Bottlenecks

In a world where machines try to rule over man, interactive voice response

systems (IVRS) attempts to replace human intervention for customers who want to

talk to customer care on a range of issues. But this replacement can only be

limited as IVRS cannot completely replace human intervention.

According to DMG Consulting LLC, the leading provider of contact center and

real-time analytics research, DMG estimates that worldwide IVR revenue reached

$1.87 bn at the end of 2007 and is expected to reach $2.4 bn by 2010, despite

the ongoing global recession.

Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery, ValueLabs, says, “The recent slowdown in

IVRS growth in the US has been offset by expansion in international sales,

particularly in Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe and the Pacific

Rim.” Once the enterprise-spending freeze caused by the economic meltdown is

lifted, DMG expects increased investment in the IVR market.

In India, with the costs of communication coming down rapidly, IVRS

installations have been rapidly growing. But enterprises in India should adopt a

cautious approach before going for IVRS.

The Boon



In a large enterprise scenario, for example in a typical banking

institution, there is a need to divert monotonous calls such as balance enquiry

and statement request to IVRS while leaving call center manpower for intelligent

jobs such as complaint management, churn management etc. Since monotonous calls

are in high volumes, usage of IVR helps organizations to streamline their

operations while delivering excellent customer service.

Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery, ValueLabs says, “The IVR solutions are

particularly useful when a caller has a simple question. In such cases, it's

better to get a quick answer from a computerized operator than to hold for

fifteen minutes before talking to a human being.” He adds, “Another advantage is

that IVRS being automated there is 100% productivity and no manpower loss.”

Source: www.nokia-n800.info

Enterprises should primarily consider this factor before making any decision

on whether to go for an IVRS installation or not otherwise, it will

unnecessarily incur cost. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD, One97 Communications, says,

“IVR has been a key tool for positive customer engagement. It facilitates an

automated repetitive process that is one of the main causes of huge reduction in

manpower. There is tremendous scope of growth for this service and we could keep

upgrading the present IVR standards to meet the latest technological innovation

to avoid the need of any alternate solution in the future.”

An enterprise should see whether there is any requirement for handling

multiple customers at a given point of time due to a large customer base. If the

enterprise has this requirement, it can go for IVRS as the interface is

automated and does not require human interaction over the telephone; and the

automated attendant is available in multiple languages too. Also, since the

latest cutting edge technologies available in the market can be easily adapted

to the existing IVRS, enterprises may opt for it.

Flexible systems can be configured to add new service areas. It helps to

improve customer service and client retention rates visibly. Devasia Kurian, MD,

astTECS Communications says, “Scalability of the IVRS technology makes it

possible for updating with new technologies for better services and efficiency

of an enterprises business process.”

In the cost of customer services through human desk is huge, those

enterprises should go for automated attendant; this drastically reduces cost of

customer service while ensuring a consistent level of quality even during peak

traffic, improving business efficiency. Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery,

ValueLabs, says, “The major advantage of IVR for any organization is to save

time and money. Answering phone calls takes a lot of time, and not every phone

call deserves the attention of a trained employee.” He further adds, “If a large

company is able to reduce even a few seconds from the average length of each

phone call with a live operator, it can save them hundreds of thousands or even

millions of dollars a year in a very large organization.”

“Scalability of the IVRS technology makes it possible for updating with new technologies for better services and efficiency of an enterprises business process” Devasia Kurian, MD, astTECS Communications, says	“Since IVR works for 24 hours, the company can use it as a sales order line” Rajesh Kumar B, MD, Fomax Information Technologies	“In a biometric scenario, even illiterates can interact with IVRS as IVRS can recognize the particular person through his or her voice rather than the content” Vinay Agrrawal, VP, operations, Unicel Technologies

Apart from cost reduction, human resource inefficiencies also can be

alleviated by IVRS solutions. Rajesh Kumar B, MD, Fomax Information Technologies

says, “Since IVR works for 24 hours, the company can use it as a sales order

line. Also, the increase in customer satisfaction promotes repeat business with

existing customers thus generating more revenue without much expenditure. Many

clients often realize a full return on investment within a year of

implementation.”

The inherent nature of self-service mode in IVRS enables the customers to

perform business interactions in a proactive manner. Furthermore, IVRS also

assists in promoting new service by making it easier to serve more volume of

customers and creating innovative platforms for technology aided services.

For many enterprises, the foremost important factor that drives them to go

for IVRS is gaining caller information without fail. Rajesh Kumar of Fomax says,

“The major factor that made us go in for IVRS is that we are able to get

information about the person calling and it becomes easier and faster to get the

details to serve the customer faster and better.” The IVRS can collect necessary

information relating to the call from the customer while he is waiting to be

connected to a customer care executive.

Vendors strongly believe automated solution provides desired level of quality

of customer care services. Says a senior executive from Ozonetel, “A manned

solution can only be managed to a certain extent be it in terms of salaries,

quality or monitoring other aspects. But an automated solution guarantees the

desired levels of quality and provides different monitoring parameters that can

be changed dynamically as the business needs change.”

Another interesting angle is, as Rajesh Kumar of Fomax puts it, Unlike

Internet-based applications, in IVR systems there is no entry point for hackers.

This means more security for the data.

Finding the right IVR vendor, getting the right voice applications in place

and getting voice links from telephone operators are the key for enterprises to

gain maximum benefit.

The Bane



In a small enterprise scenario, factors that discourage them not to opt for

an IVRS solution are manifold. For small enterprises, the first and foremost

factor is the huge capex involved in it. Unless there is clear RoI, opting for

IVRS is not advisable.

Since it involves a huge capex, many enterprises have an option of going for

low cost solutions, but the bottleneck is that they are not competitive and

reliable for the purpose. Huge cost is involved not only in the capex, but also

to manage and support the solution this also deters small enterprises to go for

IVRS.

Lack of trained professionals in the market leads to high development and

integration cost for installers and ultimately for enterprises. One more angle

that can also be a deterrent is the impression among some enterprises that human

resource is affordable in India and a phone call is enough for customer care.

On the negative side of IVRS, the fundamental problem is the lack of human

touch. And, many people, particularly senior citizens, dislike talking to

machines. And it is difficult for some people to remember long menus. Some of

the common user complaints with IVR systems are: menus are too long; there's too

much extraneous information possible; and voice prompts are hard to understand

and need to be resolved.

The lack of human touch also leads to another corrollary problem. Devasia

Kurian, MD, astTECS Communications says, “With IVRS it will not be possible for

enterprises to manage in unexpected situations.” For example, if the caller is

not used to interacting with IVRS or s/he is in an emergency situation a human

desk will be much more helpful.

Technologies for Better Service

• Speech recognition: Speech recognition/voice command is a new
  
  technology becoming popular in IVRS solutions. When speech recognition or
  
  automatic speech recognition technology converts spoken words to
  
  machine-readable input, the desired result is yielded. For example, in the
  
  Bharti Airtel advertisement for getting ring tones, the callers just need to
  
  speak to the handset and the song/content is read by the IVRS for sending the
  
  ring tone of the song.

Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery, ValueLabs, Says, “Traditional IVR has

always been justified by the clear cost-saving benefits it brings through

reducing call times and agent handling. But on the speech side, the RoI

calculation is considerably more complex due to lengthy development times and

higher prices for design and implementation.”

Recently though, easy-to-use application development environments and tool

sets with reusable components have brought about a dramatic reduction in the

development life cycle generally resulting in RoI of 4-6 months as opposed to

8-12 months in the past. Companies that deploy applications that integrate

speech and DTMF interfaces are also starting to see improved customer

satisfaction measures due to faster request resolution. This also has the

beneficial result of reducing callbacks.

In addition, the more complex interactions made possible through speech (or

mixed speech/DTMF) encourages designers and managers to integrate appropriate

upselling or cross-selling opportunities into the mix. When this is calculated

as part of the RoI equation, it boosts the benefits of a speech-based unit

beyond simple cost savings, an idea essentially unheard of in the legacy IVR

world.

• Biometric technology: Speaker recognition, which is different from
  
  speech recognition, is a biometric technology that is being developed for
  
  better customer service. Speaker recognition, also called voice recognition,
  
  helps identify a person by name and provide information he or she requires.
  
  Vinay Agrrawal, VP, operations, Unicel Technologies says that in a biometric
  
  scenario, even illiterates can interact with IVRS as IVRS can recognize the
  
  particular person through his or her voice rather than the content.
• Demand for personalization: First generation IVR solutions presents
  
  very little in the way of personalized configuration to the customer. Apart
  
  from the limited input that a customer enters, and the data that's drawn out
  
  in response, one customer is treated as any other. “But personalization, or
  
  customizing the interaction to the individual tastes and value of the
  
  customer, has become commonplace in other situations. In that context, the
  
  ability to differentiate the self-service experience from one customer to
  
  another when it happens through IVR is a way to foster customer loyalty and
  
  increase satisfaction,”says Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery, ValueLabs.

Interjecting self service menus with individually-targeted messages holds

great promise in maximizing customer interactions and also offers a means of

generating revenue via cross sell and upsell techniques. This is a cost-control

tool for a positive impact on the bottom line through revenue, and increased

customer satisfaction metrics.

Emergence of standards and the rise of VoiceXML: Enterprises increasingly

select products based on open standards, so they have greater flexibility in

modifying or expanding the solution. VoiceXML (VXML) represents a fundamental

paradigm shift in voice application development. According to Kiran Kumar, SVP,

global delivery, ValueLabs, with VXML, customers now have the flexibility to

integrate components from different vendors.

• Voice portal: In response to these trends comes a new form of IVR
  
  deployment called the voice portal that is characterized by two significant
  
  additional features that traditional IVRs lack which enterprises can utilize.
  
  The two features are extensibility into more varied web services through
  
  standards like VoiceXML and use of speech recognition as an input method.
• Hosted speech services: Hosting is becoming more accepted and this
  
  model is gaining traction for IVRS. ValueLabs say that enterprises are
  
  choosing this model for scalable solutions when they have high call volumes in
  
  order to minimize capital expenditure, and where they need expertise with
  
  developing sophisticated speech projects. Because the vendor hosts and
  
  maintains the solutions, there's significantly less overhead and risk involved
  
  for the enterprise customer. Consequently, return on investment is much more
  
  rapid. Also, speech applications are often complex to develop, and enterprises
  
  have limited internal expertise, meaning that hosting is a more feasible
  
  option.

IVRS installation is extremely critical as they have a direct impact on

customers or prospects perception of the company and brand. Hence they need to

be carefully monitored. From the technical aspect, there are some key challenges

for an IVRS implementation. Integrating multiple information sources to provide

accurate information across various requests is a major problem in IVRS.

Building the system for scalability and performance is a complex one. Extensive

testing of the services is required to ensure that end-user experience is

positive, consistent and responsive.

As Kiran Kumar, SVP, global delivery, ValueLabs, says, customers increasingly

prefer the convenience of communication tools rather than physical effort.

Whether it is voice based or Internet-based or mobile based, the key factor is

the positive user experience.

Kannan K



kannan@cybermedia.co.in