Nuance Enterprise Connect Blog

The Holy Grail of getting the right answer, right away

2012-02-10T02:53:00Z

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%

2012-02-06T16:52:00Z

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

2012-01-30T16:38:00Z

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?

2011-12-20T18:37:00Z

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?

2011-12-13T00:00:00Z

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

2011-12-06T20:35:00Z

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

2011-11-16T21:31:00Z

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?

2011-10-26T16:46:00Z

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?

2011-10-24T17:27:00Z

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

2011-10-19T18:01:00Z

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

2011-10-14T12:00:00Z

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

2011-10-11T02:40:00Z

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

2011-03-23T21:02:00Z

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

2011-02-04T21:56:00Z

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

2011-01-07T21:55:00Z

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

...(read more)