PDF of this tutorialWhat Benefits do IVR Speech Solutions Provide for Customer Service Organizations?
Speech recognition can deliver more than a simple upgrade or enhancement of touch-tone IVR applications. The value proposition for integration of speech recognition capabilities into an IVR environment is derived from the automation of transactions that are too tedious or impractical to perform using a touch-tone-only interface. A speech interface gives callers more flexible navigation options that are less complex and more intuitive than rigidly hierarchical touch-tone menu options. This provides faster, easier self-service transactions for customers and promotes increased customer satisfaction and retention.
However, the primary benefit that is motivating organizations to embrace speech solutions is the potential for dramatic reductions in operational costs. Speech solutions improve the productivity of customer service personnel because a higher percentage of customer calls can be fully or partially automated. Increased automation frees the customer service agent from many routine administrative tasks and reduces costs related to customer service staffing, as fewer agents are able to serve more customers. Thus, profitability improves when savings in overhead expenses are realized.
Flatter decision-tree menus and more direct access to the information or service that callers need will reduce the duration of an average call over time. This benefit is particularly important for organizations whose callers typically use toll-free access lines. Even a minor reduction in the length of an average call can produce significant savings in an organization's operational cost for telecommunications service.
The addition of speech recognition capabilities helps IVR system owners derive more benefit from their investment in existing IVR resources. Speech solutions typically run on the same platforms used for touch-tone applications and require minimal changes.
Resources that have been developed to support an Internet presence can support an IVR speech solution as well.
| Because most companies have or will build Web self-service applications, they've already got the business databases that can serve double duty for the speech recognition application. All they need is the speech interface, the vocabulary, and a connection to the business database. —CIO Magazine, June 15, 1999 |
Thus, organizations can use some of the same data modules built for an IVR speech-enabled application for their intranets. This could deliver a high degree of code reuse.
A speech-enabled interface can serve as the foundation for providing convenient new IVR services for customers as well as reduced operational costs, improved customer satisfaction and retention, increased return on investment, and a stronger market presence for the IVR service provider.
The latest speech solutions for IVRs feature the following:
- speaker-independent phonetic recognition of large vocabularies
- natural language and number recognition
- continuous alpha-numeric recognition
- building-block approach that reduces the complexity of application development
- barge-in capability
- configuration flexibility (client-server or integrated with telephony host)
- speaker-trained voice verification
- support for multiple languages
- full integration with other IVR features
