Interactive voice response (IVR) systems have come a long way in the past five years or so. Once derided by consumers as “awkward,” “difficult to use,” “inefficient” and “a waste of time,” today’s IVR systems sport advanced speech recognition technology that enables them to carry out “natural dialogs” with callers. In fact, some companies today endow their IVR systems with their own unique “persona” – an “artificial agent” that cheerfully greets and assists every customer and who unofficially serves as the “voice of the business.”

As a result of their improved functionality and capabilities -- not to mention the increasing number of deployments -- consumers aren’t just growing tolerant of IVR systems they are actually coming to prefer them. With these speech-enabled, self-serve systems, consumers can carry out basic transactions -- such as getting one’s bank balance, carrying out an over-the-phone transfer, or requesting a copy of a brochure, etc. -- without having to wait on hold to speak with a live agent.

In fact, industry research shows that many consumers actually prefer to use speech-enabled self-serve systems over live assistance when it comes to simple interactions. It seems we have reached the tipping point where it is now OK to carry on an interaction with a machine – and it is no longer an “insult” when a customer encounters an IVR system when first dialing into an organization.

 

One area where IVRs have gained acceptance is in proactive notifications. For example, your pharmacy’s IVR system calls your house and an automated message informs you that one or more of your prescriptions is due to be refilled. You can then simply “tell” the IVR system, using verbal commands, which prescriptions you want refilled -- and in some cases you can even indicate whether you want them delivered. Or, if you are picking the prescriptions up, you can find out what time they will be ready -- all without ever having to speak with a live agent.

 

A new study from speech recognition technology leader Nuance, in concert with Forrester Consulting, “Driving Consumer Engagement with Automated Telephone Customer Service,” shows that a majority of consumers actually prefer to receive proactive notifications by way of outbound IVR system as opposed to a live agent. In five out of ten posed scenarios, consumers preferred IVR systems over live agent interactions for tasks like prescription refills (66 percent rated automation highly, compared with 52 percent for live agent), checking the status of a flight from a cell phone (61 percent versus 49 percent), checking account balances (59 percent versus 36 percent), store information requests (55 percent versus 37 percent), and tracking shipments (53 percent versus 47 percent).

The survey also reveals that IVR systems are an “expected and accepted” customer service channel. About 82 percent of US online adults say they have used an automated touchtone or speech recognition system to contact customer service in the past 12 months.

 

So what types of things do consumers like to get proactive notifications for? According to the survey, 93 percent of consumers like the idea of getting notifications related to travel, including things such as flight status updates and confirmation of reservations for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Eighty-eight percent of consumers are interested in notification from a financial services institution, with strong interest in transaction confirmations. Consumers also have a strong interest in appointment reminders.

 

“The contact center plays a crucial role in retaining consumers, yet less than half of U.S. consumers report being satisfied with their customer service experiences,” said Micky Tsui, Nuance’s (News - Alert) senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise, in a release. “As the research shows, there is a lot of room to improve customer service. Today’s enterprises have the opportunity to differentiate themselves by considering their customers’ needs and providing intuitive speech applications that improve customer loyalty at every touch point.”

 

One key finding revealed by the survey is that mobile phone users who use their mobile devices for customer service have a stronger preference for using speech-enabled systems than mobile users who do not use their mobile devices for customer service. This bodes well for companies dealing in speech recognition technologies, as well as those which deploy IVR systems, as Forrester (News - Alert) expects the total number of wireless-only households in the U.S. to reach 19 percent by 2013.

 

Helping to drive acceptance of speech-enabled, self-serve systems is the fact that they allow consumers to carry out transactions and get information 24/7/365. Seventy-seven percent of survey respondents said this was as a reason they value automated telephone customer service systems. Another 40 percent valued that they didn’t have to wait on hold for a live agent, while 31 percent cited the ability to obtain information quickly.

 

Another key finding revealed by the survey is that even though consumers are growing more accepting of IVR systems, they still desire the ability to opt-out of any interaction by dialing “0.” Sixty-seven percent said the ability to speak to a live agent at any time is necessary in order to consider an automated speech-enabled customer service interaction a “great experience.”

Accuracy continues to be important to consumers as well: Forty-two percent of respondents said they value the ability of the speech recognition system to understand them the first time a response is spoken -- and 39 percent said they prefer not to have to repeat themselves.

For more information about the Nuance/Forrester study, click here.

VoltDelta is a leading provider of hosted call center solutions, including Web-based IVR systems. The company’s CrystalWAVE speech recognition technology takes a different approach from other vendors by running multiple speech technologies in parallel to achieve even higher accuracy. As such, VoltDelta’s (News - Alert) CrystalWAVE technology goes way beyond simple word or phrase spotting and can actually interpret meaning by analyzing the context in which those words or phrases are used. To download a free white paper and learn more, click here.