Best Practices To Ensure a Quality Speech Self Service Implementation

1. Best Practices To Ensure a Quality Speech Self Service Implementation

2. FluencyWhat do we do? Automate calls at a fraction of the cost • We provide packaged applications that handle • your routine calls from a selection of skill sets • that you control. Suite of packaged speech applications (“skill sets”) ‘Out of the box’ – >50% reduction in deployment time 30–50% less cost than custom Management console–real time changes, operational flexibility Single technology delivered On-demand or On-site • High quality service, no wait time and ready to take your calls in less than 6 weeks!

3. “A bad beginning makes a bad ending” • Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC) • “The beginning is the most important part of the work“ • Plato (427 BC - 347 BC) • “A whole is that which has beginning, middle and end” • Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) • Building a speech solution is like building a sound house. • It must have strong foundations, carefully designed rooms and decor, and a roof which will withstand the forces of nature • Main focus is often placed on the “middle” stages of a speech solution • It is, however, vital to look at the whole.

4. What are you going to build?

5. F.A.S.T. (Fluency Assessment of Speech Technology) • Determine which of the call types has the best potential for automation • Analyse each call type with regard to: • Call volume • Call duration • Cost per call minute • Complexity for automation • Predicted automation success

6. Touchtone Speech Recognition Agent • Critical to business: • Reduce costs significantly • Improve customer service • Often improves business: • Agents still needed • Saves agent time Unlikely to offer sufficient benefits over IVR because of increased relative cost • Often improves business: • Cost-saving potential • Projects need to be carefully scoped to ensure ROI • May improve business • Saves agent time • Needs careful application design • Possible benefits in niche areas Not beneficial now, although improving technologies will shrink this section Volume of Calls Complexity of Interactions DATAMONITOR Which processes are best suited to speech

7. Set a strong foundation

8. Who are you? • What are your brand values? • Honest • Friendly • Informative • What is your core value proposition? • “Your Trusted Advisor” • “Personal, Professional and Passionate” • Why do customers choose you? • Cheapest • Most Reliable • Bleeding Edge

9. Who are your customers • Who will be using the system? • Caller demographics • Age • Location • Motivation for using system • How often will they use the system • Perception of selves • Perception of company

10. What do your customers do with you? • Listen to your callers when they telephone in • What are they phoning for? • Is there a process that handles the call? • Does it map to their mental model? • Can the process be automated? • Does the process need to be adapted for speech? • Is there any supporting information/documentation that is needed?

11. Build a solid house

12. The Virtuous Circle of Design

13. Let people know

14. Manage an Effective Rollout • Internal Rollout Strategies: • Internal promotion of the service is vital to ensure that the agents are comfortable and are able to promote a positive attitude both to peers and to callers. • Produce the following • Hints and tips for helping a caller successfully use the service • Accompanying sound clips • Frequently Asked Questions • Develop answers to these questions: How should I react if a call drops to me? What is the service? When would a call pass to an agent? What does it mean for me? What will the caller hear?

15. Manage an Effective Rollout • External Strategies • Direct Mail • Part of the direct mail campaign could be details of call flows outlining the user input expected at every stage. • It is often effective, where relevant, to send a credit card size user guide that will fit into a wallet, and a Frequently Asked Questions document on speech automation. • Internet • Web banners could be used on any relevant Internet site to inform customers of the new service. • The internet can also be used as a point of reference for further information to be obtained such as FAQ’s and user guides • Sound clips • Give customers an audio example of how a call flow might sound.

16. Proof Point • Carlson Leisure purchased a solution that captures itineraries for Financial Service Loyalty Card callers. Carlson needed to ensure their agents understood the service and the business reasons behind it • Fluency worked with Carlson to develop material covering: • Why Carlson chose to develop the solution • What does it mean to the agent pool • When a caller is passed to agent • How the caller has got to this point • How the agent should react • What wording is appropriate • Accompanying sound clips • The Carlson representative responsible for managing the internal training program said “I have trained over 600+ agents for Carlson in the last 6 years and this is by far the most professional document I’ve seen. The sound bytes coupled with the screen shots is great and will really help our training efforts”

17. Proof Point • It is vital for the success of a speech application that the agents buy in to it • SLB staff were encouraged to promote the system to the customers • As part of the process of promoting the service a competition was held to christen the application and determine her identity

18. Check List • Simple • Must be intuitive and easy to use. • Speed • Must be quick and efficient. • Accurate • Build prompts and grammars that optimize recognition accuracy • Helpful • Recognize if a caller is having a problem and give context-sensitive help • Secure • For financial transactions ensure callers are confident that their details are secure • High Quality • Carefully design the persona and record quality prompts that support brand perceptions and caller expectations • Consistent • Use common terminology, be closely aligned to other channels. • Effective • Did the caller complete the task they set out to do? If not, did we successfully capture most of the information? • Adaptive • Can the service handle both novice and frequent callers?

19. Questions • Feel free to contact me at: • caroline.leathem@fluencyvoice.com