask to be sent to a specific department, get operation hours, or verify an order or claim.

Consider maintaining a customer database and using call history for the current interaction with the customer. Imagine how impressed callers will be if your voice recognition system remembers their call from last week and anticipates what they need (e.g. “Would you like to confirm the draft order you placed last week, Mr. Smith?”). This practice will increase IVR call efficiency as well as generate trust in the voice recognition system.

Have your customized voice recognition software offer customer satisfaction surveys at the end of IVR calls. Not only will your voice recognition system get feedback to help improve your business, but you will show clients that you are listening to their needs. But beware lengthy IVR surveys as callers are not likely to complete them.

Stay away from dead, robotic IVR personalities and create a customized voice recognition persona that reflects your business and feels more personal. Consider, for example, whether you want a customized voice recognition system with a male or female voice, or an upbeat or business-like tone.

Customized voice recognition software will ideally do away with hold times altogether, but sometimes call volume is just too high. For customers waiting for an agent, get rid of the IVR’s irritating hold music. This is a valuable opportunity where you have a caller’s undivided attention. So have a relevant IVR script available while customers are waiting to speak to an agent. Anticipating their questions, the IVR system may provide instructions, or inform them of company news.

All of these customized voice recognition software elements can help you increase customer satisfaction while lowering contact center operation costs. The important thing is to realize that every business has different needs for their IVR system. It’s not a one-size-fits-all investment, and it takes a customized voice recognition software expert to know what can best benefit your company.

Increase Caller Satisfaction with IVR Scripts that Work

2008-11-26T07:44:00.000-08:00

A recent article with TMCnet, Business Phone Systems Important for Enhancing Customer Experience, notes that “choosing the right business phone system is as important as having a pleasing and friendly voice while interacting with a customer”. One of the most important components of a good voice recognition system is an effective voice recognition script. Callers can easily inform agents of their needs, but it isn’t so easy with an automated IVR system. Either callers wait around while the system rolls through an endless parade of menu options, or else they’re stuck repeating phrases that the speech recognition software does not recognize.

Dealing with a voice recognition system that doesn’t consider caller needs can dramatically decrease customer satisfaction. That is why the script for a voice recognition system is so crucial to the success of the overall IVR system. Optimizing the system functionality to consider the needs of callers can simulate the experience of talking to an agent and give the call an increased feel of spontaneity.

The TMC article addresses the problems associated with poor phone systems:

Often, we hear people complaining about poor customer service and it’s usually due to long hold, being rerouted to the wrong official, or poor sound quality. These glitches hamper the image of the company and the customer may not call again.

Thus, having a system that considers caller needs is crucial. Imagine how much faster and more pleasant it is for customers to call and ask a speech recognition system for store hours and have the necessary information in seconds. Rather than sitting there waiting for “Option 1… Option 2… Option 3…” and getting tied up in an endless list of menu items asking callers what they want, callers can go straight to the source of the issue, just as though talking to a live agent.

To function optimally, the IVR system has to know what callers want, and it takes extensive research of call history and IVR call monitoring to find out the kind of reasons people call. There need to be effective prompts and a logical call progression. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that there are many options available for the design of voice recognition systems. As the TMC article states, “Functionalities and options available in each system are different and depending upon their needs, a company should decide in favor of a system that benefits them most.”

At the end of the day, an IVR system can’t replace a live agent for complex calls. A human agent is needed to resolve in-depth issues and mediate conflicts. But with a well-designed IVR script, agents are freed from simple, repetitive calls. Problems with call routing disappear with automatic IVR call-directing, and custom-designed IVR scripts can even interact with customers on hold to troubleshoot and try to resolve the problem independently, as well as to collect information for agents. The result? TMC puts it best:

In all, customer loyalty, profitable ROI and an improved business image are the results of having a good phone system in place.

Well-designed IVR scripting is one of the best means of enhancing caller experience and company image with a good voice recognition system.

How Mobile Self-Service has Upped IVR Revenue

2008-11-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Recently, a company in India implemented a retail IVR system for passersby to call and order items they see in ads. The phone number appears in the ad, and users can identify the particular item they want and pay via credit card. CEO Deven Limayae explains:

The logic is to use cell phones as an interaction medium with screen, where the user's cell phone number acts as the customer's identity, and the retailer can actually come across the potential buyers or customers. Also, the generated customer data helps the retailer to understand customer's behavior and psychology.

Tailoring voice recognition systems to be used on mobile phones is particularly attractive for consumers, travelers, or anyone on the go. IVR applications in mobile systems tap into the spontaneity of consumer behavior, as opposed to the traditional IVR systems that are generally targeted towards landline calls.

Whatever its use, nowadays IVR is largely about self-service. The ability to call from anywhere, at any time, is part of the advantage of a voice recognition system. For companies, one of the biggest benefits of self-service IVR implementation is financial gain. If callers can check flight times, make appointments, or purchase products on their own, callers will not have to queue at all and agent time will be significantly freed up. Steve Morrell, author of a report on self-service IVR comments on the benefits of self-service:

We believe that this is only the beginning of what telephone self-service can deliver. Of course, not all calls are suitable for self-service-- respondents estimate that an average of only 31 percent of inbound calls would suit it- and over-use of this channel can frustrate customers and severely damage a brand. However, for simple and repetitive tasks, such as account balances, meter readings and ticket bookings, self-service works for both customer and business, as there’s never a queue to wait in. This should also mean that if a customer needs to speak to a real person, then it’s more likely that there’ll be someone available to help them.

In fact, self-service is cited as one of the reasons for the incredible growth in the voice recognition industry:

Growth in the IVR market is being driven by strong demand for self-service applications ...

Recent estimates have placed worldwide IVR revenue at $1.867 billion at the end of 2007, and predictions place the continued growth at $2.4 billion by 2010.

Still, self-service has plenty of room to improve, with only 31 percent of inbound calls being entirely self-service. If IVR systems are built to be more efficient, handling calls in a complete and independent manner, we should expect continued growth in the industry.

Voice Recognition Projects Bring More Than Just ROI

2008-10-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

In these belt-tightening times, any new voice recognition project must pay its way in the short term with a satisfactory near-term return on investment. It should also improve the customer experience, since customers are often alienated by ineffective customer service centers. Since IVR projects can be introduced incrementally to complement human agents, it is usually not difficult to show that, in the short term, service is improved at a lower overall cost. On cost savings alone, the ROI is often acceptable.

Even a basic IVR project can sometimes have an ROI to brag about. Just think about the system recently launched by Victrio to fight credit card fraud. A report on the new system reads:

Victrio introduces a new credit risk management services that identifies fraudsters by their voice during credit card authorisation phone calls. The service works by comparing the callers' voice against a database of known criminals. Authorisation is denied if a match between a caller's voice and a fraudster's voice is found. The service is aimed at online merchants as well as banks and other credit card issuers.

Compare that with how present systems handle the same problem. Try calling your bank branch by telephone. The agent will quite rightly ask you a series of questions to verify that you are who you say you are. Unfortunately, in most cases all the answers could easily have been provided by someone who had stolen your identity from fairly public records. So the agent and you are tied up for a little while in a meaningless exercise. Systems based on PINs and passwords are fine but are still not unbreakable. They may also frustrate customers who forget their passwords or even the answers to the security questions.

On the other hand, voice data contains so much information that it can provide a very strong and clearly unbreakable identification system. At the same time, it speeds up the authorization process for much higher customer satisfaction at a lower system cost. The customer is very happy and the agent is only involved with operations that require a human agent.

Let us assume that the authentication/authorization process with a live agent takes an average of 20 seconds, whereas IVR authentication takes approximately 5 seconds. The agent time that is saved can be channelled to assist in other tasks, meaning that wait time would be shortened. Thus, clients would wait less and have shorter calls – a good recipe for increased customer satisfaction. That having been said, this is a very simplistic way of doing ROI. This evaluation only means that we have shortened the call authorization time to ¼ of the initial length, but the question is, have the operational costs been cut accordingly?

In order to really properly perform ROI analysis for your company, you will have to evaluate the overall costs of the IVR project and quantify the benefits in dollar savings. Doing so will show how the organization can cut costs and still improve its customer service. In addition, ROI analysis can evaluate how the company can reap the benefits of fraud detection, which translates into greater financial savings.

Overall, ROI involves detailed planning in order to calculate the estimated savings in operational costs and to forecast whether or not a project is worthwhile. ROI analysis allows the organization to give a green light for a project, with concrete steps to ensure a win-win situation all around.

What do IVR Systems Have to Do with the Election?

2008-10-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

A polling company has recently instated automated IVR calling to predict the outcome of the election. The concerns raised by the recent changes showcase some of the prevalent suspicions regarding IVR technology. Read an article on the move to IVR polling here.

The article cites George Bishop, a professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, who highlights common concerns regarding IVR:

What if you don't understand the question? There's no opportunity for clarification. There's also no one there to probe you to answer the question if the person isn't sure.

Bishop’s statement reflects a skepticism regarding the usability of IVR systems. He betrays the same preference for human agents that call centers often see in their callers. The same issues with respect to usability and system intelligence often return in discussion regarding voice recognition software systems. Still, the issue is not whether or not IVR is the best method for election polling. The issue surrounds how to build a voice recognition system that fits the bill. For example, there needs to be proper testing to ensure the IVR interface is tailored to the needs of its users. A good IVR system accounts for potential deviations from the script and is tailored to the expectations of callers. This can only be accomplished with usability testing. In addition to usability testing, system monitoring is often needed. Election polling is only implemented for a matter of days; but organizations that implement ongoing IVR systems require constant post-deployment monitoring to ensure that users are continually provided the best and most efficient service. The context of how the IVR system is used must be taken into consideration, with the expectations and mental model of users being considered. Of course companies want to maximize the ROI of an IVR project, and initial ROI analysis ensures that a voice recognition software project will yield the expected outcome.

So how to respond to the concerns raised by Bishop? Again, it’s a matter of having a customized IVR system that has been properly designed, tested, piloted, and tuned. Whether the IVR uses speech recognition software or responds to touch-tone dialing, the system needs to be tailored to the needs of the respondent to ensure optimal functioning. Proper usability research and testing reduces any concern over understanding the question.

Achieve Call Center Success with IVR Self-Service

2008-09-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

A recent IVR article in CRM Daily highlights the rising incidence of self-service in contact centers. With so many channels of communication—from phone, to email, to text messaging, to chat—the methods of customer service are increasing. Still, call centers today make up the essence of customer service, and so quality IVR systems are critical. Not only are they important to the client, but they are important to businesses, too. The article cites results from a recent Benchmarking report estimating that it is nearly five times less expensive to use IVR self-service than agent-assisted calls.

Says Grant Sainsbury, practice director of Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data Americas:

"Ten years ago, enterprises were focused on improving service and moving away
from face-to-face interactions toward a phone experience. Today, the reality is
that the choice of channel varies and is dependent on the type of transaction.
High-value customers may be more than happy to use automated self-service
channels to pay a bill or view their balance -- they don't need a live agent for
every interaction."

Thus, moving away from live agents towards an IVR system doesn’t mean dissatisfied customers. With effective voice recognition systems, businesses can cut costs while keeping clients happy. Now, the growing influence of IVR technologies in the call centre industry means it is no longer just large-size businesses that benefit. Being able to cut costs and maintain customer satisfaction means it is time for small and medium-size businesses to get into better IVR—or risk being one-upped by the competition.

Good vs. Bad IVR

2008-08-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

Which is better – a poor human call agent or poor IVR?

At least a human agent always tries to work with you

Low-quality IVR systems can be frustrating but that can also be true in dealing with a human agent. Sometimes human agents do not perform as well as they might. That may be due to poor training, lack of motivation or merely that you have hit them on the wrong day. Let us analyze some of those reasons to determine which is more likely to satisfy a caller.

The following table compares the caller experience between a poor agent and poor IVR for different aspects of the call:

Aspects of the call	Poor agent	Poor IVR
unusual request	with difficulty	creates frustration if no clear choice is available
unusual accent	frustration due to many repetitions	frustration due to many repetitions; recognition might be impossible
delay in making contact	frustration	not a problem
speedy reaction	usually OK	can be slow with repetitive checking of responses
data capture	error prone	limited to simple numeric data only

Thinking about these challenging situations, I think most of us would prefer to struggle with a poor agent than try to make the IVR system do our bidding.

Which is best - good IVR or a good human call agent?

High-quality IVR matches the responsiveness of a good human agent

IVR cannot replace human agents entirely. Some customer support questions may be ill defined and complex. Nor will any irate caller be happy to be fobbed off with a robot, however pleasant. In such cases the IVR agent will rapidly hand the caller on to a human agent.

Even a relatively good call agent may not give complete satisfaction to a caller. In some cases the caller may be at fault. Perhaps the call agent is under a time pressure or is slightly distracted by other problems they may have. Let us compare how a good IVR system may match up against a good call agent.

The following table compares the caller experience between a good IVR and a good agent for different aspects of the call:

Aspects of the call	Good IVR	Good agent
unusual request	Good by handling or by transferring to a human agent	good
unusual accent	good	good
delay in making contact	not a problem	can be frustrating
speedy reaction	excellent	good
data capture	excellent	may be error prone

The IVR system is tireless, not subject to bad mood or memory loss, is repeatable, and has instant access to an incredible databank of information. Even the best call agent will have a problem matching up to that. In some cases, a caller may even prefer an IVR agent over a human agent for personal and sensitive subjects, as in the case of returning cheques, or getting results of some medical exams.

In summary, for technical well-defined transactions, the IVR agent will often be the best choice. Part of the quality inherent in the overall IVR solution is to have the right options available (human as well as IVR agents) and utilize them in the best complementary way according to their strength.

The order of callers’ preferences

High-quality IVR is at the top and low-quality IVR is at the bottom.

Since callers clearly prefer good call agents to poor call agents, we have thus established a clear order of preference here. That is:

Good IVR or good call agent* > poor call agent > poor IVR

* The right mix of good IVR and good call agents, considering each one’s strengths in context of the particular service requested, can guarantee best caller experience and highest caller satisfaction.

Confirming IVR performance

IVR always includes ongoing monitoring of performance

The other merit of a natural language IVR system is that performance data are continually being measured. Part of the ongoing performance improvement process within an IVR system comes from the continual monitoring of the interactions between the IVR agent and the caller. Based on this data, the IVR system can be improved so that possible weaknesses are corrected.

Conclusion

This analysis shows why caller satisfaction can be greater with a good IVR system. Since the costs of running such a system are much better than using an equivalent wholly human agent system, the decision to implement an IVR system is usually not a difficult one to take.

IVR Can Give More Secure Calls

2008-07-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

IVR systems are often suggested for call centers to minimize costs. It seems to be assumed that such a system will inevitably deliver a poorer caller experience than talking to a human agent. In this age where identity theft is much more prevalent, this overlooks a major advantage that an IVR system can offer.

The standard questions that a human agent may ask, like home telephone number or postal code, are no barrier for the expert identity thief. For such an identity thief, a bit of “dumpster diving” can sometimes provide a rich harvest of personal information - information that could be used to fool any human agent. Unfortunately not everyone follows the detailed advice that is available to avoid such deception.

A report released by ContactBabel and VoiceVault on U.S. Contact Centers shows what it costs currently to protect against such identity theft. They estimate that in the USA, it will cost $11.7 Billion and more than 11,000 Years of Contact Center Agents’ time to check Callers’ Identities in 2007. Thankfully there is another way as the report suggests.

The report highlights that biometric technology will be a key to successful identity verification. Voice verification systems, the only biometric technology that can be used over the phone, are now delivering levels of accuracy and security that have proven robust enough for use by banks and insurers. Voice verification can be combined with the answer to a memorable question in cases where a two-factor authentication process is required.The report shows that implementing a voice verification system in a contact center receiving 10 million inbound calls per year with existing identity verification procedures taking on average 20 seconds could save $6.5 million each year. For procedures such as Internet password resetting, the higher level of security achieved with voice verification enables businesses to offer real-time password resets or reminders reducing up to 70 percent of helpdesk calls.

Caller Authentication systems using voice verification are available from a number of companies including Nuance and VoiceVault. The higher security that is possible with an IVR gives yet one more reason for early adoption of this cost-effective technology.

Customer Service, The Perennial Joke

2008-06-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

Customer service, like bananas, almost inevitably gets people thinking of jokes. From the Idea Sandbox, I found the blog of Tom Fishburne and he has a particularly appropriate cartoon. The sting is in the tail.

The cartoon resulted from Fishburne’s frustration at the customer service he received from .. you guessed it .. a telephone company.

He mentions that in one company he worked for they had a banana telephone. That is not to be confused with the LG SV80 Banana Phone. This was a regular telephone in the shape of a banana. If that phone rang, they all knew it was a call from a customer. Anyone who was close was charged with answering it and giving whatever assistance was needed.

That isn’t too practical for most companies. Good, economical customer service is now better delivered through modern IVR (interactive voice response) systems. As for bananas, perhaps they are better left for the monkeys.

We’re No Worse Than Anyone Else - the minimal approach

2008-05-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

“Self-Service: Talking Your Language” in CRM Today has some useful words of advice. The author, Richard Brown, notes that in some cases companies are still adopting IVR (interactive voice response) solutions which save the business money but have little or no thought for customer service. It doesn’t need to be that way.

Surprisingly he spends most of the time talking about ways of making IVR systems work better, where such systems help callers to navigate through a set of menu choices. For example he notes:

The design thus needs careful thought, though some simple rules will help here, such as offering a sequence of no more than three sets of options, each containing a maximum of four choices.

Such systems are certainly better than many that are encountered at the moment. However this minimal approach will not put you ahead of the competition. The technology has advanced and interactive voice response (IVR) systems can indeed make you better than the competition. No greater cost is involved so this is very much a win/win situation.

Keeping Pesky Customers Happy

2008-04-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

Many customer service call centers seem to encounter a large number of pesky customers. Unfortunately with many traditional IVR systems, perfectly reasonable callers can become pesky. Such callers often prefer to speak to human beings and have a low tolerance for anything that appears mechanical.

It appears that these pesky customers are often taking things into their own hands. As TechCrunch tells us, there is a new service, which they believe to be genuinely useful. It’s Bringo, the Phone Tree Killer. You’ll find it at the nophonetrees.com domain. It’s only available in the US at the moment but it helps users skip phone trees and connect with a real human on the customer support phone lines at many companies. That seems a little extreme but perhaps it reflects the standards of customer service that callers are encountering.

Bringo is not the only such service. There is also gethuman™. This movement has been created from the voices of millions of consumers who want to be treated with dignity when they contact a company for customer support. They’ve even published the gethuman standard v1.0 that suggests what standards customer service call centers should have in place.

The start of the standards will give you an idea of what is being suggested:

The gethuman standards have been designed with simplicity and directness as to eliminate ambiguity and enable testing and certification. There may be more than one way to accomplish each, but the result must be as follows:
The caller must always be able to dial 0 or to say “operator” to queue for a human.
An accurate estimated wait-time, based on call traffic statistics at the time of the call, should always be given when the caller arrives in the queue. A revised update should be provided periodically during hold time.
Callers should never be asked to repeat any information (name, full account number, description of issue, etc.) provided to a human or an automated system during a call.

There are 10 in all and overall they seem most reasonable.

Owners of call centers are probably looking at Bringo and the gethuman™ set of standards with dismay. How can callers be so unreasonable? Don’t they realize the cost of hiring human agents and training them? Surely they accept the compromise we have to make to balance service and cost. Well the answer seems to be that they don’t. Perhaps they’re clinging to that old-fashioned notion that “The customer is always right”.

Thankfully that isn’t the end of the story. If you plan the whole call center functioning around an IVR system, then the gethuman™ standards can be accepted as the basis of operations. With an IVR system, both the system and the caller have a shared goal. That is to achieve a solution to whatever the caller was calling about as quickly as possible. If that involves a human agent, then this should happen as quickly and as efficiently as possible. However with a good IVR system, this will probably be in only a minority of cases. The other good news is that this better system may well cost no more than installing inferior systems that callers try to get round.

Implementing IVR Projects the No Risk Way

2008-03-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

Executive summary

Do you want callers to be much more satisfied when calling your call center?
Do you want to do that with lower costs than you incur at present?
Are you hesitant to be one of the early adopters of the latest technology?

What is IVR?

IVR is used as an acronym for Interactive Voice Response where the caller keys in his responses on a touchtone telephone. Requiring customers to key in their responses is something that customers in general find less than satisfactory. However talking to a Crimsonet Natural Speech IVR (Interactive Voice Response) agent can be as pleasing as talking to a real person. An IVR system by Crimsonet can transform a call center by substituting IVR agents for some of the human call agents or for those outmoded touchtone Interactive Voice Response units.

For this article we will discuss an example of a call-center with a number of incoming lines. Suppose any incoming call might require any of a variety of functions to be handled. The first function might be as simple as greeting the caller and requiring some identifying information. For example this might include a credit card number. A more complex function might be giving a credit card balance on a credit card account. This type of call center is illustrated in the image below.

The long-term goal could be to maximize the use of IVR agents in the call center. IVR agents would be used for any function where they can perform better than a human receptionist. On the other hand, functions where the caller’s needs are difficult to detect or address would be left with a human agent This particularly applies to any function where the caller’s needs are complex, for example a request for technical service. So any call-center will typically have at least a few functions handled by human agents to cope with such callers, or as a backup to the IVR agents. The long-term arrangement of IVR agents and human agents in this example is illustrated in the image below.

Installing an IVR system by Crimsonet does not require a commitment to the full scope of the long-term solution. An IVR system can be implemented for a small section of the call center onlyand yet be fully effective. This concept of implementation by sections will be explored in this article.

What an IVR solution offers

IVR gives better caller service and lower costs

Installing an IVR solution within a call-center is easily accomplished and is relatively rapid. Such a project will give four main advantages. They are as follows:

Complete divisibility
By complete divisibility, we mean that any section, large or small, of the call-center activities can be easily hived off and handled by IVR agents. It is as easy as setting up a new group of human agents within the call-center. An important task is to ensure that the way in which calls are transferred to the section or are handed on from the section are well defined.
Improved customer service
IVR by Crimsonet offers improved customer service. The IVR agent is always alert, fully trained and very perceptive in interpreting customer requests. An IVR agent can provide the very best information and accurately transfer the call to another function if additional information is required.
Performance measurement
The accurate recording of both the callers’ requests and the IVR agents’ responses provide an excellent basis for measuring performance. The Crimsonet technology involves a continual monitoring of performance to facilitate a process of ongoing improvement.
Reduced cost
The running costs of operating an IVR system is much below that of employing human agents. The typical payback for an IVR project by Crimsonet is measured in months.

Defining an initial IVR section

An IVR section could involve Natural Speech IVR agents handling a particular function for a fraction of the incoming calls. In this example, suppose the caller must use a touchtone Interactive Voice Respon

se unit to identify that they wish to access the particular function. If a Natural Speech IVR agent is available, then a proportioin of such calls (for example 50%) are transferred to IVR agents. The balance of the calls for this function is handled by human agents. For example in one real life banking installation, the function involved in handling stock quotes inquiries was handled by an IVR section with great success.

By surveying customer reactions for those handled by IVR agents and those by human agents, a comparison of customer satisfaction can be developed. Clearly the costs of both methods are easily identified. This sectional approach is illustrated by the image below. In the case of the bank, the initial success has resulted in further functions that were transferred to new IVR sections.

Closing an IVR section - the costs

An IVR section test does not imply increased costs

Operating a Natural Speech IVR section as compared with managing the equivalent group of human agents or touchtone IVR delivers many advantages. It is therefore a very unlike event that an IVR section would be closed. The costs involved in running a Natural Speech IVR section for some time will usually be lower than the costs of managing an equivalent group of human agents or touchtone Interactive Voice Response units. This means that there is a net cost advantage when operating Natural Speech IVR. This means that there is little risk in setting up an IVR section in order to gain experience of this way of operating.

Conclusion

Natural Voice IVR Sections demonstrate the benefits while minimizing the risk

In practice it will be found that deciding to test out an IVR section is almost a no-brainer decision. Even in the worst situation where the IVR section is eventually closed, it is likely that minimal cash costs will have been involved. This risk can be minimized by choosing a smaller section. Much more likely however is that the benefits of the IVR approach will have been shown to be very significant. The operating experience with the IVR section will simplify the further installation of additional IVR sections.

More Human Agents May Not Be The Answer To Better Customer Service

2008-02-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

People complain about telephone customer service almost as frequently as they do about the weather. Since that message “Your call is important to us” is often the prelude to an unsatisfactory experience, you could understand why Netflix decided to go the human agent route entirely. However a study released by callcentres.net suggests that even callers may think they got it wrong. callcentres.net is the central portal for the Australia and Asia Pacific contact centre industries providing research, benchmarking studies, and up-to-date news and information.

As the study points out, Netflix isn’t the only one Many contact centre managers misunderstand customer response to speech recognition applications. The study found 37% of contact centre managers without a speech application believe all customers would prefer to talk to a live agent to using a speech recognition self-service application.
A previous callcentres.net study that surveyed end users found that when customers have the choice to use a speech system or talk to a live agent, 30% of callers prefer the speech channel over an agent, with less than half of people preferring to talk to a customer service representative. If faced with waiting on hold prior to speaking to a customer service representative, this same study found 85% of customers would prefer to use a self-service speech recognition option.

“The research actually indicates speech recognition is the preferred self-service channel, both over the web as well as over a live agent amongst 30% of respondents.” So for a sizeable fraction of callers, you’ll show them “Your call is important to us” by offering them what they want, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) agent. If your system is functioning well, the others will probably enjoy their calling experience too.

Is your IVR system rude to your customers?

2008-01-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems have been around for some years now. They are often implemented to minimize costs and to provide a more rapid pickup of calls, thus avoiding upsetting delays. Many such systems seem to have been adopted with the view that callers will accept a somewhat impersonal non-human voice if this means reduced delays.

This minimal get-by approach has unfortunate consequences. A recent Frost and Sullivan report spells out what can happen:

In the last decade, as part of the movement to reduce customer support costs, companies began to outsource their customer support centers...“However, the widespread adoption of IVRs has left customers frustrated and angry at what they perceive to be a callous disregard for customer service standards,” according to the analyst of the study. “One of the main reasons is the poor design of voice-based user interfaces that makes customers feel like the companies just do not care about them."

Rarely do companies do caller testing to determine user satisfaction. Just think of any recent experience you have had with an IVR system. Just imagine that a human call agent had spoken to you as that IVR system did. How would you rate the conversation on the rudeness <<< >>> politeness scale? Far too many are downright rude.

Some customers are so upset that they use a service such as that described by Brian Troy in his post, How much do your customers hate your IVR? He tells us that entire companies are being launched to aid customers in getting around the system. BRINGO! is a new service, which enables customers to get to a human faster. BRINGO! has conquered phone trees. That seems a somewhat extreme but perhaps understandable reaction.

Such rudeness was never really acceptable. Now it is just bad business for two reasons. Firstly customers are aware that the control has passed to them as the Internet gives greater information and opportunities.

It is also bad business to stay with that old-fashioned rude IVR system for competitive reasons. Natural voice technology has evolved to the point where highly effective Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can be implemented. This is an important competitive advantage to the early adopters of such systems.

Can You Hear The Future?

2007-12-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Rhetorical questions do not require answers. The answer is always very clear. Such questions are becoming very commonplace around the subject of speech technology or voice recognition. That’s because such technology will play an increasingly large role in all our lives in the future.

For example, Victor Keegan, in the Guardian asked Has voice recognition finally come of age? He based his positive view on relatively simple examples involving voice technology for note taking. As he said results can be impressive. Indeed this blog post is written with Nuance NaturallySpeaking software and there is rarely need to correct the text produced from my dictation

Michael Sola, Director of IT at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, wrote in a somewhat similar vein Can you hear me . . . again? He is pointing out that the world is going increasingly mobile. Different people want to handle their messages in different ways. A good proportion would certainly prefer to see them written out. So a speech technology service is inevitable.

Why is this groundswell of opinion on the inevitability of speech technology so strong? The more perceptive observers might point to the considerable efforts that Google seems to be putting into this area. That may well be justification enough for a bullish view. However the underlying reasons are much more straightforward.

David Mould, a Telco Consultant living and working in Thailand, has a keen interest in these emerging technologies. He lays out these reasons in a recent post on Ingredients for a good voice based service for cell phones. Here is what he says on this:

The impact then will be in services that are one or more of:
key intensive
time intensive

Key intensive activities are those that require many keystrokes, e.g. navigating IVR or text messages. Many handsets today (the Nokia E50 for one) have message readers that provide alternative methods for reading received SMS’s. With the growing restrictions on use of mobile devices whilst driving, a service that allows you to dictate and send an SMS through a voice interface, as opposed to keyboard strokes, could prove to be very popular and useful.
…..
(A key) service, available from other providers such as Jingle Networks (1-800-FREE411), is directory services. You can use the voice interface to search for services and typically will be connected automatically.

A directory search would normally be a time intensive and/or key intensive activity. By creating an access channel via voice, this turns the interaction more into a conversation or discussion. This has the benefit of creating appeal in less technically able groups who look for a more familiar access path.

Key intensive or Time intensive applications are likely to be those most people like to avoid. Any such application based on speech technology with good functionality is likely to see a ready and rapidly expanding market.

Overall if you do not hear the future, perhaps you’re just missing out on the buzz that is all around you.

When is an IVR system satisfactory?

2007-12-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Any company or service that must handle a large number of callers will inevitably install an IVR system. What factors does the owner of such a system consider in deciding whether performance is satisfactory? Here are some of the important ones:

the cost of running the system
the number of calls the system handles
the proportion of calls that must be handled by a human operator
the number of complaints about the system

Unfortunately the general level of satisfaction with IVR systems is low, so people may not complain even if they’re not completely satisfied. That’s why some IVR system owners adopt some of the ruses mentioned by Carl Turner in his recent article Tricking the caller to stay in the IVR. Here is a sample of what he is discussing:

I don’t think I’ve worked on an IVR project when the business people didn’t suggest using “tricks” to keep callers in the system. You know what I mean by tricks: disabling the zero key, or playing a routing menu when zero is pressed, or using a non-zero key for transfers, messages that falsely state long queue times, or putting the caller back in the system after they request a transfer. Often the tricks that are used in IVRs can create pure misery for the caller.

It’s all very well to try to reduce the cost of the operation but that’s not the whole picture. Callers are often customers. Without them the business is nothing. So when is an IVR system satisfactory. The only sensible answer must be when callers find it satisfactory. That’s why Carl Turner offers the following advice:

My recommendation to companies considering using tricks to keep customers in the automation: work on the quality of your IVR first. Monitor, survey, read the reports, improve. Once you’re satisfied that the IVR operates flawlessly you can consider using some small inducements (a nice way of saying a subtle trick) to keep callers in the IVR. If it’s done properly you might be able to increase your automation rate slightly with no cost to the user experience. However, it all depends on first getting the IVR right.

Business owners should not find this thinking difficult to accept. Customers are much more in control in this Internet age. It is very much easier for them to check out the competition and switch if they’re not completely happy. That’s why it’s essential to be customer-centric. You’ve got to see it from the customer’s point of view. So once more, what is the only possible answer to that question, “When is an IVR system satisfactory?” It’s when the customer tells you it’s satisfactory.

VUI (Voice User Interface) Applications Can Go Live Faster

2007-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

The Voice User Interface Development Reality

When developing an IVR solution, a core part of this is the Voice User Interface (VUI). Developing and implementing VUI applications is usually a very lengthy process. Following the usual development stages required for any software system, VUI applications usually require exhaustive tuning processes, especially when involving natural language, to make them deliver close to natural language experiences.

The long time required to launch VUI applications often results in compromising on the requirements. This usually means accepting simpler applications that are easier to develop but which will deliver less satisfactory caller experiences.

In other cases, in trying to meet the target launch date, testing and tuning activities are short-circuited leading to:

lower call resolution rate
lower customer satisfaction
lower operational saving

In other words, this means lower overall quality and inevitably increased cost to correct deficiencies.

The time to launch VUI applications successfully can be shrunk by using advanced tools such as the ones used and offered by Crimsonet. These automate the major coding activity in a VUI application life cycle. This is done using a modeling process, which then is followed by auto generation of the code. Rapid cycles of testing and adaptation can take place to meet evolving business needs while improving the applications quality. The result is higher quality VUI applications and increased caller satisfaction.

For the business that is implementing a VUI application to automate their contact center services, the result is increased operational savings. For the VUI solution provider, the result is a competitive advantage over competitors using traditional tools for their VUI implementations.

The VUI Development and Implementation Process

A VUI application must include the following phases on its way to a successful launch:

Definition phase, including requirements gathering and high-level design, creating a definition of the application and setting the stage for the detailed-design to follow. The definition phase requires exploring and understanding the business goals, the users, and the functionality required for the application. The outcome of the definition phase is a requirements definition document.
Design phase, creating a complete and detailed description of the application, including the call flow, the prompts to be played by the system, the spoken expressions to be recognized by the system, and the external interfaces to implement the requirements as per the high-level design guidelines. The outcome of the design phase is a detailed design document, and possibly a prototype.Usability tests may be conducted early in the design process to validate the design from a user perspective, using the Wizard of Oz (WOZ) approach.
Realization phase, including the application development, testing, and tuning. The development includes the creation of the application software, the development of the grammars to be used for the user speech recognition, and the production of the audio to be played by the application, including prompts as well as nonverbal audio.Testing activities include application testing, recognition testing, and usability testing.

Once the system has been tested, it’s ready for deployment. A phased deployment approach is used. It starts with a pilot exposed to a limited number of users. The number of users is gradually increased until the system is fully deployed. During the phased deployment process, tuning activities take place, including dialog and recognition tuning, optimizing the system performance to meet the requirements.

The VUI application development and implementation process timeline can be illustrated as follows:

Conceptual Activities vs. Mechanical Activities

The Definition and Design phases described above involve lots of communication (like interviewing users in the requirements gathering), analysis activities (as when defining the system requirements out of the business, users, and application needs), and familiarity with human behavior. Those activities can be considered as conceptual activities, requiring human intellectual capabilities in order to be performed.

The Realization phase on the other hand, includes more routine and mechanical activities by its nature. Once the design has been laid down in details, the job of translating it to the system physical components is mostly logical and mechanical. Not all the system components are the same. The audio production obviously requires actors to perform and be recorded; on the other hand the process of programming the call flow is very mechanical; and in between, the tuning activities are a mixture of very mechanical activities and human expertise.

Automating The Mechanical Activities

Technology can be used to automate the mechanical activities. A good example is implementing the call flow.

Before coding the call flow software, a good practice is to document in details its requirements and the high-level design, review all this, and then approve it. Then a detailed design document is prepared; once reviewed, approved, and baselined, it will be the reference for the call flow software coding. In reality, as in any software development process, the design document as baselined in the beginning of the software coding keeps evolving, creating the need for a configuration management process to maintain integrity between the design and the software code being developed. GUI tools can help capturing the detailed design of the call flow, making the job faster and easier. It is easier for the initial design, as well as for modifications as may be required as a result of testing or tuning. Once the design has been captured in the system, a system can automatically produce the executable that can be then loaded to the target system and executed.

“What’s the big deal?” You might ask; “we’ve been doing it for years with our GUI and database applications”. This is exactly the point: if this approach is good for GUI and database applications, why not for VUI ones?

The tool that is most commonly used these days for VUI applications development is VoiceXML. VoiceXML is a speech-centric language providing speech dialog components. Even though it’s relatively easy to develop VUI applications using VoiceXML, it nevertheless is a programming language requiring programming skills and techniques as well as software development techniques to be applied successfully.

Ultimately, we will see an advanced tool for VUI applications development which allows the capture of the call flow design using a dedicated GUI environment. This will then automatically produce the VUI application components, which are the call flow code and the grammars.

Tuning Aid Tools

While the call flow creation is very similar in its nature to any other software application development (except for the executables that are more specific to these applications, like the grammars), the system tuning is unique to VUI applications development.

The reason for that is that human speaking behavior, especially natural speaking, is more difficult to predict than behaviors in operating other software applications. The only way to address it is to start with an application based on the best predicted behavior possible based on agents experience or service call recordings analysis. This is then tested with real users. This way real user behavior can be experienced and difficult to predict actions can be identified and addressed. As the system is being exposed to more and more users, the less likely it is that a new behavior will show up. This is the nature of the tuning process.

Usually the process of collecting the user inputs, analyzing them, and applying the changes needed requires very technical skills, and therefore is provided as a professional service by the speech engine vendor. When the system is live, ongoing tuning for performance improvement is done only from time to time, usually every couple of months. When complete usability tests and tuning activities must be performed prior to launch in order to reach the acceptable recognition level, this may well take a long time and delay the system launch.

Advanced system monitoring and reporting tools that allow ongoing analysis of the system performance on a daily basis by people that are not necessarily technology experts, as well as tools to rapidly address the monitoring findings, make the job of system tuning much easier and quicker. This applies prior to the system launch, as well as continuing after launch during its ongoing operation. This allows earlier launch of the system while its tuning continues after it has gone live.

The Improved VUI application development and implementation process can be illustrated as follows:

Shorter Time To Market Combined With Higher Quality for IVR Projects Is Possible

From experience in IVR projects using automated VUI tools as described above, the project effort and duration can be reduce drastically, resulting in overall time to launch being reduced by between 50% and 70%. Once the time to launch has shrunk, and the application development cost has been reduced, a couple of options are available:

More effort can be put into improving the quality of the application thus increasing customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs (as a result of higher call resolution rate).

More complex applications, like natural language ones are now considered doable, resulting in automation of more services and therefore further operational cost reduction.

IVR applications can go live faster using these advanced VUI tools. They’re a very powerful example of the improved human-computer interaction that is now possible.

Advanced IVR Is Winning Out

2007-11-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

IVR is sometimes applied to those company telephone systems where you punch keys to work your way through a menu of choices trying to find someone to help you. Increasingly callers are dissatisfied with this approach.

As Alan Hubbard points out in an eCommerceTimes article, 43% of companies surveyed in their “Contact Center Analytics” benchmark were either seeing poorer performance in call abandonment rates or didn’t measure this KPI (key performance indicator) at all. His company is finding that speech self-service can have significant impact on customer satisfaction and operational costs (staffing).

With advanced IVR, customers often prefer it over a human agent or a message that says comeback during business hours. Being able to access account or order information via speech IVR or accessing a voice portal via their cell phones allows the call center customer access to data they previously had to wait for.

His finding that over the next 12 to 18 months, 30% of Best in Class companies plan to implement a speech self-service application is therefore hardly surprising. Speech-enabled IVR is now clearly top-of-mind for many companies.

GOOG-411 or CALL-411 - Voice-actuated Mobile Web

2007-10-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

There are many who are touting the huge potential of the mobile web and there are many others who are pointing out the considerable hurdles the mobile web must overcome. Some of the most difficult hurdles can be overcome using voice recognition technology. Announcements this week by Google and Microsoft would seem to confirm this thinking.

As the Google Blog tells us, their local business info service has officially graduated from Google Labs. To mark the occasion, they’ve launched a brand new GOOG-411 website.

GOOG-411 helps callers find and connect with local businesses just by dialling 1-800-GOOG-411. It’s a voice-based local search service, which means it uses speech-recognition algorithms to recognize what a caller is saying and then finds the local business information he or she is looking for. These algorithms had to be trained with real utterances, much like how a baby learns language by listening to its parents. Since its unveiling in April, GOOG-411 has successfully served millions of callers.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft this week unveiled their voice-operated rival, with a free directory-assistance service for mobile users. Live Search 411 (FAQ) delivers local listings as well as weather updates, movie show times and airline information. Users with Internet-enabled devices can also receive links to maps and one-click driving directions. It also works with regular PCs. Last month, Microsoft rolled out several enhancements to its core Live Search portal, including updates designed to improve results for queries related to entertainment, shopping and health care.

The GOOG-411 and CALL-411 applications may be handling a relatively simple problem. However the same approach can easily be expanded to cover many of the services that mobile Web users are looking for. This is an important step in the growth of the Mobile Web.

SpeechTEK 2007 - Speech Technology Becomes More Mainstream

2007-08-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

SpeechTEK brings together the people who build the telephone voice response systems that are becoming a ubiquitous part of our lives. As Christopher Herot reports, while many of these systems are downright annoying, the cost savings are impressive - one estimate was that every second shaved from the human interaction in a directory assistance application saves the phone company $7 million. The developers are keenly aware that the caller is not always enthusiastic about speaking to a robot and in fact measure their success by reducing the percentage of the time the caller presses 0 to get to a human being.

The opening keynote speaker perhaps signals a different way of approaching this. Mike Cohen is Google’s speech technology group manager and was previously with Nuance. He focused primarily on his company’s speech-powered mobile program, GOOG411. This service, which is currently available in the USA, allows cell phone users to get directory information using voice commands. As Cohen noted, when searching on the mobile Web, users want specific information fast. To tackle this challenge, Cohen suggested speech technology has an advantage over traditional means of data entry. He underlined the importance of keeping an “obsessive focus on the end-user.”

With the resources that Google and others are putting into similar applications, it is likely that callers will more readily accept similar speech technology systems. If such systems deliver good user experiences, it is less and less likely that callers will inevitably go for the 0 key and be willing to wait their turn for a human operator.

Orange Confirms The Trend To IVR With Speech Recognition

2007-08-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

In May 2006, Computing saw only a slow-moving trend towards the use of speech recognition technology. A few UK companies including Powergen, British Airways, Lloyds TSB, Barclays and Odeon were adopting such systems. The holiday firm First Choice joined this select band with a customer contact centre in Manchester, handling 600 calls a day, and dealing with the most common enquiries about balances owed on holidays, making payments and checking on ticket status.

At the time, a Gartner analyst Steve Cramoysan predicted steady, rather than spectacular, growth. He suggested, ‘One thing that may push things along faster is Google, which is talking about introducing voice search over mobile phones. If that happens, it will take this technology down a whole new high-profile track.’

Google is clearly putting major effort into this area but as yet they have not revealed plans. Nevertheless in advance of that, the advantages of using speech technology are being increasingly recognized and exploited by the front-runners. Mobile phone network operator Orange has announced that it will improve customer service with the implementation of a speech recognition system. The move is part of a £100m investment in customer services in the light of increasing criticism from consumer groups about poor service at the company. Orange added 1,000 call centre agents in the last year and will now upgrade its customer service systems by improving the underlying platforms that route incoming calls.

Given the poor reputation of the telecommunications companies for customer service, it may be expected that other telecoms will be following the Orange lead.

Local Call Center Agents On The Way Out - Perhaps Not.

2007-08-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

As the New York Times recently reported, Booz Allen Hamilton, a management-consulting firm, and Duke University studied 600 companies last year and found a continued increase not just in outsourcing, but also offshoring, in which call centers are moved overseas.

One company bucking the trend is Netflix. They are fighting Blockbuster for DVD sales by mail. They have set up their call center in the greater Portland area because of the genial attitude on the part of most service workers. Michael Osier, vice president for information technology operations and customer service, said he rejected cities like Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, which are known as call-center capitals, because of their high employee turnover rates. Matt Mani, a senior associate at Booz Allen said, “This is a unique strategy for Netflix. There’s so much more competition, this is something they’ve done to get closer to the customer, because without that, there’s really no connection a customer has to Netflix.”

Netflix’s decision to greet anxious consumers with a human voice is now unusual in corporate customer service. It also represents a high cost choice. It you hire too few human agents then callers must wait interminably for one to come free. To ensure a rapid response, there must be enough call agents to answer calls within a short time delay. The hiring, training and scheduling of sufficient call agents are quite a challenge.

Rather than relying solely on human call agents, a better and more economic solution is to combine Natural Speech IVR agents with human agents. Simpler caller requests can be handled by the IVR agents. More complex calls or those where the caller wishes to speak to a human agent can be rapidly transferred to a well-trained and welcoming agent. Such a combined system gives greater flexibility to deliver better caller experiences with optimal use of the available human agents. Such ongoing optimization is an integral part of a Crimsonet IVR project.

Since a combined system like this delivers greater caller satisfaction and good economics, it will ensure that local call-center agents are with us for a long time to come.

IVR Doesn’t Spell Frustration

2007-07-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

In the online Montreal Gazette feature on “Your call is important to us”, Roberto Rocha has an interesting interview with Mark Goldberg, a telecom consultant. Goldberg is probably representing the average telecom executive’s view in the following:

The real challenges for the communication industry are the same of almost the entire inbound call centre industry. People aren’t necessarily having a worse experience with telecoms. They just have more reason to call the telecom than any other type of utility.

Because of the volume of calls, it’s incumbent on the service provider to handle those calls as cost effectively as possible. That’s where I think people run into the greatest frustration. Cost effective is not a compatible characteristic with down home friendly service.

I understand one of major coffee shop chains in Canada has trained employees to not be friendly. They smile and everything but it’s not efficient to get into a friendly conversation in a fast food coffee shop. That same principle applies to mass volume call centres.

In order to handle calls more quickly, telecoms have stuck those automated voice systems before the human agents. And that’s as unfriendly as it can get. It’s a huge frustration level, especially when you have to wait while hearing that your call is important to them. If you felt my call was really important, you’d have enough people to handle my call.

But what the company is attempting to do is lower their cost structure. The alternatives are to pass on the cost to consumers or ship all service overseas, which can result in a deterioration of service.

In summary, we’re no worse than anyone else and the only alternatives are less satisfactory.

The “E Source 2007 Review of North American Electric and Gas Company IVRs” would certainly confirm that average view. They assessed the IVR systems of 103 U.S. and Canadian utilities. They found that utility customers consistently report lower levels of satisfaction when they use an IVR compared to talking directly with a phone agent, dealing in person with an agent, or even interacting with their utility at the utility web site.

The point is that not all IVR systems are created equal. Modern technology can ensure that IVR is able to respond intelligently to clients. That’s what the report found for the highest rated companies such as Cleco Power, Florida Power & Light, Progress Energy (Florida), Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Omaha Public Power District.

Sandy Goodwin, director of the E Source Utility Customer Care Service, points the way. “Highly rated IVRs are providing a convenient way for customers to interact with their utility, but they are also helping the utility to reduce operating expenses. Increasingly, good IVRs are key to the success of a utility’s call center. The best systems highlighted by our review offered the functions that customers wanted and made those functions easy to find and to use.”

We’re No Worse Than Anyone Else

2007-06-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

The title is a phrase you probably recognize instantly. Tom Peters who wrote In Search of Excellence in 1982 often told the story about the company where he heard this. Everyone related to it. For example Bob Stone working in the US federal government quoted it in an excellent article on Culture Change in February 1999.

As he said:

Six years ago Vice President Gore gave me and 200 other career federal employees the chance to figure out what was wrong with the federal government and what to do about it. For us it was the chance of a lifetime, a chance to use our talents to the fullest, to let us take charge of our part of the world, to change the very culture of government, to change our work so that it would be admired and appreciated by the American people.

He went on to say:

So, based on my own credentials as a culture changer, and on the infallible authority of “Yes, Minister” and Dilbert, I can confidently contradict the other experts and say this about government: we may be risk adverse, but we’re no worse than anybody else.

Unfortunately the phrase is just as applicable now. It came to mind in reading an article on “Why Loyal Customers Are Harder to Find Today” The answer to that question seemed to be that since customers now have more choices they are more demanding. It was almost as if the problem was the customers.

You can regard this as bad news or good news. If your competitors are applying the standard of We’re no worse than anyone else, then you have a real opportunity to steal their customers. Unfortunately few companies seem to be taking this opportunity when it comes to customer service.

Poor IVR and Untrained Human Operators Both Frustrate Customers

2007-06-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Tim Searcy of the American Teleservices Association comments that Call center problems go global. Around the world, similar problems are very evident.

First, offshoring is a concern in each local market. Representatives from Australia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East voiced the same complaints about “foreigners” answering toll-free phone calls on behalf of products and services companies. Universally, there appears to be a distrust of someone outside of a person’s own country handling a service or sales issue.

Second, technology without training has decreased customer satisfaction. Call center software Aspect has expanded its customer satisfaction index to include Europe but the results are similar to the United States. Consumers desperately want to experience first call resolution from trained individuals that are pleasant. The interactive voice response has replaced good satisfaction design in many cases and worldwide there is an epidemic of frustration about IVR jungles and lengthy queues.

Interactive Voice Response systems, as supplied by Crimsonet, can avoid these types of problems.

Voice 2.0 and IVR

2007-06-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

Voice 2.0 is the title of a conference that will take place in Ottawa on November 5 - 6, 2007. The term, Voice 2.0, was first coined late in 2005. To an extent it builds on the notion of Web 2.0, which was coined by Tim O’Reilly.The conference description points to some exciting developments:

Voice 2.0, or New Telephony, has arisen as a result of the convergence of Telecom and the Web. In the process, heavily communications oriented Web 2.0 applications are placing new demands on network infrastructure, and developers of traditionally computing centric products such as video games and business process applications, are discovering whole new opportunities when their products are augmented with human oriented communications ( i.e. voice).

Paul Graham has pointed out that Web 2.0 acknowledges some of the basic principles of the Internet. Democracy is much more powerful and users will not accept being maltreated.

Equally the Voice 2.0 principles should have the same impact on simpler applications such as IVR. The older style IVR systems controlled the user. Now users will insist on retaining control of the conversation, as is possible with modern IVR systems. This will put strong pressures on companies to upgrade to match their competitors.

Your Call is Important to Us

2007-06-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Your call is important to us. Surprisingly it is not one of the biggest lies. However many would say that it should be. It seems very likely that Montreal Gazette tech reporter Roberto Rocha is on a winner in featuring this topic on his blog. He is looking for inputs from Gazette readers and he may well be overwhelmed by the response.

Some, like Hans Sander, have suggested that the solution is to add more call agents. However Ken Belson in the New York Times questioned that solution since some jobs are so boring that workers fall asleep.

The best solution is to use one of the modern IVR technologies as described on this website. In that way callers receive the very best service with an immediate response from the IVR system and a rapid transfer to a human call agent if the call is complex. It will be interesting to see whether such solutions are discussed in Roberto Rocha’s new blog.

Voice Control for Getting Mobile Information

2007-05-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

One motivation for Nuance’s acquisition of VoiceSignal announced this month was said to be better mobile voice control. This is very much what the marketplace is seeking.

For example this week it was noted that the Vancouver International Film Festival will have a Mobile VIFF Interactive Voice Guide. This will provide a voice-driven front-end to the VIFF’s on-line database of festival films and events. This will allow users to quickly retrieve a wide variety of information using a combination of pre-recorded prompts and descriptions. It can be used from any phone but clearly certain functions are very much applicable to mobile devices.

With the improvements in voice recognition technology, such applications will be increasingly common.

IVR must deliver better user experiences

2007-05-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Forrester has just rolled out a report authored by Moira Dorsey, entitled Best And Worst Of Phone Self-Service Design, 2007. Forrester applied its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Review methodology. The report examined the phone self-service experiences at 16 firms — four of the largest credit card issuers, consumer electronics retailers, PC manufacturers, and wireless providers. None of the companies passed the Forrester evaluation but a number are now beginning to adopt best practices. JPMorgan Chase received the highest overall score. Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Dell and Cingular all received honorable mentions. The key message in the report is that effective IVR solutions will only be developed by looking at the user experience and ensuring the systems meet users’ needs.

Voice Recognition Closes In On... Customer Service Call Centers

2007-05-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

There’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times entitled ‘Voice Recognition Closes In on HAL‘. It describes the intriguing work that is being done by companies such as IBM to allow you to control some of the systems in your automobile by your voice. It’s a tough environment for voice recognition systems and safety concerns are paramount. However within five years they’re predicting quite phenomenal results, although they may initially appear only on luxury cars.

Such developments help to explain why voice recognition systems are moving so fast into customer service call centers. There’s a huge demand for such systems given that the traditional ways of providing customer service to callers are costly and rarely give customers a satisfactory experience. The technical challenges are very much simpler than trying to make such systems work in an automobile. A customer speaks directly into a telephone and is usually calling from a low-noise background environment. If it takes a few seconds more to identify exactly what is required, then there are no safety concerns. All-in-all it’s highly likely that most of the call centers you call will be using voice recognition response systems long before you’ll have HAL or anyone else controlling your car.

Speech technology will be the big winner in mobile Web growth

2007-05-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone acknowledges that the fastest-growing sector on the Internet is the mobile Web. What is not often remarked is that there will be many difficulties in creating seamless experiences in surfing the web because of the competing standards and the diverse devices that are being used. Smart phones may seem attractive but using those tiny keys is challenging. Nevertheless since the world is on the go, the demand is there.

Speech technology is a very attractive proposition to help deliver that mobile Web experience. Just think of surfing to a voice portal or vortal as some are dubbing them. By simple voice commands, you can completely control what appears on that tiny screen. You wish to order something so you just keep talking. Voice recognition technology is already well understood: it’s just a question of refining the applications.

Two recent major acquisitions confirm this thinking. Microsoft has now completed the acquisition of Tellme Networks. The move represents a huge opportunity for Microsoft, says Forrester analyst Elizabeth Herrell. According to Datamonitor, worldwide sales for speech technology are more than $5 billion. Herrell expects that will only continue to explode.

More recently Nuance is in the process of acquiring Voicesignal Technologies. This will create an organization with broad resources, solutions and expertise that will satisfy the accelerating demand for speech-enabled mobile devices and services. Nuance expects to serve more than one billion consumers within the next three years with voice-based mobile solutions that allow people to simply and effectively navigate, retrieve and transact across the vast and growing universe of content and services available in mobile phones, automobiles and personal navigation devices.

Perhaps as a footnote, it should be clear that what works well in the mobile world can much more easily be applied in the static world. Voice recognition and speech technology can easily be applied to voice portals that you might access on your desktop PC. The same technology will see increasing application in the more successful call centers.

Tellme Shows The Power Of IVR

2007-03-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

In this increasingly mobile world, IVR or Interactive Voice Response is a technology that will be getting more and more interest and effort. Tellme Networks is a company that clearly is one of the beneficiaries of that movement. If you haven't been aware of this company, just check their website to see what they do:

'Tellme helps you find the businesses you need every day. Powering nearly 40% of the US directory assistance (411) calls, Tellme lets you simply say the city, state and business and hear your results. Try it now on 1-800-555-TELL and say “Business Search”.

As an indicator of the importance of the Tellme mission, Microsoft has announced that it will acquire Tellme Networks for an undisclosed fee. Microsoft's release points to the importance they place on this technology.

'Microsoft and Tellme share a vision around the potential of speech as a way to enable access to information, locate other people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device. Combining Tellme's talented people and expertise in high-volume voice services with Microsoft's platform, resources and worldwide customer reach will inspire new and innovative solutions.'

Microsoft points to some of the interesting application areas:

'Potential areas of development resulting from the deal will range from hosted voice-enabled customer service solutions that complement Microsoft's existing unified communications offerings to voice user interfaces in existing Microsoft products to search services on mobile phones that integrate with Live Search for mobile offerings.'

The exciting aspect of this news item is that it will clearly put much more promotional clout behind the IVR revolution. As more callers expect to have their calls handled well, this creates an exciting potential for variants of IVR that can give a more satisfying caller experience. Crimsonet's Interactive Voice Response (IVR) will be a strong contender in this search for excellence.