Next Steps in VUI Design: Making Dreams a Reality

Next Steps in VUI Design:Making Dreams a Reality Erin Smith UI Designer

Agenda • The Five Option Menu • Relying on 100% Recognition • Speech vs. Touchtone • Automating All or Nothing Company Confidential

Dreams vs. Reality Company Confidential

Dreams vs. Reality (cont) • So what does this have to do with the IVR world? • We always need to dream in order to improve process and design better systems • However, there are times when we need the realist to bring the dreamers back down, and help us figure out what really works • We need to find the balance to have the most optimal design • But we still need to push the envelope to continue improving design Company Confidential

The Five Option Menu • Reality • Based on Miller’s ‘Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two’ Study • Determines the short term memory load that humans can remember at one time • So taking this into consideration, along with similar groupings set by the web, we could create categories of five that callers could remember. • For an IVR taking lots of different options and fitting them into a five option menu (because no visuals are available) usually makes options way too vague • This will lead to callers going down wrong paths Company Confidential

The Five Option Menu Company Confidential

The Five Option Menu • You want to find United Healthcare’s policy on privacy. Here are your five options. Where would you go? • Health Plans • Wellness • Self-service and Support • Health Care Trends • Resources and Tools Company Confidential

The Five Option Menu Company Confidential

The Five Option Menu • So what do you do? • If combined options aren’t clear, it’s okay to have a longer main menu. • But it’s at this point that you remember the ‘Rule of Seven Plus or Minus Two’ • So supply them with four options, then a ‘more options’ or ‘something else’. • This lets them stop and think about the options, and then move forward • This also reduces the opportunities for callers to go down the wrong path • This method has been proven to work in usability studies • Option 1: Less menu options to listen too, but more vague • Option 2: More menu options, but much more clear • Option 1 provided a much higher task completion rate. Company Confidential

Relying on 100% Recognition • Dream • Today’s recognition is so great, that we don’t need to account for misrecognition… • (hence, a caller down a wrong path!!!) • Why this is dangerous… • Majority of callers are not solely concentrating on the task that they’re doing • There’s sometimes that hesitation answer…’balan…no transactions’ • Transactions could be recognized, but it’s a gamble • They may think they know exactly what they need, but realize after selecting the option, that’s not it Company Confidential

Relying on 100% Recognition • How do you deal with this? • Universals • Although we’ve tapered down the list over the years, it’s still important to have these in your design • Please don’t think this means you have to provider your entire list to the caller at the beginning of the call. • Follow a Just in time design standard • Main Menu at the end of a menu • Representative in an error message, or the end of a menu • Also for major tasks, tell your caller where they are and how they can get back. • Don’t be intrusive, but be subtle • ‘Okay, Benefits, if that’s not right, say ‘Main Menu.’ • When listing items, always provide a way out. • I’m finished or I’m done Company Confidential

Speech vs. Touchtone • Dream • If it works in touchtone, we can make it work better in speech…..And customers will be so much happier with speech. • Why this is dangerous… • You may have users that use your system daily, and are used to going through quickly with touch-tones • Callers may frequently be in a situation where they don’t want the people around them to know that they’re on the phone • Sometimes the environment just doesn’t support a speech system (too noisy) • With any combinations of these, you can make callers more upset then happy Company Confidential

Speech vs. Touchtone • So how do you handle this? • First question to ask is ‘Why speech?’ • It’s a simple question, but helps to determine what features speech is really bringing to the table. • Is it allowing more functionality or just redoing exactly what’s in a touch-tone application? • Who are your users? • How frequently do they call in? • What’s a common environment that they’ll be calling from? Company Confidential

Speech vs. Touchtone • Bringing down the dream of speech to reality… • Can I offer both systems? • Yes this may seem like a lot of work, but you may have users that may want reduced functionality, but touchtone in some instances. • Can provide two separate menus or an option off the main menu for touchtone • Can I provide touchtone back up? • This isn’t the evil that it once was. • There are systems that currently use this, and customers rave about it. • It helps that caller in a noisy environment still conduct the business that they need to without having to talk to someone • If a function is so complicated that you can’t provide touchtone back-up (too much to explain) just transfer them Company Confidential

Speech vs. Touchtone • Bringing down the dream of speech to reality (cont) • Is there so much new functionality that speech is your only option? • Interview callers and study actual calls with (reps) • Mimic in your system as much as you can • Allow touchtone entry where you can (account numbers, customer numbers, etc) • Roll out a plan that gets your callers involved and educated about the new system Company Confidential

Automating All or Nothing • Realist • If I can’t automate it all, then there’s no use in automating anything….. • Why this is wrong… • CTI needs to be installed in order to make this useful • Minutes with a rep, on average are always significantly higher then minutes in a system • Figure out ways you can break it out • Think outside the box and have the best of both worlds Company Confidential

Automating All or Nothing • Making this all work – a case study • Retail Application • Allows a caller to order items from a catalog • Most callers have a catalog that comes to their house, so based on a simple account number, they can easily be looked up • Items can easily be ordered, where trouble falls is where items aren’t available • It’s beneficial to offer other items to the callers • There are times when deeply discounted items ($19.99 shoes) aren’t available • Callers may not have another item that they’re looking for, but they’ll take another $19.99 shoe Company Confidential

Automating All or Nothing • Making this all work – a case study • Still offer automation, KNOWING you will not be able to automate everything. • But still collect and pass what you can • So in this case, the suggestion was to design for the collection of an order… • But if something was out of stock or not available, transfer them out and work on that up-sell • Remember in this case, though, to transfer the collected data. If you don’t do this, you’ve completely lost any savings of using the system. Company Confidential

Questions? • Erin Smith • erin.smith@intervoice.com • Office: 972-454-8000 say ‘Erin Smith’ Company Confidential

Next Steps in VUI Design: Making Dreams a Reality