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The Benefits of Effective Speech Recognition

TMCnews


TMCnews Featured Article


February 11, 2008

The Benefits of Effective Speech Recognition

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor


Speech recognition technology seems to have exploded throughout multiple industries. While some companies have implemented a robust system that performs as expected and sends the caller to their intended destination, others have proven to cause frustration as the caller cannot effectively navigate through the system.


So, if speech recognition has the chance to cause increased frustration for the customer, why take the chance on implementation? Why not just leave standard phone trees in place and let the customer ‘press’ their way through? Simple, robust solutions do exist that provide benefits in increased productivity, cost reduction and cost avoidance.

In the contact center industry, contact center managers must often be able to justify specific technology investments before they are approved. As contact centers have traditionally operated as cost centers, suggesting additional features that incur additional costs can be tricky. In the case of speech recognition, the cost can easily and quickly be recaptured.

As cost centers, contact centers are consistently monitored for performance. The less productive the contact center and its agents, the more money it costs the organization. The implementation of an effective speech recognition solution can reduce the number of agents, supervisors, trainers and quality assurance specialists that are needed within the contact center.

Speech recognition technology can also reduce the number of live calls. If a consumer is provided the option of gathering the information he or she needs without accessing an agent, more agents are free to handle calls that cannot be resolved with self-service.

Speech recognition can also reduce the amount of time an agent needs to remain on a line, increasing the number of calls that agent can effectively handle within their shift. The technology also helps to reduce training costs as specific processes within the contact center agent’s functions have been transferred to the speech recognition system. 

Other costs within the contact center can be avoided altogether with the implementation of an effective speech recognition system. Contact centers must always anticipate increases in the volume of calls, especially if new campaigns or products are launched. With speech recognition, the influx of additional calls can be effectively handled without the need to make further hardware or software investments.

These arguments help to arm the contact center manager with hard cost justification for the implementation of a robust speech recognition application. The ability to show the benefits in hard dollars will help to paint the reality of the benefits that speech recognition can provide.
 
For more, check out Loquendo's (News - Alert) Speech Recognition and Text to Speech channel on TMCnet.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page







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