Voice Recognition with Natural Language Understanding brings efficiencies to Call Centers
Voice recognition technology has greatly evolved with the arrival of NLU or natural language understanding in artificial intelligence. NLU is a subset of natural language processing that deals with system reading comprehension. Many of us have seen this new technology applied to voice commands spoken to mobile devices for finding locations, getting directions or updating calendars. Customers are amazed when a system has the ability to have a conversational interaction that was never possible with traditional touchtone or speech voice recognition. Today's artificial intelligence can handle complex conversations in a free flow form that is similar to natural speech. More importantly, these systems become smarter over time as the intelligence engine automatically learns with each new conversation.
This technology assists customers calling into reservations desks, accounting offices, asking for service assistance or a myriad of other business and consumer situations without the need to engage a live agent. Virtual agents using NLU technology can handle either inbound or outbound transactions end to end. Virtual agents support the routine parts of a call and seamlessly transfer the caller to a live agent along with the information already collected. Transaction types that typically lend themselves to virtual agent technology is order status, order taking, order changing, bill payments, inquiries, account changes, scheduling appointments, confirming appointments, customer surveys, up-selling, cross selling, save-the-sale, outbound collections, outbound notifications/confirmations, RMAs(return merchandize authorizations), stop/stop service, reservations, catalog requests, eligibility screening, helpdesk support, work ticket closing, intelligent front door and lead capture. With smooth conversational flow and dynamic adaptation to a caller, virtual agents can achieve performance gains and effectively off-load repetitive tasks that make the live agent pool more efficient.
Through 2010, deployment options for NLU technology had typically been fairly expensive and complex to configure. On premise hardware and software platforms were standard. A few years ago, there with little or no options to find NLU as a hosted or cloud based offering. Later in 2011, vendors embraced hosted or cloud based solutions and began to offer hosted NLU artificial intelligence solutions. Cloud based solutions offer cost efficient and rapid deployment timelines without the heavy investment once needed. Many of these systems can ‘overlay' and work with existing legacy ACD/IVR systems, therefore, provides a further benefit and makes for an easier decision to take on NLU systems.
Virtual agents using natural language understanding technology can generate impressive ROI and results. Vendors claim that by using virtual agents will realize cost per call decrease as much as 65%, headcount is reduced by as much as 18%, self-service completion increase by up to 35%, average handle time (AHT) is reduced by as much as 50% and caller abandonment rate increases by as much as 17. It is impossible to verify all claims, but it is clear that industry experts agree that virtual agents are here to stay. ‘By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human." – Gartner Customer Summit.
Gregg Troyanowski is president of Promero, Inc. Founded in 2001, Promero is a leading customer care/call center software expert. Promero provides valuable insight when selecting a technology platform for its customer contact center. Promero supports companies of any size or industry. It addresses strategic, operational and technological issues always with the focus of providing a solution that is right for the client's business. Promero's client list includes companies on Fortune's Most Admired Companies list.
Promero is an authorized managed service/application hosting provider and reseller of the world's leading best in class solutions. If your business is considering an application enhancement, replacement or in need of technical support, please contact Promero for a free, no obligation consultation. www.promero.com
This technology assists customers calling into reservations desks, accounting offices, asking for service assistance or a myriad of other business and consumer situations without the need to engage a live agent. Virtual agents using NLU technology can handle either inbound or outbound transactions end to end. Virtual agents support the routine parts of a call and seamlessly transfer the caller to a live agent along with the information already collected. Transaction types that typically lend themselves to virtual agent technology is order status, order taking, order changing, bill payments, inquiries, account changes, scheduling appointments, confirming appointments, customer surveys, up-selling, cross selling, save-the-sale, outbound collections, outbound notifications/confirmations, RMAs(return merchandize authorizations), stop/stop service, reservations, catalog requests, eligibility screening, helpdesk support, work ticket closing, intelligent front door and lead capture. With smooth conversational flow and dynamic adaptation to a caller, virtual agents can achieve performance gains and effectively off-load repetitive tasks that make the live agent pool more efficient.
Through 2010, deployment options for NLU technology had typically been fairly expensive and complex to configure. On premise hardware and software platforms were standard. A few years ago, there with little or no options to find NLU as a hosted or cloud based offering. Later in 2011, vendors embraced hosted or cloud based solutions and began to offer hosted NLU artificial intelligence solutions. Cloud based solutions offer cost efficient and rapid deployment timelines without the heavy investment once needed. Many of these systems can ‘overlay' and work with existing legacy ACD/IVR systems, therefore, provides a further benefit and makes for an easier decision to take on NLU systems.
Virtual agents using natural language understanding technology can generate impressive ROI and results. Vendors claim that by using virtual agents will realize cost per call decrease as much as 65%, headcount is reduced by as much as 18%, self-service completion increase by up to 35%, average handle time (AHT) is reduced by as much as 50% and caller abandonment rate increases by as much as 17. It is impossible to verify all claims, but it is clear that industry experts agree that virtual agents are here to stay. ‘By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human." – Gartner Customer Summit.
Gregg Troyanowski is president of Promero, Inc. Founded in 2001, Promero is a leading customer care/call center software expert. Promero provides valuable insight when selecting a technology platform for its customer contact center. Promero supports companies of any size or industry. It addresses strategic, operational and technological issues always with the focus of providing a solution that is right for the client's business. Promero's client list includes companies on Fortune's Most Admired Companies list.
Promero is an authorized managed service/application hosting provider and reseller of the world's leading best in class solutions. If your business is considering an application enhancement, replacement or in need of technical support, please contact Promero for a free, no obligation consultation. www.promero.com
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