Integration for Delegation

In our recent press release we announced that applications that are richly connected to enterprise backend systems can yield up to three times the automation rate of non-connected dialog systems. The reason for this dramatic increase in automation performance is simple, and is called “delegation”. Rather than having callers perform certain operations or provide certain pieces of information, the dialog system delegates other systems and information repositories to do that. We like to say: “The best question is a question not asked,” to stress on the fact that if there are other ways to collect some pieces of information other that asking the caller, that should be done. By delegating the collection of information or the performing of some actions to external enterprise backends rather than to the caller would lead to better interaction experience and higher automation.

Equipment identification in technical support calls is the perfect example. During a technical support call for internet service it may be important to know the modem type of the caller. In order to provide that information, often the caller has to drop the phone, crawl to some unreachable place, like the bottom shelf of the entertainment cabinet, locate the modem—which is not a simple thing for everyone…with some many boxes and cables around—locate the brand name, go back to the telephone, and speak it. In the meanwhile noise may have triggered the speech recognizer, and there is always the chance of misrecognition. The whole thing may take a few minutes that add to caller frustration and increases the chance of a much dreaded hang-up or “operator!!!” Instead, a dip into the customer account database to locate the caller’s records and the type of modem would take a few seconds, can be done in parallel with other tasks—for instance collecting the reason of the call in natural language—and lead to a much more pleasant, reassuring, and successful interaction.

Let’s face it! Subscribers paid for a service, and asking them to do all this work when something is wrong is not the best possible customer care. Delegating machines to do all the work—rather than callers—is the way to go. We are moving towards a time where an automated customer care call would go like this:

System: Thank you for calling Acme customer care. How can I help you?

Caller: I just got my bill and there is a one hundred and fifty dollar charge I don’t understand.

System: I understand your bill is too high. Is that right?

Caller: Yes

System: I am sorry about that. Let me see what the problem is, and I will call you back in a few minutes.

We are not there yet…but we are moving in the right direction.