J2EE And VoiceXML Drive Enhanced Voice Services In The Enterprise

BY PAULA SKOKOWSKI

Squeezed by increasing competition and retreating customers, companies are constantly seeking ways to increase market share and retain customers. In this age of one-on-one marketing, where technology has shifted power from sellers to buyers, companies of all sizes are being driven to find ways to establish an ongoing bond with their customers. For all the technology out there, that bond is cemented over the telephone. More than 70 percent of customer interactions with an enterprise occur over the phone, while Web self-service and e-mail account for 30  percent and 40 percent respectively, according to industry averages. In fact, voice interaction will continue to outpace Web interaction over the next decade as more than two-and-a-half times more consumers will have access to the telephone than the Web.

However, delivering a high level of customer service over the telephone while controlling costs is a challenge every company faces. Executives looking to cut costs without sacrificing good customer service constantly scrutinize call center expenses. With properly implemented voice applications, businesses can meet cost savings, productivity improvements, and revenue enhancement objectives. And, in most cases, they can use their existing Web and telephony infrastructures to build and deploy these voice applications.

The Evolution Of Telephone Automation And Self-Service
Since the 1970s, businesses have leveraged a number of advancements in telecommunications in order to reduce the need for live telephone support. Answering machines and voice mailboxes are now commonplace in business as are interactive voice response (IVR) systems. There are two types of IVR systems: traditional IVR, where the customer prompt is "press 1"; and enhanced IVR, where the customer prompt is "press or say 1".

It's fair to say that most automated systems for customer service are riddled with glitches, and in fact, loathed by the very people they are meant to help -- the customers. To say that IVR systems have been overused and abused by businesses is a huge under-statement. In the process of balancing the financial bottom line with the ultimate bottom line for any company -- that the customer always comes first -- businesses have lost sight of their goals to win and retain business by delivering superior customer service.

And after hearing, "Your call is important to us," "your call will be answered in the order received," and "please do not hang up as this will only further delay your call" from just about every company out there, customer after customer zeroes out of "voice jail" and goes directly to the live operator, eliminating any and all potential cost savings from the IVR.

A New Answer To Calls: Voice Recognition Systems
A recent analyst report estimates that handling a customer service call with an automated telephone system results in a ten to one cost advantage over a live operator. The real challenge is how to get the cost savings that improve profits, while at the same time not alienating the very customers businesses need to grow revenues. The answer: voice recognition technology.

Voice-recognition based applications offer tremendous opportunities for companies to extend their company brand and deliver superior customer service. Creating a human-like experience with voice recognition hinges on incorporating the embodiment of personality into the application, rather than the automaton-sounding "press 1 now". Personality in a voice user interface has been shown through experimental research to have a profound effect on customers' perception of liking and satisfaction, with corresponding implications for customer loyalty and buying preferences.

Increasingly, Fortune 1000 companies are turning to voice recognition-based systems to restore the level of customer service that their customers expect over the telephone. Companies such as United Airlines, General Motors, Charles Schwab, UPS, and American Airlines are using voice recognition technology to enhance the level of customer service they deliver while at the same time reducing the cost of delivery. The results are very encouraging. With research and analyst firm Gartner estimating that an automated phone call costs, on average, $0.45 per call versus $5.50 per call for a live agent-handled call, voice recognition-based systems can provide rapid payback.

J2EE And VoiceXML: The Technology Behind The Voice
With the role of voice self-service in the enterprise destined to grow, a new class of voice infrastructure software is emerging that provides Web developers with powerful tools for designing and deploying next generation, voice-enabled applications using enterprise software programming models.

Corporations have invested heavily in Web technology owing to its promise for improving operating efficiencies, containing costs, and increasing revenues. Today, companies are sitting on top of an enterprise application infrastructure, including databases, application servers, and application software, all designed to drive one presentation layer -- the Web. And the Web can be extended to drive services across the communication channel responsible for the vast majority of incoming enquiries -- the telephone.

This capability is achievable through a new class of voice infrastructure software that leverages J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and VoiceXML to enable rapid voice application development utilizing enterprise infrastructure and programming methodologies. Java voice infrastructure software is creating a vehicle for widespread adoption and deployment of voice services throughout the enterprise by bringing the critical benefits of enterprise software component architecture to voice-enabled enterprise services: application extensibility, connectivity, scalability, and reliability.

This voice infrastructure software closes the gap between the phone and the Web -- enabling, for the first time, integrated voice and Web self-service that is personalized to the user. Just as Web pages have evolved from static pages to dynamically generated interfaces, voice user interfaces based on Java voice infrastructure software now can exhibit the same personalized, targeted interfaces.

A static VoiceXML response would say something such as, "Welcome to General Magic. How may I direct your call?" With J2EE integration, voice applications can now access enterprise data in real time and dynamically generate VoiceXML responses for greater personalization and delivery of targeted information. With VoiceXML, the response would be more like, "Welcome Paula, it's good to hear from you again. Do you want to place an order?"

Conclusion
Businesses should be taking a hard look at how they can increase return on investments for Web-based infrastructure by adding voice to enterprise applications to improve bottom line results. The first place companies think about implementing voice recognition technology is in the call center. Here, greater productivity gains and business process efficiencies are noticed almost immediately, turning, for instance, a 60-second process into an 8-second process. For a business with a thousand employees interacting with customers ten times a day at 130 seconds per interaction, saving 100 seconds per call, per employee, per day makes a dramatic, immediate difference.

While the enterprise is focusing on the call center in the near term, the long-term focus needs to be wider. With a short-term return on investment, businesses set the stage for long-term ROI as they deploy more applications on the same platform.

It is evident from industry reports that voice applications that deliver improved voice quality and a short-term return on investment pose a serious threat to legacy IVR systems. While traditional IVR systems have enabled the automation of a limited percentage of calls, voice offers the opportunity to automate a much larger portion with a much richer set of interactions. The imminent demise of traditional IVR is a victory for both sides -- for businesses and for customers.

Paula Skokowski is the VP of marketing at General Magic. General Magic is a voice infrastructure software company that provides enterprise-grade software and supporting voice dialog design and hosting services that enable companies to quickly and efficiently provide anytime, anywhere access to information and services over the telephone.