ICMI's Customer Management Insight - April 2008 - (Page 27)

TECHNOLOGY expensive than full service, the enterprise can cost justify its investment in the IVR system. In many cases, the return on investment is several hundred percent, and payback can be achieved in a very short time. Self-service comes at a customer satisfaction price, however. Users report that automated systems — whether DTMF or speechenabled — often stand between them and their goals. Such users express resentment that the enterprise does not value their call enough to make full service readily accessible. For this reason, the costsaving business model must make tradeoff decisions between two competing goals: reduced cost associated with self-service versus reduced customer satisfaction associated with the fact that selfservice is inferior to full service. In the worst tradeoff, the enterprise develops a poorly designed IVR and then closes its call center. Although self-service rates reach 100 percent, customer satisfaction drops and the enterprise loses callers (customers). Conversely, the enterprise may avoid automation, delivering full service to all customers on demand. Although customer satisfaction rates are high, the enterprise is unable to compete due to high prices. In the ideal tradeoff, the enterprise identifies an acceptable decrease in customer satisfaction — automating those transactions that lend themselves well to self-service and designing an IVR that is simple and effective — and then retains a professional call center to deliver full service for all other areas. Cost-saving business models have the following attributes: > The user does not choose to use speech recognition, > The IVR is not a product or icmi’s insight service that the user pays for directly, and > The user is calling for a reason, and therefore has some stake in the outcome of the dialogue. These attributes imply that the caller will tolerate a certain degree of inconvenience or anxiety, provided the application is well-designed, and that full service is available in the event of failure. Value-add applications are based on a completely different set of assumptions about the business. In such an application, the speech recognition technology is viewed as a feature of the product, one desired by the user and one that increases the perceived value of the product or service. Examples include voice-activated features on mobile telephones, enhanced services such as ASR-enabled voicemail or email, personal assistants and consumer voice portals. Value-add business models have the following attributes: > The user chooses to use or not use speech recognition, > The user pays for the product or service directly, and > The user therefore has a real stake in the performance of the system. Because of these attributes, value-add products must meet performance expectations within the price requirements of the buyer. Human users have very high expectations for speech recognition — speech is very simple and natural for humans — and users do not feel obliged to change their behaviors for products that they have purchased. What’s more, the functionality provided by ASR-enabled systems may be limited — users may be able to perform operations that they already can do now (e.g. dialing the telephone), but in a way that is presumably more convenient. Buyers typically value such convenience at prices that are quite low. This is why value-add speech applications have often been derided as an “ever-receding imminent bonanza” among businesspeople in the speech industry. Callers expect 100 percent accuracy and zero cost before they will embrace the product — a business model that is less than appealing to developers of these systems. Most ASR telephony applications fielded today are cost-saving business models. An emerging collection of value-add systems — primarily in the form of voice portals—require care in design and development to ensure that they deliver true value with high performance at low cost. • BRUCE BALENTINE is EVP and Chief Scientist at Enterprise Integration Group. www.eiginc.com DAVID MORGAN is VP of Technology Planning for Fidelity Investments Telecommunications. www.icmi.com | APRIL 2008 27 http://www.eiginc.com 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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