When someone calls a company and the speech-enabled auto attendant fails to connect them to the proper person, they typically blame the speech recognizer for not accurately interpreting what they said.
It’s an easy assumption to make. It’s also a common misconception. As the experts at auto attendant solutions, Parlance Corp. point out “it’s usually not the speech recognizer platform causing the error, rather, it’s the accuracy of the directory.”
“Generally speaking, today’s speech recognizers are very accurate,” explains Mark Bedard, marketing manager for Parlance Corp. “But the other components of a speech-enabled call routing solution – the routing table, the grammar and lexicon content (the dictionary and pronunciations), the dialogs, and in particular the registry of names and numbers – actually play a larger role in the success of any speech system.”
In essence what Bedard is saying is that any speech-enabled auto attendant system is only as good as the data that goes into it – and that data needs to be continuously updated if the system is to remain accurate.
“Without constant maintenance of the registry, performance will slowly erode over time,” he said.
A lot of phone system makers are now bundling speech-enabled auto attendants in with their solutions, but as Bedard points out, the vendors typically leave it up the customer (more specifically the customer’s IT department) to update or maintain the system. Typically these systems work well when they are first installed, but over time the performance degrades due to the fact that the registry is not being updated often enough.
A company’s directory can become outdated in a variety of ways: Employees get fired or they quit, and the directory is never updated to have calls to those employees ring through to another extension. This is how an important call – and business – can get lost. Another thing that happens is a female employee gets married and changes her last name. So, callers asking for “Carol Smith” may in fact be looking for “Carol Jones” – but they can’t get through because they don’t know the name change has occurred. In both instances, invariably, the caller “zeros out” to connect with a live receptionist – which in essence means the auto attendant has failed to do its job.
Parlance Corp. learned all about the importance of keeping the directory updated early on in its 14 year history through trial and error. Since nearly the beginning, the company has offered its nameConnector auto attendant solution as a managed service. Basically what Parlance does is update a company’s directory both automatically and manually (working with the customer) using a set of proprietary web-based tools. By keeping the directory up-to-date and accurate, the system keeps purring along smoothly, connecting callers without the need for live operator intervention. This, in turn, helps drive user adoption. It also drives caller satisfaction and helps companies reduce operating costs. To learn more, click here.
Patrick Barnard is Group Managing Editor, TMCnet, focusing mainly on call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Patrick Barnard