Speech Technology Magazine - Secret Agents: The hidden value of someone behind the scenes

Spoken Communications compares its agent-assisted interactive voice response (IVR) technology to the U-Scan brand. The Seattle-based company has carved a place for itself in the crowded contact center industry by selling a single product it says solves three major IVR-related problems: hold times, opt-out rates, and speech recognition errors. Using a technology that has been called everything from guided IVR to Wizard of Oz IVR, Spoken’s technology takes a hybrid approach to call handling, one that presents a front of nearly perfect natural language capabilities. Whether experts call this a clever trick or an insightful business decision, Spoken says it uses both an IVR and a human agent to achieve its goal of near-perfect call routing and increased customer satisfaction.

The company’s agent-assisted IVRs rely on silent agents who work behind the scenes of inbound customer calls. Listening in on several calls simultaneously, agents route callers to what they think is the most appropriate department after the customer answers only one synthesized question, How may I help you? As the call progresses, agents keep gathering information and continue routing calls as they see fit. Opting out is still a choice, but the company claims its technology boasts an almost 70 percent completion rate. And, with one agent handling multiple calls at once, Spoken has found that agent productivity increases fourfold.

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