ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 - (Page 26)

TECHNOLOGY ICMI: The Authoritative Source for Call Center Knowledge If you’re looking for resources to maximize your call center operations, ICMI can help. • Books • Research Reports • PDF Downloads On Demand • Monthly Newsletters • Monthly Global Magazine • Software • Training Videos • On-line Advice ent on a powerful set of social techniques that derive from a fundamental assumption — when a human being talks to another, that other human presumably has some stake in the outcome of the interaction. This assumption collapses when the partner is a machine. The result of this expectation of social awareness that is built into human speech is that structured and goal-oriented protocols be-come necessary to steer the user away from social speech behaviors and toward work-oriented, task-oriented interactions. Even users conforming to such protocols may feel estranged from original expectations of “naturalness, and thus remain ” uncomfortable with the interface. COST-SAVING VERSUS VALUE-ADD SPEECH APPLICATIONS Get answers to all of your call center questions from ICMI books and research reports. For more information on all of ICMI’s publications, visit www.icmi.com/publications Social Qualities It is often argued that speech recognition is a powerful user interface medium because it is natural (i.e., humans already know how to talk, engaging in spoken interactions frequently, spontaneously and effortlessly). This point is misleading, as the common shared experience of humans is in talking to and with each other — sentient, self-aware beings that share a common cultural heritage and possess certain assumptions about the reality of the world in which they live. Humans have no precedent for verbal interaction with nonsentient devices that are not self-aware. Indeed, human speech is depend- There are two generic business models for speech applications. The business model has a great impact on how success is measured and which user interface issues are the most important to address. A cost-saving application is one in which the enterprise — a business or government agency — automates a service with the goal of reducing the cost of delivering that service to its users. The most typical method for delivering full customer service is via the call center, a laborintensive enterprise. Most call centers today use an IVR front end to intercept incoming calls, offering the opportunity for customers to first engage in self-service — answering their questions or completing their transactions automatically. Those callers who cannot or will not accept self-service are then transferred to live answer by human representatives, who then deliver full service. Because self-service is less www.icmi.com | APRIL 2008 icmi’s insight 26 http://www.icmi.com/publications http://www.icmi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 Operations: Small Call Centers, Big Potential Ad Index Contents Editor's Page Contact Center Spotlight People: Assessment Tools Recommended Reading Technology: Speech Recognition Special Feature: Best of Show Strategy: Service-to-Sales Success Expert's Angle - High Volume, High Stakes: A Better Strategy for Hiring Experts Angle - Secrets of Recruiting Success/Job Brands: Changing Applicant Reactions to Your Openings Experts Angle - Speech Analytics: Uncovering the Voice of the Customer

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008

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