A few weeks ago, we shared a real world scenario of how Voice Biometrics is being used in the contact center to lower costs, reduce fraud and deliver a great customer experience.  Now let's take a look at how Nuance's Voice Biometric solution enables secure, yet convenient, authentication by users of a telecom provider's mobile customer care app.

A telecom provider delivers wireline, wireless, high-speed Internet, digital TV, and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to consumers and corporate customers. The firm is already using Voice Biometrics to authenticate callers to their IVR, with over 4 million of their customers having enrolled their voiceprint. Customer service executives see the mobile channel as an opportunity to reduce call volume to the contact center.

However, recent investments in customer service apps have yielded mixed results. An application was released that required entering the same user name and password that customers used on the Web portal. Although the number of customers that have downloaded the app has surpassed expectations, the usage figures have been deceiving. And no decrease in contact center volume has been noted. Feedback from users state that entering complex alphanumeric passwords on their mobile device is inconvenient and frustrating and has been identified as the key factor preventing increased usage of the app. A second version of the app was released without any authentication requirement, but with reduced functionality. Users could only perform basic tasks, such as checking voice and data usage rates. A lack of authentication was viewed as too risky to enable service or account changes. Executive management is demanding to see an return on the mobile app investment.

The Nuance Voice Biometric solution is deployed to enable secure yet convenient authentication by users to the telecom provider's mobile customer care app. This approach has permitted the telecom provider to enable advanced functions on the mobile app, such as ordering new services and changing address information.

Usage rates have surpassed the initial targets and the contact center has seen a decrease in call volume. These results enable the telecom provider to achieve the return on investment it had originally set in its mobile application strategy. Enabling voice biometric authentication has also had an additional and unexpected benefit: new customers tend to use the mobile app before they call the contact center. As a result, when they do call the contact center for the first time, they already have their voiceprint enrolled, as the same voiceprint is used for both the mobile app and IVR authentication. This approach has resulted in an additional improvement in overall IVR automation rates, further reducing contact center costs.

Stay tuned as we take a look at using Voice Biometrics for Website transaction authentication next.