Nuance Business Consulting Services

Today thousands of contact centers are saving even more money by increasing call automation and they continue to keep their customers happy.  What's their secret?  They have designed their automation system around their customers' needs.  Overwhelmingly consumers prefer an easy to use speech interface for phone self-service.  Surprisingly, many contact center managers haven't even considered taking advantage of speech technology.  Some lack understanding of just how much a great speech solution can improve their overall customer care experience as well as the bottom line.  Others are nudist beach - er, that's "new to speech" - and once had a bad interaction with a speech system that misinterpreted what they were saying.  Whatever the reason, most justification is ostrich-like, claiming that a touchtone system is "good enough." 

Good enough... for whom?

Not good enough for complex tasks
Touchtone systems may be "good enough" for tasks you're automating today, but what about what you're not automating?  Touchtone automation forces you to route seemingly complex tasks, especially those that involve more than digits input-rescheduling an appointment, placing an order, contacting the helpdesk-to a live customer service representative.  What's more, as speech systems prove themselves capable of handling tough tasks seamlessly, customers are choosing to use them rather than zeroing-out to wait on hold for an agent.  In one Harris Interactive survey, 71% of consumers preferred the 24x7x365 availability of automated voice care.

Not good enough for routing
Touchtone systems aren't always "good enough" for routing a caller to the right place.  More often than not, touchtone systems present barriers to today's savvy and demanding consumers.  Lengthy main menus asking you to "please listen carefully to the following eight choices" break the social conventions of interacting over a phone - you talk, I respond, you answer.  Organizations are forced to create categories to present to callers and then callers are strained to guess the category that fits. As a result, too many callers either get overwhelmed or get lost in a maze of menu options until they finally press "0" to reach a live person. In fact, many have become trained to 'zero-out' immediately rather than wade through the options.

The latest speech-based solutions eliminate touchtone mazes by providing accurate, cost-effective routing to a caller's destination.  Rather than a long list of options, callers are asked an open-ended question such as "In just a few words, tell me how I can help you today."  The caller can respond with something like "Yeah, ummm, I have a question about a bill" or perhaps "I'm moving and I need to change my address."  They are then sent directly to the right destination - possibly a touchtone self-service application, a speech-enabled application, or an agent who can help them with their specific request.  Callers' are more satisfied because they want to focus on their own needs rather than having to guess which bucket to explore to find an answer.

Not good enough for today's callers
Finally, while touchtone systems may have been "good enough" in the past, they really haven't kept up with present-day caller expectations.  Consider the phones in use when touchtone systems came into being.  Hold the receiver in one hand, push buttons with the other.  Isn't touchtone great?  Listen and push, listen and push. 

Now consider modern phones.  Many home phones are cordless-all the buttons are on the handset.  Callers can go back and forth either pushing buttons or listening, but never both at the same time.  What about the mobile phone users? In a recent Harris Interactive survey, consumers responded that they use their mobile phone to call customer service about 70% of the time. They're too happy with their iPhone - you know the one with no buttons on it.  Some mobile phones have the ABC, DEF labels on the keypad, but many do not; callers with a mini-keyboard phone like a Blackberry are counting through the alphabet to spell out a name.  Meanwhile, more and more cars now come with telematics capabilities.   While sitting in traffic, your customers are calling your customer service number - often dialing by voice.  If they're pushing buttons on their dashboard, it's probably to hit zero and talk to an agent.  More and more consumers are using touchtone-unfriendly devices.

Good enough is not good enough
The ability to interact with your customers in a conversational manner, the way they naturally speak, is a powerful driver for increasing customer satisfaction. Rather than being forced into rigid menus, customers using self-service speech solutions enjoy simplified dialogs. In addition to reporting a much better caller experience, they tend to have shorter calls and complete them within self-service, increasing your automation rates and reducing costs.  By enabling more conversational input, speech addresses the needs of today's consumers. 

In short, touchtone simply isn't good enough for today's consumers.