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Why Do Companies Stick with Voice Menus?
eliot1785 asks: "We've all had to put up with this at one point or another — you call a company for customer service or tech support, and rather than getting traditional touch-pad menu options, you encounter an annoying system that wants you to 'just say' how it can help you. Invariably, the system fails to understand your input, or picks up background noise or coughs as intended inputs. After a few failures, you have to press '0' to speak with an operator. Why do companies think that customers like these voice menu systems? Is there any research to suggest that they do, or are companies simply embracing the systems because they are new technology? More importantly, when will they realize that the systems don't work and go back to the traditional touch-pad menu option systems?"
The voice menu system I've used most often is that of AMTRAK when visting the States, and it always manages to understand me.
I've had several successful interactions with these systems, most recently with United Airlines just the other day. Anecdotal, to be sure, but proves the systems have at least some worth.
It is obvious. Companies DON'T want you to contact them. They want self-service or no service. They can give the sorry illusion of TRYING to help you by offering phone systems. In reality, they hope you give up. Service costs money. They'd rather have high maintenance indivduals go to another company and be a burned to them.
And in reality, customers flock to the low cost provider. Serves them right when they get what thy paid for.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Personally, I haven't had any real trouble using the voice interaction services that my cable company provides. I do try to call from a quiet spot though, and do tend to have to speak more clearly and loudly than I do to the service rep that I eventually get.
Most of those systems will still understand a yes as 1 and a no as 2. Even the Microsoft product activation voice menus will let you use the number pad, even though it instructs you to tell it all those numbers.
E pluribus unum
They don't like these voice systems because they are more efficient, they like them because people now expect them but can't bring themselves to hate them enough to demand change.
Figure that if you can lower your support budget by 30% because people simply give up in voice hell, then any self respecting pointy headed boss would install this thing instantly.
Think of the jobs you can cut!!!
Your computerized "operator" is NOT my friend - just route my fucking call to one of your marginally competent live operators, and dispense with the virtual pleasantries already. Sprint/Embarq/whatever the fuq they're called now is the worst.
Oh, and you damn kids, get off my lawn!
*shake fist*
I use ivr systems all the time, I almost NEVER have them misunderstand me.
ennunciation at times helps.. pausing between #'s helps.
I know a lotta eastern europeans, they all scream bloody murder when they try...
you could always refer to http://gethuman.com/ if you just can't take it
The most popular part of the gethuman website is the gethuman database of secret phone numbers and codes to get to a human when calling a company for customer service. (See also our general tips.)
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
We all try to follow the rule: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." IT follows a similar rule: "if it ain't broke but fixing it justifies my job, we'll fix it."
_______
2B1ASK1
I use telephone voice recognition systems regularly and I have no trouble at all. The clunky touch tone menu systems make you listen to 30 seconds of options before you reach the option you need. The voice system is both faster and easier.
If you are having trouble with voice recognition then perhaps you should enunciate your words more clearly.
It's been a long time since I was stuck in a menu system and unable to talk to a person. Just press zero, or simply wait. Many even tell you this. For Cingular's, you can even say out loud "I want to talk to a person" and the computer responds "Okay!" and connects you.
Sometimes, though, the automated system is just what you need. UPS has a great system; when you miss a delivery they leave you a note with a confirmation number you can read to their system and get the status of your package, and even schedule when to pick it up. I particularly like the "beep beep boop" computery sounds it plays while it is "thinking," just to let you know it is still on the line.
Firebug. It will make your jaw hit the floor.
I believe that is being used to demonstrate that a company it a H-tech company, or that is the way that it is being marketed. It may be OK for phone directory help, but totally wrong for just about everything else. I work for a company that gets wrong calls all day long because we have a name similar to another company, it is costing our company money because of the use of these systems.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Surveys have been done that show more people get more pissed off about being transferred than they do for having to sit through a menu before they speak to someone. Automated information available on many can save the customers time, which is another reason they are so popular.
They aren't specifically for driving people away. They exist to reduce teh need for them to speak to someone in the first place, and if that fails, to help ensure they speak to the right person right away.
I'm pretty sick this week. Having never used my insurance with a doctor before, I called in.
::beep:: ::beep:: ::beep:: ::beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:bee p:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:beep:bee p:beep:beep:: ::pause:: ::pause:: ::pause::
"Welcome to bla bla... to speak with someone regarding covered facilities press 6"
"If your Insur-ID begins with a W, press 1"
"If the W is followed by three numbers and a hyphen or dash, press 1"
"Please type in your complete Insur-ID. You can enter letters by-"
"If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911."
"Please hold."
"Due to unusually high call volume [8am saturday], we are experiencing higher-than-usual wait time. Your expected wait time is Two. Minutes. And. Five. Seconds. Please continue to hold."
"Thanks for using Enormous insurence inc, may I please have your date of birth, Insur-ID...."
That's as verbatim as I can remember it. Seriously. Can you imagine an elderly person trying to do this... up hill, both ways, with a rotary phone, in the snow?
I lump the voice and keypad menus in the same boat -- I just want to talk to a
person as quick as possible.
Usually the first thing I say over one of these numbers is "I WISH TO SPEAK WITH AN OPERATOR." Slow, loud and clear. And then the damn machine tries to dissuade me from speaking with an operator. >. I just would rather state my situation SIMPLY, than deal with some bot on the phone line that can't understand my unusual mode of speech.
-uso.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
Case in point:
Vendor 'A' comes to Customer and says "Look at these numbers!"
Customer says "Wow! These things really work!"
Vendor 'A' walks away with huge sums of money for providing a _framework_ for the fancy system. (Of course, there's a second contract that provides millions more for development of said framework, but that gets held up by the Customers lawyers and never gets off the ground).
Customer then goes to the people who used to design/program the old touch-tone interfaces, and says "this is just like doing those old DTMF interfaces...go to it!"
Provider of said service says "I guess we'll write it the same way as we used to, since we a) don't know any better and b) don't have any money for training in the new system -- (write, write, write) -- okay, done!" Customer saves millions of dollars but doesn't account for the fact that the two kinds of systems are radically different. Solution falls on its face. Customer, too embarrassed to admit that they've been bamboozled by slick sales people, lives with the new system and blames all the problems on the poor schmucks who wrote it.
Voice menus save companies enormous amounts of money. Its called self-service. The less the company has to spend on human beings, the lower their costs. They try to take care of the most common items via IVR. For example, if 45% of callers want to know their current balance, then having a menu item for that prevents 45% of people from having to sit on hold or talking to a rep.
Our local transit authority, TriMet, has a voice menu system for the "Call A Bus" bus schedule hotline. It's terrible.
..."
TriMet: "Please speak your route number"
Me: "Thirty Eight"
T: "You said: Thir-tee. Eight. Is this correct?" (Why do they always ask this?)
M: "Yes."
T: "Please speak your current location."
M: "Seventy-second avenue and (whatever street)".
T: "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand that. Please repeat your current location."
M: "Seventy-second avenue and (whatever street)".
T: "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand that. Please repeat your current location."
M: (shouting and articulating each syllable) "SE-VEN-TEE SE-CONT AVE-EN-OO AND (WHATEVER STREET)!!"
T: "I'm sorry
M: (Presses "zero")
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
My complaint about these system's isn't that they're harder to use -- most of the ones I've tried work well, as long as you use the limited vocabulary that the computer is programmed to understand. I don't like them because they're less efficient than the keypad for numeric input, and because (in many cases, though not all) you aren't given any option other than to speak aloud.
What if you're in a busy office environment and you don't want to disturb your coworkers, or have people listening in to your conversation with a machine?
What if you're at home in the early morning or late at night and don't want to disturb the other members of the household (roommate, significant other, baby, whatever)?
What if you've lost your voice through injury or illness?
I'll agree that for a long list of multiple-choice options, voice-recognition systems are a vast improvement over numeric menus. But at least they should all leave the option of providing digital input to a computerized system.
I've had some good experiences with voice-activated menus (and some not-so-good ones), however my favorite part is usually just saying "representative" will get you to talk to a live rep - saves me a lot of time listening to options etc (although 0 sometimes sends you to a rep, sometimes it doesn't).
Personally, I prefer the voice menus to the touch tone menus. Rather than having to listen to some recording drone on about options, I just say what I want. The only difficulty is when my issue is beyond the scope of the options -- which is a problem with touch navigation, too. And once I've found where I need to go, it's easier to just say it next time than to remember some arcane sequence of numbers to press.
Be relentless!
Invariably the posted article makes assertions in the superlative to which the lazy will wag their heads yes. Let me tell you what is invariable.
Invariably, company call centers are an expense, not a profit. Invariably companies want to save expense, and call center automation improves over time due to improving recognition and voice application technology.
Invariably the systems that stay fielded are the ones that do the job -- 80%+ automation at 10-25% the cost of non-automated.
Invariably someone with nothing better to do will whine about a problem in broad strokes on a blog for more page hits.
Sheesh.
Just checking, 'coz it seemed obvious. (-: Did I get a 1 or a 2? :-)
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Contact center managers are being pushed to reduce costs. For instance a customer call costing $3.50 to complete with an agent only costs $0.35 if it is processed by the automated system. On top of contact centers are mostly seen as loss centers (as apposed too profit centers). So the pressure is on to use anything that could get more people to process there questions with the automated systems. The vendors that offer voice recognition systems are pushing their offerings hard contact center managers will try anything that will reduce costs.
This brings us to the questions of measurement and testing. I am yet to see or hear of a study on the streets opinion on these systems. (This could be an interesting graduate, or even under graduate project.) Testing on the other hand I do know. Testing is all too often a after thought, testers are undervalued and nonexistent. Automated testing tools are few (yes I work for a test tool vendor). Most of the time testing only starts after the application has been written, and is limited in time and scope. All to often the time runs out before the testing starts (programing is behind and the go live date will not be pushed), while the scope is limited by the lack of test data or an adequate test environment.
Charles Puffer
I had an AI prof who used to work on these kinds of systems at Lucent. He told us that one of the usability bits they ran into was trying to detect when the AI was in over its head. Apparently, swearing proved to be a good indicator. So if you ever want to bypass the machine, just say "earmuffs" to your kids and start spewing profanity into the phone. I've never tried it myself, but if nothing else, I imagine it would be somewhat satisfying as a last resort.
My thoughts (take them as you will) 1: "Enter your four digit id number and press the pound (#) key - This is an intelligent system that cannot recognize 4 digits being entered? 2: AVR: "Please say why you are calling"; response "Operator"; "Please say what this is about"; response "OPERATOR"; please give you pin number/password. The first time an automatic voice response system is told that it CANNOT handle the request, it should pass the request to a human attendant. This leads to my number 3 (and biggest pet peave - SPRINT ARE YOU LISTENING??) 3: After navigating 3+ menus, the response is Our office is closed, please call between 8 and 5 pm (choose your time zone) Monday through Friday. This, after entering telephone number, pin, etc. If the call is not going to be accepted, while at the same time asking customers to input a variety of personal data in the open, TELL THEM UP FRONT that their information is not going do do them any good.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:32(King James Version)
for a large company, like say Citibank, it saves miliions and millions of dollars a year. They figure out what most people are calling about (say with a credit card its balance inquiries and making payments over the phone) and tries to get you do that in an automated fashion.
Yes, its annoying to many of us. Most places, you can press "0" or in the case of listening for your voice, you can say operator and go right to a live person. Some systems are so advanced that if you sound angry, you are pushed up in the que.
Try calling Experian some time. There is absolutely no way to speak to a human. They refer you to their website which then refers you back to the same phone number. You can ONLY contact them by writing for many things. Now THAT is infuriating...
My thoughts exactly. I used American's system a number of times recently due to a death in the family, and it worked just fine.
I liked it better than the touch tone systems. And it works *much* better for phones where the keypad is on the handset; then you have to keep moving the handset away from your head to push a button, and hope you don't miss any of the next voice part.
I would much rather just deal with a human, though.
by using cheatsheets like the one at http://gethuman.com/
Say it with me: MONEY. Having automated systems is just plain cheaper. Sure they still have to have real live people around to take a few of the calls. But I'd guess that by implementing "self-assist" voice menu systems, 9 out of 10 calls can be handled by the machine and not take up the time of the "expensive" employee. When dealing with just about any business decision, the answer usually boils down to M-O-N-E-Y.
This guy's the limit!
The truth is that good service is cost-prohibitive. It would be great if every ISP had a team of operators whose sole job is to find out what you need and directly transfer you to the proper department, but people cost money, to the tune of 25-30k yearly. That same money can be pumped into an irritating phone system that not only does the same job without a salary, but also deters a non-negligible number of callers and forces them to try other solutions. Let's face it: some people are addicted to phones.. when I was running a retail shop, I had people call me up for no reason at all, they were just creepy losers trying to kill time by talking to a semi-stranger. In the case of tech support, it's even worse because people are just plain ignorant and they expect everyone to hold their hand. I don't care that "you" paid "good money" for "a high end computer", or that "you" will "take" your "business" "elsewhere" if I don't clean out *YOUR* spyware and send you a "FREE" copy of MS Office because you "misplaced" your CD. Phones enable stupidity because people eventually learn to rely on the phone rather than use their own brain. How many times have you had someone call you with a question, only to end up saying "Nevermind, I just figured it out", just after they've talked your ear off and indirectly accused you for their ignorance, nevermind interrupting your lv60 raid while a 350$/hr hooker was peeing on your rug in seven different languages.
If someone can come up with an even more hostile, alienating device for call centers, I'm rooting for them!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I have never had it come remotely close to guessing what I want, and I do try to help it understand.
What's even worse in my book, though, is a system that makes you enter an account number and then transfers you to a rep who asks for your account number. I know it isn't hard to transfer the number along with the call, I admin a system that does just that.
Dell did this about one or 2 years ago and I remember the first time I called them after the system was instated. Invariably, it did not work as intended. I was sharing and office with another woman and here is what she heard:
"No."
"No."
"No!"
"NNNOOOO!"
"IT DOESN"T WORK!!!"
and so on....
She thought I was ripping into some poor soul trying to help me get the parts I needed. After I explained I was yelling at a voice rec system, we both had a good laugh. I'd always anounce I was calling Dell after that so she'd know I wasn't ripping into somebody. But I still hate those voice rec systems.
:wq
I'm not always in my nice private home when I want to deal with these things. So I'm supposed to say my "sixteen digit account number" out loud in the fucking airport, train station, office, or whatever? I don't think so. Of course the one's that ask you to punch it in alwas give to some idiot that asks for it again anyway. You can't win.
The only two words I say are "Agent" and "Operator." Grumble, grumble, grumble. Someone else already posted the gethuman database link It's a lifesaver.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
You might get modded funny, but I'd give it a +1 informative.
After moving last month I navigated quite a number of these systems, ranging from Not Completely Infuriating to Horrible. (Yes, I enunciate clearly, you smart asses)
After the sixth time the electric company's system misunderstood me I said "Fuck you!" very clearly to which it responded with "I thought I heard you say you'd like to talk to an operator. Please wait while we connect you."
Subsequent use of that colorful phrase gave me an operator in about 3/4 of the voice menus I tried.
They don't stick with voice menus. If they did I wouldn't have to "listen to all the options since our menus have recently changed"
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
I've found many voice systems that will also accept touchtones for numeric input. Examples include Alaska Airlines and Sprint/Embarq. You can also often hit zero or in some cases, a string of zeros, to bypass the voice menus entirely and queue for a live operator.
You can tell automated operator all you think about company, product and voice menu and not get in trouble/hang up/perma hold.
1) It's about 10 times faster and 50x more accurate to enter numbers on the number pad.
2) If you're familiar with the menu system you can shortcut it by just hitting 3-1-2 (or whatever).
3) They work in noisy areas.
4) Privacy and security. Keypad entry means not having to say things like credit card numbers, SSN, and other personal information out loud. Which I have often heard in cafés, etc. Good thing I don't feel like getting into credit card fraud.
Say it with me: MONEY. Having automated systems is just plain cheaper.
Um.
This isn't about "automated systems versus real support".
This is about "automated systems that don't work versus automated systems that do work".
This sort of system is designed to minimize hold time, especially with large companies. It works to something the scale of HP, Linksys, etc. as they slow down the customer long enough that their technician hold time appear to be more negligable than it really is.
I have been in contact with Tech support for more than just HP/Linksys. For Cisco, their busy periods has customer service reps take a record of the call and have a technician call you back shortly. With RIM, Blackberry hold times are generally about 1 hour during "busy" periods and thus the automated system doesn't really slow people down. (Rather, they have their automated system keep track of what was entered to speed things up slightly. ) In both of these cases, troubleshooting is measured in hours rather than minutes and any repetition would do much more harm than good as it makes them look like they don't want to provide support.
I agree, they are annoying as hell, and nothing makes me trip over my tongue more than some computer insisting that I need to speak clearly. But I imagine that some companies implement the voice-response system for a few reasons:
1) It's what all the 'cool' companies are doing, so we should, too!
2) It gives the appearance of trying to make it easier for people (even if said people get frustrated within 30 seconds).
3) If you're calling while in the car, and shouldn't be taking your eyes off the road to punch in the number to select every option. (of course, screaming into one's cell phone probably just contributes to road rage)
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
I work in the industry...
First, the reason why companies are attached to this is that a successful transaction is cheaper then a human transaction, period. In most cases 100x cheaper (even if it is sent to India). So even if only 10-20% of people use it, then it often pays for itself easily.
Of course the problem is that a lot of companies don't spend enough time (and therefore money) in making the systems work well. We often try to get containment (having someone do a full transaction in a voice system) to get above 60%. If we can do that, then we are doing well. That of course isn't the easiest thing to do. If you are good at it, there are a lot of tools to analyze what people are saying and how to respond, because invariably you will get it wrong at some point or another.
I get super frustrated myself when companies do stupid things. You have to be very careful with "speak anything" sort of interfaces. This is often called "open speech" and I still don't think the technology is quite there yet. It is much better to go with a "directed dialog" interface that give you 3-4 choices that are easy to understand.
Another thing that a lot of companies don't think about is integrating the self service system with a human being. Even if the technology is brilliant, there are going to be certain things that can't be done in the automated system. Most companies simply transfer the calls, and if you get lucky, your account number might travel with the call. Personally I like to focus on making a robust sort of integration, so that if you get you get 1/2 way through something and have to speak to a human, that human is given all the information about your transaction, so you don't have to start over and can pick up right where you left off.
D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The ultimate proof of #2 is the self checkout lanes at most grocery stores nowadays.
My bank does this too, (I was away from my computer and needed to transfer some funds). I was a bit surprised to hear the voice prompts because I was familiar with the key-inputs. So after 3 attempts to get to "Bill Payments" and a couple of failed attempts to speak to an operator, I yelled into the phone "I WANT TO SPEAK TO A FUCKING HUMAN!"
The computer responded to my outburst with: "It sounds like you are very upset and would like to speak with someone. Please hold on while I transfer your call."
I had to laugh at that programmed response. I don't know what triggered it, if it was the swearing, the yelling, or the combination, but I did get a human within a few seconds of that.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
No one thinks that people like them. For almost all business, most people would I wager would prefer human outside of the simplist transactions (account balances,etc).
While they are getting better in some regards, it's simply to save money. Is this a question that even needed to be ask?
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
I work in a shared office with 5 people in one room. We always put the interactive voice menus on speaker phone. The entertainment value of these systems is almost unmatched.
Voice prompt: Say yes or no.
Co-worker: No.
Voice prompt: Sorry I didn't understand. Say yes or no.
Co-worker (louder): No.
Voice prompt: Sorry I didn't understand. Say yes or no.
Co-worker (louder): No.
Voice prompt: Sorry I didn't understand. Say yes or no.
Co-worker (screaming): NO GOD damn it! NO, NO, NO, I FUCKING SAID NO!
Voice prompt: Please hold while I connect you with one of our customer care agents.
/^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
I've had good and bad experiences with automated voice systems. Most recently I dealt with SBC (AT&T) and their system wanted me to "just say" what I wanted and got on the right track but couldn't quite understand what I was asking for. UPS's system isn't bad if you want to do simple things like track (which you would do online anyway) but I always had to talk to a rep to get anything done. On another note in being frustrated with automated phone answering things, I called EVGA tech support the other day and they had what seemed to me to be a pretty slick system. It immediately told you how many people were before you and what the estimated wait time was, and it would inform you of this every minute or so, making you feel that you were really making progress. Or you could press # or some key, and it would store your phone number and call you back when you reached the front of the queue so you didn't really have to wait.
If nothing else, it will provide some emotional release while the system tries to figure out what to do with you. Even better if some QA tech listens to the recording later to try to improve the system.
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/27/bofh_2006_ episdoe_4/
Through some process (which is irrelevant, because beyond the ken of us, mere mortals - but sometimes it involves the dark ritual of either "kickback" or "payola"), the imbecile has determined that it is a *GOOD* thing.
Since the imbecile has the letter "MBA" trailing his name, the morons in executive row have decided to implement the stupid decision.
(The difference between "moron" and "imbecile" - see last paragraph)
I work in tech support. I've been a part of the decision process that has watched us go from live pickup to a touchtone system to voice.
I've watched upper management decide that we need to push people to the web.
Well trained people cost money.
Poorly trained people cost less money.
Poorly trained people who you don't have to worry about accents cost even less.
But make it hard enough to get support, and the support costs become profits when support is completely unused.
Upper management has decided that the people who call support in the corporate world are not the people who buy the equipment or have buying influence.
So, piss off the techies, and they just won't call. Their company will still buy from us.
More money for the shareholder.
My mom says I'm cool.
And this is about voice menus as apposed to touch-tone menus.
It's not the "wow" factor, it's the fact that it makes the company look and seem more professional, more cutting edge, and thus (subconcioiusly) more ligitimate. There's a lot of money in trying to make a company's outward appearence seem bigger, and more important. Even if it IS a large company to begin with, businesses will do what they can to make it even more apparent how solid they are. Voice menus are "cutting edge" in people's minds, they provide a certain grandios factor. The idea of speaking to a machine, and it recognizing your voice is an old one... and the technology has been around for over 25 years now, but it has only seen the consumer market, in mass quantity, in the last 5 or so, and it will take A LONG time for people to think of it as old hat. Not until we've gotten rid of our keyboards, and are effortlessly dictating all documents to our desktop computers, will voice menus start feeling banal and everyday. By then, companies will have to move onto other things to make themselves look more important.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I use prepaid minutes for my cellphone (cheap and anonymous). When I want to refill my account I must purchase a card, then call my provider and give the card PIN to add minutes to my account. It used to be a quick and efficient punch-in system, but they switched to voice recognition a year ago and it is now very painful.
They greatly improved the thing, like allowing to punch-in the password and the PIN (which were almost never recognized correctly by the system). They also removed options that are too similar, like "Prepaid card" or "Credit card". But they keep changing the navigation so you cannot interrupt the messages otherwise you get lost in the menus, so it takes like 2 or 3 minutes instead of 20 seconds.
In any case, it has been a year and I still feel like an idiot when I talk to the system so I try not to do it in public. My only pleasure is to give a rude and obscene answer to the last question of the system, which is "Can I do something else for you" (although I hang up before being transfered to a TSR)...
lucm, indeed.
Damn I wish I had Mod Points today. I can so relate to that!
I'd very much like my pharmacy, CVS, to implement the voice-activated prompts in lieu of the damn number key entry.
Why?
Because my idiot cell phone (a Hiptop) got upgraded into non-functionality by my provider, SunCom. The latest firmware decided that whenever I punch a number key during an open call, it needs to continue emitting the DTMF for a full second. Their IVR software interprets that as multiple presses of the same key.
I've worked around the issue by submitting refills on their website and calling other places from work, but still. *grumble*
James
We were offered the choice of using a voice menu and mail boxes, but opted out because of the nature of our business. If we don't have any electronic interaction, then a call can never be routed to the wrong person, no one can ever claim to have left a message, and the EPD can't jump on us for wiping out half the county. That's in my department, mind you, then there's billing... they use it as a way to NOT answer the phone. But my number is listed as an option, so I get all their calls. So I transfer all them to the director of billing and smile.... (it was her idea to have voice menus down there)
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
The moment I hear a robot tell me "We've now made it easier for you to ..." I mash the keypad for three seconds, then scream "HELP..HELP..HELP" into the receiver, then repeat. I get a human within 30 seconds every time.
I've seen a lot of posts here saying that they've had no trouble with these systems... I've discovered that some people have a lot more trouble than others. My dad has a New York accent, and voice recognition never works with him. My mom has no trouble at all. Certain types of voices work better than others.
I had an acquaintence many years ago that would call automated service numbers and punch random numbers on his phone to see what would happen. A few times he got into voicemail boxes and such but nothing exciting until he hit upon the combo for changing the options on one system so he programmed the thing to dial an operator every time a button was pushed. He called every day to see if his mucking about had been fixed and it took the company 2 weeks to fix it. They was 20 years ago, I wonder if modern systems can be messed with the same way.
I actually like the voice menu system of FedEx. After using it quite often, I can just say what I want without much of a pause, and my package(s) are scheduled for pickup.
If a person was on the phone with me, it would be a real hassle.
Them:What is your fedex account number?
Me:Don't know
Them: Hold please.
Wait for 10 minutes
When it comes to doing fairly routine tasks over the phone, voice menu systems are great. The rest of the time, of course, they're a pain in the ass.
I've definitely heard them say "Press or say one". What about a front-door choice: Say "voice" to get the voice menu, press 1 to get the touch-tone menu.
It's especially annoying with serial numbers. Really, at this point, if they can't let me use my touch tones for that, they should have a rep writing it down.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
They should change the name of "Voice Response Unit" to "Noise Response Unit", because that's what they are. You wouldn't believe how many customers I talk to who complain about the VRU "breaking up" and following with "I didn't understand that"...well, when you have your stupid mutt dog/snot nose illegitimate children going insane in the background, it's hard for PEOPLE to understand you, let alone a machine! Further, the pretzels in your mouth don't help. Also, when it asks you a simple question and to answer yes/no and you say "ummmm..." for 5 seconds, it also gets confused.
I lived in Spain for some months and had to get a landline from the only provider, Telefonica. When I was ready to come back and wanted to cancel the service I had to make several attempts. When calling first you had to go through about 30 seconds of commercials about their new offers, finally you got to a recording asking one to say what the inquiry was about, I guess I was not saying the right keyword because it kept going into different voice menus asking me to say other stuff and pretty soon I was 3 levels deep into a menu that had nothing to do with my inquiry and the worst thing is that there was no way to go back to the top menu, well besides hanging up and having to go thru another round of commercials. The first time I thought it was funny, and laughed at how the machine did not understand a word I say and randomly picked menu options for me. But after 3 tries I started to get annoyed. In the end what I did was mess around with pressing numbers and not answering the questions and finally I guess it gaved up and passed me to an operator.
Personally I hate listening to or speaking to a computer in any way shape or form. Give me a mouse and a keyboard anyday and it surely will prove to be more useful.
As far as I remember the "conversation" I was asked to say my booking number, and then my surname and finally to say yes to confirm the details of the booking I was cancelling, and it was DEFINITELY a recorded voice I was talking to. Made me wonder at the time if there was a person sitting behind the recording controlling it, or whether it really was that good at recognising what I said. Seriously, most people I talk to face-to-face have trouble understanding me sometimes, and on the phone it's normally worse, but this went through without a single mistake.
Because the cell phone companies are still working on it, in order to find another way to bill users of the service per month and per use.
...because they've heard--for years--how much people hate the "Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that" system, and figure they've just "solved" that problem by giving them the option of "talking to" something. But of course, those "voice-response" systems work only as well as you train them. If you don't teach them the all the words you need them to know, then voice-response will be an endless source of frustration for your customers. And I think this is probably most of the problem--a Telecomm Admin problem, not a technology problem.
For example, most of Dell's voice-response menus, until recently, didn't know the term "Poweredge server"--a glaring deficiency, considering those are some of their most expensive products... This would not have been a problem, except that the "Please say your express service code" prompt didn't work right either... About half the time it would say "I didn't hear your entire response," and would then say "Please say the name of the product you're calling about" which led back to the system not knowing what a "Poweredge" was. They've finally changed their menus so you can say OR enter your info on the numeric keypad... Which is good, otherwise I would simply not be able to get service for my servers.
With all this complaining done, I will say that if you call Avaya, THEIR voice-response system works swimmingly. But they are a company that MAKES phone systems and voice-response systems, so they likely have configured theirs correctly. But it works really well! You call Avaya and it knows all the words you need it to know, and has--to date--never misunderstood me.
Who did what now?
Depending on the quality of the people who wrote the system they're confirming because they recognized your utterance at a low confidence and the Right Thing to do is confirm.
Street capture is rather difficult, and increasing your volume has about as much chance of success with a machine as with someone who doesn't speak the language. Don't put pauses between syllables, let those flow naturally. Put pauses between words to help the ASR engine pick up those breaks more easily.
And yes, most voice enabled IVRs are shit, but its not an intrinsic quality of them.
Now everyone within earshot knows your credit card number, bank account number, every detail needed to order your credit report, what medicine you needed for your herpes outbreak.
Just the first stage in realizing the retarded vision of everyone talking to their computer like they were people.
I have an old rotary phone and I quite like it. One of those big black plastic monstrosities. It fits nicely between shoulder and head when I need both hands to do something (ah, the handset does). It is essentially indestructable (I once dropped it about 30 feet onto some rocks just to see how it would survive) and I never, ever lose it - since it doesn't move around much on its cord, it is easy to find. And, while I frequently transpose digits on a touch tone phone, it seems to happen much more rarely on a rotary dial. Just so you don't accuse me of being a Luddite (hmm, a luddite on slashdot) I do also have a cell phone (though it is an older one with a monochrome screen and no camera).
From time to time that is. I work for contact centers and one of the tasks is to create IVR systems.
There are a lot of
- cowboys (switch vendors, so called consultants, whatever) creating IVR systems that don't know how this is supposed to work
- people from the company that think because they understand their business that they can create an IVR system
I can tell you a lot about creating IVR systems, but the gist about it is the following.
You don't want to have a menu that is more than three wide by three deep, that is three choices per menu, and three menus before you reach someone. Occasionally you can violate that rule and have four wide. Or five if you really must, but then keep the descriptions short. But never four deep. That is too much.
Think about it. Would you have 4 deep x 4 wide = 16 different departments handling the customer calls? Nope you wouldn't. They all pretty much arrive at the same CSR/Agents/Whatever you call them.
So why let the caller make the differentiation?
The caller needs to make the first differentation between tech/admin/complains, and then the CSR needs to get the client nr and some additional info on why you are calling, to ease his live. This will greatly increase the stay of the agent in the call center (which is currently at 8-18 months or so, depending on the sector). This will aide you as well. The longer the agents are there, the better you are helped!
At the end of the call, the CSR will do the call classification; this doesn't need to be done upfront by the ivr - this is waisting time.
The best IVR is the one that
- doesn't ask any questions (i.e. recognises you by calling nr, and guesses why you are calling)
- or asks the minimum of questions and then puts you in the queue.
And then informs you regularly what your expected waiting time (ETA) to the agent is. And proposes you to be called back - on your current number or another one. And gives you a case nr already.
This is how I learned to make my IVR systems.
If you want to talk to me, see http://contact-centers.blogspot.com/ - I have an e-mail link in there sometime.
Mark
they leave the dial menu in place. I really loved the fact that you could press 1-4-5-1 and get to where you wanted to go. Now they disable it and FORCE you to use the voice systems, limiting the dial options to account/phone numbers only. Just remember, the squeeky wheel gets the oil. Whenever you have to use one, complain to the person you finally get to talk to. Tell them you don't like it and want to make a formal complaint against it. Will it help? I don't know but it's worth a shot.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. More often then not, I can say "Proliant server running Windows" or "Proliant server running Unix" and it gets me exactly where I need. Other times, I have to step through hardware, server, Proliant, not Unix, Windows with a few "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?". I do not have problems with it now but when they switched from button to voice, it was not so seemless. They did not change or modify the system since it was started, I just got used to it and know what it wants so now I can navigate with no problems.
If I am calling for a HP KVM, tape library, SAN, or any other rack mount product besides a server? Forget it. The voice system blows. Oddly enough, even when speaking to a person from HP, they do not realize HP sells IP KVMs or anything other then printers, desktops and servers. Even when I give them the model number of the unit. I often get bounced between the home, business, and some contract maintenance division and then between the desktop and server que of each of those and if the product was originally a Compaq device, it is even worse.
I'm sure the wireless companies do it sell more phones. I got so pissed off one time trying to deal with my local wireless company's braindead menu, I ended up throwing my phone across the room. Well, it ain't working too well now...
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
having worked tech support for a somewhat major ISP, i can understand why they have the automated systems. Even with 14 or 15 call centers, each with several hundred support agents, we often had 100+ calls in queue. If it weren't for the automated menu system, the company would have had to hire hundreds or perhaps even a couple thousand operators to direct calls to the correct support departments. Not only would that cost a lot of extra and arguably unnecessary money, it would have created problems as aggrivated customers take their rage out on the operator, or expect them to fix their problem, instead of waiting in line for a trained support person. Granted, if they just provided decent service and products in the first place, they wouldn't have constantly had massive amounts of tech calls, but that's a whole other story... :-)
...and I know that the single biggest problem with these systems is not the accuracy of the speech rec software itself. It's actually very, very good. There are two things preventing the resulting systems from being just as good:
1. The integrator: Making speech recognition grammars is hard. You have to design the dialog in a way that makes sense to people, and you have to write grammars that interpret every possible response. People who have absolutely no qualifications are doing it. The technology companies that produce this stuff put linguists and psychologists on it (people with phd's). The systems need to be tuned over time, and the client/integrator is usually too cheap/ignorant to do it right.
2. Cell phones: Nine out of ten cell phone calls I have with other humans usually involve this conversational snippet... "What?! I can't hear you!" How the hell a computer's supposed to understand you is beyond me. And, the cell phone network providers make it even harder on the computer, because of endpointing. "Endpointing" is the process of listening at the beginning of a call, before the conversation begins, to figure out the background noise level. Cell phone carriers do it all the time. Have you ever been on a cell phone call where the line goes silent, but the call hasn't dropped? That's the cell carrier being conservative with its bandwidth. It figures out that no one's speaking, and it transmits nothing until someone speaks up again. Originally, this made people uncomfortable, thinking their calls were dropped. So, cell phone manufacturers starting inserting fake noise on the local loop to mask the endpointing. It's called "comfort noise" (I'm not kidding)
So, how does this bugger speech rec systems? Well, they do their own endpointing, so that they don't attempt to recognize background noise as speech. They hear silence (because of the cell network's endpointing), and they figure it's a really clean line with no background noise. So, when the caller really says something, the speech rec system gets it all at once, noise and all.
Often, if you're having trouble with a speech rec system, and you're on a cell phone, redialing and getting a fresh endpointing will help. And, of course, you're always better off with a land line.
-----
Kvetch is Yiddish for "throw an exception" --Dr. Ron Cytron
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 'three'."
John
I've always loved having systems like these around. Every time you swear at them, they'll route you to an operator immediately, for fear of pissing you off more.
"Welcome to blahblahblah. For Billing, press or say '1' "
"#$%$#%$% YOU!!!!"
"Please hold while we connect you to our next available representative."
*Much* easier than having to wait for the silly system to tell me all its stupid options.
On a serious note, it is indeed easier to talk with the system than press a number, since people sometimes aren't able to reach their phone...imagine using Skype or a headset and dialing in. From a UI perspective it just makes sense to allow people to continue using the same medium/mode for interfacing. What's -really- unforgivable is how stupid companies waste your time by preambling their options with a lengthy set of *other* numbers you should call or telling you to go to their website. Somebody should really just make those numbers an option and allow you to connect to the appropriate parties through the #$#$ phone tree. Less cognitive work on the part of the user, same amount of work accomplished.
I am a foreigner, and I live in US for 13 years, so I speak with Russian accent. I have never seen those voice recognition systems working correctly.
Oh, and to the enormous crowd of morons in this thread who did not understand the problem, and "discussed" automated systems vs. human operators instead of voice recognition vs. keypad menus: Kill yourself now.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Many of these systems are from the same company.
Saying "Operator" or "Agent" will regularly get you around them, so you can then sit in the 30 minute or longer hold queue.
On those lines: I've recently sat on hold for Apple, United Airlines and a large national travel agency for 30 minutes or more.
The best: FedEx. Bar none. "Agent" and someone answers, 24/7.
+++OK ATH
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
My pet peeve: Why do they ask you to enter your phone-# when every single person you will talk to will ask you for it again anyway?
Example: I have a problem, I call. I go thru some menu.
Menu: Please enter your phone number for a better service" (or other client ID)
Me: [Enter phone number using touch tone phone]
After more menus, I finally talk to a human.
Human: "How can I help you?"
Me: "I have a problem [bla bla bla]."
Human: "Oh! Please give me your phone number"
Me: [Phone number]
Human: [Mumbles some of my information].
Human: So what is your problem?
Me: "I have a problem [blab la bla]."
Human: "Oh! I see, please hold for our tech support."
Tech: "Hello how may I help you?"
Me: "I have a problem [blab la bla]."
Tech: "Oh! Please give me your phone number"
Tech: [Mumbles some of my information].
I mean, how bad is the system anyway if I have to enter 3 times a simple data as my phone number?
I use a Bluetooth headset with my cell phone. Most times when I make a call I don't even dig the phone out of my holster. If I'm calling an automated system I'm perfectly happy to speak a number rather than having to dig out my phone, locate the (probably unlit) key I need to press, and press it on the somewhat flimsy keypad before some timer runs out and the system shunts me to a "failed response" reply.
I've had good luck with accurate recognition, but I have a slight advantage over many people. I have a very neutral accent due to having moved around the US a lot in my youth. I just make sure to eununciate clearly and the systems usually understand me just fine. My only wish would be that these systems allow longer for a reply - oftentimes I'm digging an account number out of my files while I'm talking to the system, and just need it to wait a few more minutes while I find the relevant number.
-- Flaw
"On Hold" simply shouldn't exist. *Every* system should offer to call you back with an estimated wait time. There is simply no reason for me to tie up a phone line just to sit in a queue-- the queue will get along swimmingly without me holding the line.
The problem occurs after you get through the IVR - when someone picks up the line on the other end and it's somebody in fucking Bangalore. I don't know what business my credit card company had shipping my financial info halfway across the world but I more or less stopped doing business with them partly because of it.
Extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice
There a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut"
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
-b.
I usually can deal with VRS, but Pizza Hut delivery broke the camel's back.
The simulated "girl" on the other end of the phone kept "TYPING" out loud. It sounded like it was digitized from an old Mac 128K. It was thunderous. Knowing it was also completely unnecessary AND that Pizza Hut thought I was stupid enough to think it was real, drove me nuts.
They ditched it a little while ago, thank goodness.