The Adaptive Audio – VUI Cloud Blog

In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned some production tests we performed at a client site to measure optimal speaking rates (words per minute) for IVR callers.

Individual callers speed and accuracy determined whether (and by how much) the audio playback rate was increased or decreased at each IVR script Interaction Point (IP).

An IP might be as simple as answering yes/no, selecting from a menu, entering a 16 digit credit card number or anything in between.

A caller that behaved as an expert throughout the call would experience an audio playback speed adjustment profile that went from 100% to 108% and then to a final maximum rate of 112% of normal playback.

A caller that was not quite an expert, but better than average, experienced an adjustment profile of 100%, 105%, 108% and 110%.

Callers with less than average speed and accuracy experienced similar adjustment profiles in the opposite direction – 100%, 95%, 92% and so forth.

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January 10th, 2012 – Reported From:
The Department of Psychology
Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Houston, Texas

Rice University has been studying the feasibility of using IVR Systems for voting in political elections.

One concern with allowing voters to use this means of casting a ballot is knowing whether or not the voter clearly understands what and for whom they are voting.

Older voters, or the hearing impaired, may not be able to understand audio messages spoken at playback speeds better suited to typical callers. Alternatively, certain callers may be more comfortable with a dialogue pace that moves a little faster – especially if there are many candidates, elections and voting options.

The University chose Interactive Digital’s Adaptive Audio software to enhance their existing IVR System with the capability to match audio playback speed to suit each individual caller.

Danae Holmes of the University’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab says  ”I have been working with Interactive Digital’s Adaptive Audio product for over three months now.

Our voice application is a prototype voting application used to study accessible voting in political elections.

We wanted a product that would allow callers with varying telephone script navigation skills the ability to speed up or slow down the caller dialogue as needed. As a very important requirement of the project, we needed a way to do this without making expensive custom changes to the voice application itself. Interactive Digital’s Adaptive Audio product accomplished this for us with only a single line of code added to our application.

The software performs as advertised, speeding up the dialogue flow for more skilled callers while allowing elderly, hearing impaired and less skilled callers to have a more productive call experience. I am impressed with both the product and support we have received from Interactive Digital.”

To learn more about how dynamically adjusting the call experience to suit individual callers helps your bottom line, contact Interactive Digital today.

Apple, Ally Bank, Amazon and Zappos. What do all of these companies have in common?

Besides great products, innovative marketing strategies and extensive product eco-systems, they all deliver on one more essential ingredient: Exceptional Customer Service.

Take Apple for instance. I brought my MacBook into the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store a few months ago. Two of the four little feet that keep the MacBook off the desk fell off. Despite the fact that the machine was more than 3 years old and that I did not have an Apple Care service plan, they still took the machine in the back and glued on four new ones for me. And while I had to make an appointment for this, but how about that there’s even such a thing as a Genius Bar in a retail store to accommodate me in the first place?

I’ve had many similar first rate customer experiences at Amazon, Best Buy and even some small retailers I have done business with through eBay. Responsive email and chat support, free shipping both ways, customer reviews right on the retailers own web site, extended product return and replacement policies and so on. Todays recession weary, highly connected consumer is demanding and changing business models and the customer service landscape as we speak.

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By TMCnet Special Guest
Luis Gonzalez

Busy contact center managers often overlook their customers’ feelings. They tend to focus on easily quantifiable metrics such as abandonment rates, service levels, staffing levels, etc. While these metrics are important to the bottom line, there is also tremendous value in focusing on the consumer’s experience. This is where behavioral science comes into the picture. Businesses can leverage psychology to improve customer service in contact centers.

In 2001, Richard B. Chase and Sriram Dasu published the Harvard Business Review article “Want to Perfect Your Company’s Service? Use Behavioral Science”.They detailed a study that examined encounters between customers and service providers to understand how these experiences make customers feel. It was the first look into how behavioral science principles can advise customer service operations. In 2010, John DeVine and Keith Gilson built upon this research with the McKinsey Quarterly article, “Using behavioral science to improve the customer experience”.These articles provide a roadmap for contact center professionals to improve customer satisfaction at low costs.

Perception is Reality.

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