The next step for speech technologyWireless connectivity has made things much easier for field workers. With a mobile device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), Tablet PC or Pocket PC connected through a wireless connection (whether wLAN, Bluetooth, GPRS or one of the new 3G networks) a van driver, for example, has immediate access to information on all his or her customers – inventory, order status, credit status and more. Information is entered once, organised automatically and synchronised with the back office. Updates, changes and alerts can be pushed out to the field in an instant.
But the driver – or service engineer, or sales rep – probably still has to spend a few minutes at every stop retrieving each customer's invoice on her laptop, or several minutes filling out sales reports or invoices or other forms at the end of the day.
And that's where speech technology can really speed things up. Because it's a natural human interface, speech provides an expressive and convenient way to enter and send data, work with applications, and access information and services through just about any device. So, if a company's forms, for example, were Web-based and speech-enabled the representative could fill them out while driving to the next customer's location simply by speaking to the application. The application responds just as if the user is typing in the data, displaying the information as it's filled in, or reading it back if she desires.
Speech is also the only user interface mode capable of providing a consistent user experience across all devices, large or small. As mobile devices, wireless networks and Web services become standard tools for mobile workers, speech technology will undoubtedly put more power behind the benefits that wireless devices inherently provide.
How Speech Technology Will Change The Way Contact Centres Function
Although speech technologies have been available for several years and have made significant inroads in numerous markets, most contact centres today use simple touch-tone-based voice response systems for the majority of their calls. With the advent of standards like Voice XML, a powerful mechanism which separates an application from an underlying platform, and Speech Application Language Tags (SALT), and support from major vendors, speech recognition is quickly moving into the mainstream. Speech systems are poised to bring significant return on investment to contact centres through increased automation of customer calls, partial automation of agent-assisted calls and more accurate call routing within the contact centre.
To benefit fully from the capabilities of speech, companies will need to replace the user interface of their touch-tone systems with a new voice user interface (VUI). A good VUI design looks less like a simple flowchart and more like a complex process diagram, allowing advanced users to skip several steps forward at a time, while guiding less sophisticated users through the process.
The real benefits come when you flatten the menu structure, allowing callers to quickly navigate to where they need to go. To do that, a company needs to change the way it asks for information. Since our short-term memory can handle only a few items at a time, long lists of options should be avoided. Instead, companies should ask callers a general question such as, "What product are you calling about?" or list a moderate number of choices and enable the caller to interrupt when they hear the option they want.
Although existing speech-enabling automation systems can yield significant cost savings, new applications can extend automation to more complex transactions and create even greater operational efficiencies. With current speech technologies, it is now possible to automate activities that touch-tone applications simply cannot address. Product availability lookups, literature requests, address change and capture, as well as a variety of other common transactions are still ill-suited to keypad input.With a speech system however, these tasks become quite practical. In looking for new automation opportunities, a company should examine its call volumes and look for high-volume, highly repetitive interactions. In many environments, these can be largely automated with a fairly standard speech application.
Technology And The Role Of The Contact Centre Agent
The implementation and deployment of speech technology does not mean the replacement of agents. On the contrary, for a company to reap the ultimate benefits the two must work in tandem, delivering improved service and higher satisfaction for customers and greater productivity for live agents.
As most contact centres use touch-tone systems for routing calls to correct queues, verifying caller identity and collecting other information up front so the agent does not have to spend time on these tasks, speech can further improve the accuracy of this process by reducing call length and improving service. The use of touch-tone input to route calls is very successful in simple call centres with only a few obvious choices. If the caller however, wants a replacement part, for example, should he or she contact sales or services? if the caller wants an airline seat upgrade, is that domestic reservations of the frequent-flyer service desk? Does a digital photo printer fall under the category of security of personal electronics or computer equipment?
Since touch-tone menus in these situations are often hard to navigate, a large percentage of calls must be transferred from one agent to another. When the number of queues is large, a deep menu with lots of choices may be needed. These choices tend to frustrate callers not only are these menus slow and cumbersome, but the customer may simply ignore the menus and "zero out" to an operator. All of these factors combine to make call routing in a complex call centre a significant cost factor.
Fortunately, speech systems provide a much better approach. By asking one or more open-ended questions, then statistically processing the answers, it is possible to achieve a very high rate of correct routing with a very flat menu. For example the system might say, "Briefly describe the purpose of your call", and based on the caller's response, route the call among dozens of queues with an accuracy of 80 per cent or more.
Important Aspects Contact Centre Managers Must Recognise When Choosing Or Deploying Speech Technology
Speech technologies can improve a company's operations in so many ways that it can be difficult to decide what to do first. There is often a trade-off between doing a strategic contact centre redesign and a tactical add-on to existing systems. When planning for a speech rollout, it is important for companies to remember that while there is a cost for implementing the solution, there is also a cost for not doing do.
Once a company determines, for example, that an address change application could save it £20,000 per month, the company's management should consider that amount as a cost for every month they delay implementing the solution. By rolling this application out quickly as a first phase of a larger project, a company could potentially save enough money to roll out a more complex phase later. Contact centre managers must, of course, acknowledge and address the realities of corporate guidelines and budgets, but should keep in mind that implementing a system with a high return on investment in a short period is a good way to prove the technology works.
Today's cost structure is driven by complexity – complexity derived from proprietary systems, non-standard integration scenarios into telephony infrastructures, custom application development, etc.
The more open standard speech platforms can remove or reduce these complexities and allow industry players to add value focused on a customer problem rather than add value on connecting disparate IT systems, the better off the industry and the customer will be.
"Speech systems cannot solve all of a business' problems, but they can bring great benefits and a very quick return on a company's investment, improving business and increasing its competitive position." – Corinne Steer, EMEA Marketing Director, Edify Corporation
Published: Wednesday, February 2, 2005
I am checking out all the amazing and daily updated content on ContactCenterWorld.com and networking with professionals worldwide
Send To Friends Post On My Wall