Speech recognition and speech synthesis are two technologies that really interest me. I’m not sure why, I think that perhaps I consider them the final interface barrier between man and machine - and therefore the key to making our interactions with computers more efficient.

About 5 or 6 years ago I paid Orange £10 to have “Wildfire” instead of the standard Orange answerphone. This is an answerphone with speech recognition and is really quite nifty. I can question her on the messages I’ve received - who they’re from, when they arrived. She can sort and file them for me, and create contacts in a phonebook for people I like. She’ll then remember these people and ask them to record their name next time they call. I can also use wildfire to place calls (which is really useful when you’re on handsfree). I can even get her to playback messages when I’m on another call; and in this instance the other caller hears the message too. The speech recognition is really good. There’s no training required and the only problems I have with it is when there’s loud music in the background, or my friends work out they can shout “throw it away” when I’m listening to messages. Fortunately she always asks for confirmation before she deletes something and my friends have never worked out that they need to shout “Yes” afterwards. (!)

So, my point is that good speech recognition has been around for 5 years or so now. Anyone who tells you that the technology is not up to scratch is either a liar or ignorant. But yet it hasn’t made it’s mark as a popular technology in call centres. This confuses me, as the possibilities for cost savings are endless.

The lack of take up comes down to our fear of automated services. And this fear comes about because we’ve started to believe that an automated system is detrimental to the customer experience. Most people I know consider the best telephone banking service is the one that uses a live agent 100% of the time.

This is where I’ve got a radical opinion: This isn’t because of the technology. It’s because of the implementation. Most salesman/consultants/call centre management & directors think of automated systems the wrong way around. They think of them in terms of Investment and Return before they consider the customer.

If an automated system doesn’t make life better for your customer then you need to think really hard before you implement it. You don’t recruit agents with 100% thought about cost and 0% about the customer experience so why do it with your automated system?

Does it get the call answered quicker? Does it get them the information they need immediately? Does it give them more power over the transaction? The answers to these should be yes.

Do customers get confused with the options? Does it frustrate them more than a live op would? These should be no.

How does this automated system add value to the customer? Review your own automated system now - you’d be surprised at the results. I would guess that it was designed with cost savings in mind.

So why I am writing about this? Because I had a very good run in with an automated system last week and it put a smile on my face.

I needed to track a parcel with Royal Mail and I couldn’t use the web. I called the number on my receipt, expecting a wait before I got an agent then another wait before they found the information I wanted. What I got was a speech recognition system that asked me to say my parcel reference. This was 2 letters, 9 numbers then 2 letters. I said these as quick as I could - just because I wanted the system to fail. It then repeated the code to me (it got it correct, sadly!) and told me the date and time the item was delivered, and the office that had delivered it. It then asked me if I wanted the information again, and if I wanted to be connected to an agent. Both of these were Yes/No answers.

The system was spot on. It gave me all the information I needed and quickly. A victory for speech recognition - and a victory for Royal Mail.

I look forward to seeing better automated systems in a call centre near you soon.

Regards,
DB

ps. If you want to know about some of the better voice recognition systems on the market then drop me a line and I’ll send you details.