Say What You Want And Get It: A Q&A With Tellme

By Tracey E. Schelmetic 

Say what you want it get it,” is the message on Tellme’s (News - Alert) Web site. It’s hard to get more succinct than that. The company also states that more than 40 million people use Tellme every month to reach the people, businesses and information they need on the phone and on the go. I recently got a chance to catch up with Jamie Bertasi, who heads up the Business Solutions division of Tellme. (In other words, I said what I wanted to know, and she got me the information.)

TS: When you say Tellme is the “world’s largest VXML platform,” what do you mean? How is that measured?

JB: We have created the largest voice platform used by millions of people every day. There are over 3,000 applications running on the Tellme platform for everything from directory assistance to customer service. Our platform not only has the most VoiceXML applications running on it but also receives the most phone calls of any voice platform in the world. The sheer volume of calls allows us to process a huge amount of data on how people interact with voice services in order to continually improve the overall performance and experience. This means our platform recognizes a greater variety of voices, so applications perform better.

TS: How easy is the solution to personalize and customize for each company?

JB: Personalization and customization are built in. Businesses on the Tellme platform have multiple voices and languages to choose from to be the “voice” of their company. For each voice, we have millions of recorded audio prompts and specialized libraries. In addition, our patented concatenation techniques create natural-sounding sentences. Too often, with other systems, you hear half of a sentence in one voice or intonation, and the other half uses another voice or even a different volume level. That’s like the Frankenstein of audio, and it makes callers really impatient. When callers contact businesses powered on our platform they hear natural-sounding audio, whether the application is confirming a pizza order or reporting an account balance.

Again, drawing on our close understanding of the top reasons for calls, Tellme is able to leverage our clients’ web data to deliver a more personalized experience for the caller. For example, when we worked with American Airlines on their “Remember Me” campaign, research indicated the top reason people were calling customer service was to confirm the status of their flight. Tellme and American Airlines developed a personalization service that recognizes a customer’s phone number. Say the caller has a flight later that day, the system will welcome the caller by name and automatically tap into the internet letting him know the flight departure time and gate before offering the main menu options.

Customization is so easy that Tellme clients can update voice prompts, record an emergency message, or change call transfer options on the fly without having to edit or redeploy code.

TS: Are users showing a preference for voice navigation through IVRs rather than touch-tone navigation, which is, let’s face it, the butt of a lot of jokes? Why do you think customers seem to respond better to voice navigation?

JB: Voice is the natural user interface for the phone.

However, the Tellme solution offers a much richer experience for callers. Our Voice User Interface (VUI) experts are very aware that there are times when voice may not be the most desirable interface, such as when providing a Social Security number. So, we support a touch-tone interface for all applications as a backup. Because of our experience, we have also been able to design a system that is intuitive and allows the customer to get to what he wants when he wants it.

This not only results in an improved experience for the caller but can also increase revenue for the enterprise. For example, one client’s trade volume increased 18 percent with a redesign of their IVR based on Tellme best practices.

TS: Can you give us an example of these best practices?

JB: It’s important to look at the caller’s needs. Rather than design a static tree of menus that require a user to listen to long lists of options every time, we encourage clients to deliver a proactive menu providing the caller with information he is most likely to want. The American Airlines application I mentioned earlier is a good example.

Menus should be personalized, too. Instead of presenting the same menu to every caller every time, menus should be adapted to their current needs. This delights callers. Take a healthcare company; simply bringing relevant options to the forefront of the main menu during open enrollment season can make a huge difference in the response among callers.

TS: What are the most important factors that go into achieving ROI on a solution of this type? Where are the most obvious savings?

JB: Great question, and one we get asked a lot by new clients. Clearly, the higher the level of self-service, the greater the savings. But the ROI also stems from numerous other issues, such as the system’s design and the flexibility with which it can be deployed.

Tellme provides a complete solution for building, executing, managing, and enriching voice applications. We offer a solution that can help ensure voice applications contribute to business goals, delight callers, and reduce the cost of doing business.

TS: Thanks for your time, Jamie. CiS

For more information about Tellme, visit www.tellme.com.

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