TEL 355: Communication and Information Systems in Organizations

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TEL 355 Communication and Information Systems in
Organizations

• Speech-Enabled Interactive Voice
• Response Systems
• Professor John F. Clark

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Interactive Voice Response

• Serves as the bridge between people and computer
  databases via phone lines
• Used in a variety of applications including stock
  trades, account information and transactions,
  ticket reservations, etc.
• Represents the natural progression from
  touch-tone systems to natural speech recognition
  in telephony-based self-service

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Speech Recognition Spectrum

• Touch-Tone Replacement
• Recognizes spoken letters and words that
  represent the keypad
• Directed Dialogue
• Recognizes fairly simple words and phrases that
  are clearly enunciated
• Natural Language
• Recognizes more complex phrases and sentences
  spoken in a conversational manner

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History of IVR

• Significant research and development by ARPA
  since the late 80s
• Early Discrete Number Recognition required
  careful enunciation and separation
• Continuous Speech Recognition can handle unbroken
  strings of words
• But, recognition of free-form conversation is not
  yet a reality
• However, it is commercially viable in a number of
  customer service applications

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Natural Language Technology

• Phonetic Speech Recognition
• Breaks spoken words into fundamental sound units
  called phonemes
• Enables greater accuracy in recognizing larger
  vocabularies
• Language Modeling
• Makes the best guess for sounds that are not
  adequately recognized
• Compares sounds to a database of sounds and
  creates a confidence score for possible meaning

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Rationale for IVR

• Reduces spiraling labor costs
• Higher call volumes make IVR a more
  cost-effective solution
• Increased processing power means newer systems
  are faster and more accurate
• Software and hardware costs continue to decrease
• IVRs are less costly and faster to implement than
  Web-based solutions

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Benefits of IVR

• Dramatic reduction in operational costs
• Improves productivity
• A higher percentage of calls can be partially or
  fully automated
• Frees the service agent from many routine tasks
• Savings in overhead costs
• As a result of decreased labor expenses
• As a result of decreased real estate requirements
  and related infrastructure

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IVR Capabilities

• Speaker-independent phonetic recognition
• Natural language and number recognition
• Continuous alpha-numeric recognition
• Modular approach to software development
• Barge-in capability
• Speaker-trained voice verification
• Support for multiple languages

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Commercial Viability of IVR

• Customers interact with business via phone
• IVR reliability and accuracy is over 90
• By 2003, 30 of new automated lines in call
  centers will understand speech
• Directed speech recognition application pays for
  itself in 9-18 months in call centers with more
  than 50 agents
• Total revenues for speech technology and services
  in telephony will exceed 38 billion by 2003

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Current Uses for IVR

• Package tracking
• Stock quotes and trading
• Insurance claims
• Travel arrangements
• Prescription refills
• Restaurant reservations
• Banking activities
• Interaction with government agencies
• Directory Assistance

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IVR Security

• Verbal security steps such as PIN numbers are
  easier to accomplish for the user than touch-tone
  keypad entry
• Voice Print Technology
• Tests vocal characteristics of utterances to
  verify the identity of the speaker
• Especially beneficial for providers of financial
  services and telecommunications services where
  much information is subject to fraud

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Continuous Improvement Cycle

• Design
• Project scope, system architecture, user
  interface
• Develop
• Prototype application and production application
• Test
• Evaluate prototype, production pilot testing
• Deploy
• Production deployment, user interface tuning
• Monitor
• Post-production evaluation, monitoring use

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Development and Deployment Strategy, Part I
Design

• Determine the project scope
• Explore business objectives and goals
• Evaluate how users will use the system and the
  kind of transactions you will support
• Determine the system architecture
• Decide on specific applications
• Determine the specifications for applications
• Plan for a smooth transition
• Assign development responsibilities and develop
  budgets

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Development and Deployment Strategy, Part II
Develop

• Develop prototype applications
• Subsets of your systems ultimate functionality
• Observe and assess the experiences of a select
  group of users
• Determine all the features to be included in your
  production application
• Think about connectivity with data,
  telecommunications, and information systems

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Development and Deployment Strategy, Part III
Test

• Reduce risk by testing with targeted end users
  and conduct focus groups
• Observe and evaluate minimally-trained workers in
  realistic settings
• Implement a pilot test in an actual business
  setting with live, untrained callers as a
  preliminary, limited deployment
• Identify desired improvements

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Development and Deployment Strategy, Part IV
Deploy

• Fully deploy the IVR system
• Manage the upgrade so that it doesnt affect
  system reliability
• Tune the user interface and vocabulary to the
  production environment
• Ensure the IVR system is consistently satisfying
  callers and meeting your business objectives

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Development and Deployment Strategy, Part V
Monitor

• Track critical usability indicators
• Recognition accuracy
• Transaction completion rates
• Create usage reports and detailed call statistics
• Design and implement evaluation tools such as
  customer satisfaction surveys
• Fine-tune your system for maximum performance