From Nuance

The Holy Grail of getting the right answer, right away

Andrea_Mocherman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:53:00 GMT

Smartphones are now the majority of mobile phones in countries such as the United States, and at the end of 2011, nearly 15% of U.S. consumers went online using a tablet, according to eMarketer . By 2014, more than one in three online consumers will use a tablet, the research company predicts. Those statistics increase the proportion of inbound sales and customer support queries coming from mobile devices. In the past, the majority of those mobile-originated queries were in the form of calls, but...(read more)

How Hosted IVR can Drive Performance Improvements of 20%-30%

Andrea_Mocherman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:52:00 GMT

Hosted IVR is generating a ton of buzz these days because it's one of the fastest growing segments of the contact center hosting market. In North America alone, enterprises spent $606 million on hosted IVR in 2010, according to Frost & Sullivan. Come 2017, they'll spend $1.08 billion. But what really matters is what's behind those growth numbers - why is this area so hot and why enterprises are making the move to hosting. Not surprisingly, it's all about driving improvements in...(read more)

Five Reasons Not to Migrate Customer Service to the Cloud

Andrea_Mocherman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:38:00 GMT

Imagine it's the early 1970s and you're a regional bank manager responsible for hundreds of branches and thousands of employees. Your boss asks that you consider installing brand-new automated teller machines (ATMs) so customers don't actually have to come into your branches for simple transactions. He explains that this new technology will provide customer convenience and that in the future, ATMs will be critical in evolving the way that banks interact with customers. You initially reject...(read more)

Enterprises: What's Your Mobile Strategy?

Andrea_Mocherman — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:37:00 GMT

Fifteen years ago, analysts and investors frequently asked enterprises, “What’s your Internet strategy?” The unspoken corollary was, “If you don’t have one, you’d better get one fast, or you’re toast.” Today the question is, “What’s your mobile strategy?” While 89% of business leaders say they have a mobile strategy in place according to Forrester Research, they are still in the early stages of development, and many lack the expertise...(read more)

Have you Heard from Your Utility Lately?

Andrea_Mocherman — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Smart Grid is causing a revolution in the way energy utilities provide service. With the rollout of Smart Grids picking up pace over the next few years, there will be more consumers needing more information which almost always equates to more budget needed for customer care. While data management costs will increase, there is an innovative technology available to energy utility companies to proactively cut costs for customer care over the course of Smart Grid rollouts: outbound Interactive Voice...(read more)

Voice Biometrics Goes Mainstream – and Mobile

Andrea_Mocherman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:35:00 GMT

Banks, telcos and government agencies are just three examples of the organizations that are leveraging voice to streamline and enhance authentication, including on mobile devices A person's voice is one of a human being's most unique attributes, as individual as fingerprints and retinas. That distinctiveness makes voiceprints a powerful yet convenient way for enterprises and other organizations to authenticate employees and customers who want to access information or services remotely, while...(read more)

Voice Biometrics Nears its Tipping Point

Andrea_Mocherman — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:31:00 GMT

There are new reports about security breaches related to passwords on a weekly basis, making authentication processes more important than ever. People should be very concerned about using the same password for multiple accounts, because if just one of their accounts is breached, then it's highly likely that all of their accounts will be compromised. Nuance Communications recently conducted a Twitter survey focused on consumer perceptions of voice biometrics. The results of the survey found that...(read more)

Customer Service in the Cloud Takes Flight - Will you be in First Class or Coach?

Andrea_Mocherman — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:46:00 GMT

Dena Skrbina - Sr. Director, Solutions Marketing, Nuance Communications (Twitter - @dskrbina) If you have a contact center, small or large, chances are that you've already moved some of your customer care infrastructure to the cloud. It's no longer a new trend; it's an organizational standard. Frost & Sullivan forecasts hosted contact center revenues to grow at 34.1% annually from 2009 through 2013. Why are companies moving customer care to the cloud? In addition to the productivity...(read more)

Consumers Willingly use Multiple Channels to Interact with a Company - Does your Cross Channel Experience Stack Up?

Andrea_Mocherman — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:27:00 GMT

Since the emergence of multi-channel self-service, there is a growing disconnect between the typical strategy employed in telephone self-service design and what many customers actually need. This blog details the results of a survey that Nuance commissioned to uncover customer channel preferences for an array of banking tasks, including recommendations for optimizing the IVR to both accommodate those preferences and minimize the frustrations associated with today's multi-channel servicing climate...(read more)

Why 95% of Apps are Quickly Abandoned – and How to Avoid Becoming a Statistic

Andrea_Mocherman — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:01:00 GMT

First, the good news: Android and iOS users download an average of 10 apps per month. Add in Nielsen's prediction that in some markets - such as the United States - the installed base of smartphones will outnumber feature phones by the end of this year, and it's clear that the mobile channel has become one of the most powerful ways for companies to interact with consumers. Now for the bad news: Many apps are quickly abandoned, especially free ones. For example, less than five percent of Smartphone...(read more)

Bring on the Apple iPhone 4S

Christy Murfitt — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Have you seen one yet? The new iPhone 4S ? If you aren’t one of the lucky few who got theirs today, then just wait. You are in for a treat. Today marks a milestone for natural, conversational interaction between consumers and their mobile devices. Apple’s Personal Assistant Siri marks a sea change in how consumers leverage voice technology. If you used the original Siri App or Nuance’s Dragon Go! You know that there are a few key ingredients to the interaction that can feel almost...(read more)

Applying the Principles of Game Mechanics to put the “Fun” Back into your IVR

Andrea_Mocherman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:40:00 GMT

The words “fun” and “IVR” aren’t typically used in the same sentence. But thanks to the concept of game mechanics they just might be more often. In this interview, Eduardo Olvera, Senior UI Designer at Nuance, discusses why the concept is gaining a lot of attention from Contact Center and Customer Experience professionals and explains how it can be used to reduce caller frustration, drive engagement, improve the customer experience and dare we say make your IVR …fun...(read more)

New article: Social Media -- How You Can Guide Lost Families to Their Strollers

Sara Kiriakos — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:02:00 GMT

Great article by Nuance's own Jeff Foley that was recently featured on 1to1 Media. Social Media: How You Can Guide Lost Families to Their Strollers My family and I were once leaving a crowded show at Disneyworld. Disoriented, we couldn't figure out where to find our strollers before we muscled ourselves toward the exit. A helpful Disney employee about 10 feet away overheard our conversation. He interrupted us, asking, "Excuse me, but are you trying to find your strollers?" He pointed...(read more)

Demystifying Natural Language - Part 3

Jeff Foley — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:56:00 GMT

If you’re considering an upgrade to your phone self-service, chances are you’re looking for the facts about “natural language.” It’s become one of those industry buzzwords, much like “cloud computing,” which vaguely refers to many related technologies. There’s a misconception that natural language technology—or its cousins, natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU)—enables a caller to say almost anything to a speech recognition system. With all the confusion surrounding natural language, many don’t realize how it helps their self-service system. The truth is that natural language technology can involve one of several approaches, each effective for different tasks.

In this third post, I’ll talk about who uses natural language and why.

...(read more)

Demystifying Natural Language - Part 2

Jeff Foley — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:55:00 GMT

In this second post, I’ll explain why all “natural language” is not the same.

...(read more)

New Year, New Blog

Erica Hill — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:40:00 GMT

It's almost time to turn the calendar page to 2011! With the New Year come many new changes and resolutions...so why not a new blog as well?

Starting today, we'll be continuing the Dragon conversation over at our brand-new space - http://voicesofdragon.com. Come by and see what's new from Dragon, and tell us what you think too!

Happy New Year!

Demystifying Natural Language - Part 1

Jeff Foley — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:49:00 GMT

In this first post, I’ll explain why natural language is such a big deal for speech-enabled automated phone service systems.

...(read more)

Facebook, Farmer's, and Zynga: Brand Aware Social Gaming

Ilene Kaminsky — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:17:00 GMT

Today, very few of us can deny that social media has broad based influence on brand awareness. Specifically, social gaming really has impacted enterprise customer experience - evidence Farmville. Facebook, the number one social networking site on the internet, most certainly influences consumer brand experience through targeted and "personalized" ads based on a user's "likes" as well as other criteria. Therefore, as the most popular application across most operating systems...(read more)

Hear That? That's the sound of rubber hitting the road. (A look inside Professional Services)

Rebecca — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Since the topics covered in this forum are often broad or theoretical, I thought readers might enjoy a glimpse into what goes on in the trenches at Nuance every day. We don't just ramble on over here. I sent an email to the enterprise design team in Nuance Professional Services to ask "what are you working on this week?" I requested just a few words in response, and here's a sampling of what came back to me within 3 hours: Designing a SpeakFreely Main Menu for a bank Working on...(read more)

4 steps to help fix your IVR reporting (Yes, we're talking to you)

Lauren Hodgson — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:25:00 GMT

It's remarkable that so many companies have invested so heavily in IVR systems and so few companies have good reporting on what is actually happening in their IVRs. Sure, everyone has some IVR reporting happening, but it's typically ad-hoc, cobbled together snapshots of manually assembled data. And the reporting is usually tantalizingly close to, but not quite what the operational team or the executive teams really want to see. On top of all of this, coordinating the reporting across multiple...(read more)

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Personalization?

Donald Davis — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:32:00 GMT

I've been thinking about the concept of "personalization" over the past couple of weeks and the notion of what is the right amount of personalization for business to consumer interactions. Doing a lot of travel as I do, I've gotten accustomed to a certain level of "personalization" from our friends at the TSA. As a matter of fact, a few weeks ago a TSA agent at Newark and I had a personalized interaction that definitely went way beyond expectations and in my estimation...(read more)

Dragon Dictate for Mac is here!

Erica Hill — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:22:00 GMT

We're heading into Fall this year with an exciting announcement for Mac users - Dragon Dictate for Mac is here!

A little history: For a number of years, MacSpeech leveraged the Dragon speech recognition engine to power the popular MacSpeech Dictate application. Earlier this year, Nuance acquired MacSpeech and welcomed Dictate as an official member of the Dragon family. Since that time, we've been working hard to bring our PC and Mac products closer together, so that we can offer the accuracy and feature set that our Dragon NaturallySpeaking customers have come to rely on for the PC, and still maintain the important, native Mac elements of Dictate that Mac users expect.

Dragon Dictate for Mac is the first major Mac product release from the new Dragon family and, perhaps most exciting, the first to leverage the new Dragon 11 engine (just released at the end of July), resulting in a big accuracy and performance boost over MacSpeech Dictate 1.5. Dragon Dictate for Mac offers a more streamlined set-up, revamped Mac user interface, and dynamic new voice commands for dictation, editing, navigation and proofreading. Dragon Dictate for Mac also “learns” better than any previous version of Dictate, responds faster to spoken commands and supports Dragon Voice Shortcuts for searching the web, email and Mac desktop by voice.

You’ll find more information about Dragon Dictate for Mac, including promotional pricing, at www.nuance.com/dragon/mac.

And the full press release announcing our new family member is right here - http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/NC_007231.

Happy Monday!

Thanks,

Erica Hill, Corporate Communications, Dragon

Customer Service in the Age of Instant Gratification

Nick Ezzo — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:04:00 GMT

Last week, Google made a surprise announcement introducing Google Instant, an enhancement to their core search offering that displays search results on the page as you type. Some people have found the "psychic" nature of Google Instant to be creepy, while others simply love it. Whether or not you find this feature to be valuable, it points to a continuing trend in our society - instant information gratification . In Google's case, web surfers can get their information fix before they...(read more)

Complex Content Networks: The Imminent Customer Care Storm

Ilene Kaminsky — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:28:00 GMT

While you’re reading this: another consumer bought a new wireless handheld device. Perhaps she made a call to her sister to test out the voice commands on the headset she bought online to go with her “phone” - and to tell her about her new car. While on the call used her multifunctional device to snap a photo and sent the MMS to her sister. Before her drive home she paired the device via Bluetooth with her car. As she drove, she asked the GPS system in her vehicle to locate the...(read more)

I Speak Dragon! Contest Winners Announced

Erica Hill — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:34:00 GMT

This year, we hosted our fourth annual "I Speak Dragon!" story contest, and we asked YOU to tell us how you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking or MacSpeech Dictate. We were inundated with responses from hundreds upon hundreds of people - students, lawyers, teachers, bloggers, pastors, moms, dads, grandparents and more - and all of them had unique stories to share. If you haven't had a chance to see any of this year's stories, I would encourage you to check out http://ispeakdragon.nuance.com and read through some of the amazing tales from folks who use Dragon.

It was extremely difficult for our panel of judges to choose just three winners from all of the wonderful stories that you shared. But here they are...the winners of the 2010 "I Speak Dragon!" contest:

Most Creative

“Dragon NaturallySpeaking: a matchmaker?”

After a few strange experiences with blurred vision and numbness, Evan Upchurch was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Evan was concerned with how the diagnosis would affect his productivity at work, and he was also somewhat isolated, unaware of anyone else with MS with whom he could talk.

As time passed, Evan’s hands developed a severe tremor, and his group administrator at work suggested that he try Dragon NaturallySpeaking. When he asked why she recommended Dragon, she told him that a co-worker had been using Dragon and was extremely pleased with its performance. Evan connected with this mystery co-worker and was surprised to learn that she too had been diagnosed with MS and that she had turned to Dragon to save her career.

The two forged a friendship starting that day that ultimately blossomed into a relationship. In fact, May marked the couple’s five-year wedding anniversary. “Dragon NaturallySpeaking and multiple sclerosis served as our extremely unlikely matchmakers, and the luckiest break I’ve ever had,” said Evan.

To read Evan’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/1565.aspx

Most Productive

“Three Million Words and Counting”

This past June, Time Magazine named Joe Romm’s website, ClimateProgress.org, one of the 25 “best blogs of 2010” and one of the “top five blogs Time writers read daily.” “That would never have happened without Dragon NaturallySpeaking,” says Joe.

Over a decade ago, Joe injured his right hand, which made typing for any length of time painful. To allow him to continue writing, Joe quickly found Dragon. Joe has since dictated a number of books – The Hype about Hydrogen and Hell and High Water – and he has even credited Dragon in his books, noting: “…it’s the best product yet…Dragon NaturallySpeaking arrived just in time to enable me to double my productivity on this book.”

When Joe started the ClimateProgress.org blog for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, his writing became much more frequent. Dragon came to the rescue again, supporting Joe through a few thousand blog posts over the past four years. All together, Joe figures that he has dictated at least three million words with Dragon.

Joe now uses Dragon on his home PC and MacSpeech Dictate on his Mac laptop to allow for fast and easy on-the-road blogging. Using speech recognition has changed Joe’s writing style and has even made his blog posts more conversational, a quality which he says contributes to his blog’s immense popularity.

“For me, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is an indispensable product.” says Joe.

To read Joe’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/4223.aspx

Most Life-Changing

“Disabled but still able to”

An event took place in 1997 that changed Nancy Blose’s life. A 34-year old mother of two young children, Nancy was involved in a catastrophic car accident that left her instantly paralyzed and unable to do so many of the activities that she had previously taken for granted. Shortly after the accident, Nancy found Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and she set out to capture her thoughts and her words as quickly and as openly as possible.

“There is permanency with written words and I had many thoughts that I wanted preserved,” said Nancy. “My first priority was to write letters to my children, then ages six and eight, to be opened on their 16^th birthdays. The letters were my assurance in case of my early demise to once again tell my children how much I love them and to pass on motherly pearls of wisdom.”

As Nancy continued to use Dragon over the years, she also dictated a book about her accident and her survival, and even communicated with her children’s teachers via emails as they progressed through school. Today she is able to send personalized greeting cards – created online by voice with Dragon – and also keep in touch with her children who are now in college.

To read Nancy’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/1635.aspx

The full press release announcing the winners is included below.

Congratulations to all of our winners! And to those of you who entered but who did not win this year, THANK YOU for sharing your stories with us. Get your voices ready for next year's contest!

Thank you,

Erica Hill

******

Nuance Announces Winners of Fourth Annual “I Speak Dragon!” Story Contest

Hundreds of People Share Their Success Stories; Winning Entries Submitted by Author, Software Company Employee and Mom of Two Detail Their Experiences of Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech Dictate

BURLINGTON, Mass., – September 2, 2010 – Nuance Communications, Inc., today announced the winners of its “I Speak Dragon!” contest, which encouraged users of Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech Dictate software to come forward and share their personal stories about how Dragon has enhanced and transformed their lives.

Proof positive of Dragon’s popularity and impact, hundreds of stories were submitted this summer, including a record breaking number of video entries. People from all walks of life, including students, authors, teachers, comedians, grandparents, doctors, lawyers, and police officers, among many others, submitted incredible stories of improved productivity, creativity, and innovation made possible by Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech Dictate.

Three winning entries were selected by a panel of judges from the hundreds of exceptional stories received across all three different categories, and Nuance is pleased to announce the following winners:

Most Creative

“Dragon NaturallySpeaking: a matchmaker?”

After a few strange experiences with blurred vision and numbness, Evan Upchurch was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Evan was concerned with how the diagnosis would affect his productivity at work, and he was also somewhat isolated, unaware of anyone else with MS with whom he could talk.

To read Evan’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/1565.aspx

Most Productive

“Three Million Words and Counting”

This past June, Time Magazine named Joe Romm’s website, ClimateProgress.org, one of the 25 “best blogs of 2010” and one of the “top five blogs Time writers read daily.” “That would never have happened without Dragon NaturallySpeaking,” says Joe.

“For me, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is an indispensable product.” says Joe.

To read Joe’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/4223.aspx

Most Life-Changing

“Disabled but still able to”

An event took place in 1997 that changed Nancy Blose’s life. A 34-year old mother of two young children, Nancy was involved in a catastrophic car accident that left her instantly paralyzed and unable to do so many of the activities that she had previously taken for granted. Shortly after the accident, Nancy found Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and she set out to capture her thoughts and her words as quickly and as openly as possible.

To read Nancy’s full story, please visit: http://community.nuance.com/groups/i-speak-dragon/forum/t/1635.aspx

The above winners will each receive an Apple iPad and choice of either one copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional or one copy of MacSpeech Dictate as well as the right to receive any upgrade to the Software specified by the winner that Nuance creates, in its discretion, in the ordinary course of its business during the three year period running from the end of the Promotion Period.

To read other exciting contest entries that demonstrate some of the unique ways that people everywhere are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech Dictate, please visit: http://ispeakdragon.nuance.com/

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance is a leading provider of speech, imaging and customer interaction solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance, Dragon, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

Apple, Inc. was in no way affiliated with or a sponsor of this Contest.