Amid the recession, Microsoft's (MSFT) Tellme unit just had its best quarter.
The reason, Tellme executives say, is because the company's interactive voice response systems can save companies money and improve customer service and satisfaction.
On Wednesday, Tellme is set to unveil a host of improvements to its speech recognition and customer assistance technologies. The upgrades are the most substantial for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company since Microsoft bought it in May 2007.
The improvements include speech technology developed by other units of Microsoft.
"There's lots of opportunity for better customer service and better caller experience, and that combined with decreasing costs is a very compelling value proposition," said Jamie Bertasi, senior director of Tellme business solutions.
The improvements to the Tellme service take advantage of cloud computing to lower the cost of operating automated call centers for companies, she says.
Tellme plans to cut costs for its customers by using Internet telephony, known as voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP. It also will unveil advanced speech services that improve automation of customer service calls, and a "voice font" technology designed to deliver a more natural text-to-speech computer voice.
Unified Communications
"The things that they're coming out with really strike at the heart of what the industry contact centers and unified communications are all about, which is to improve that customer experience," said Nancy Jamison, an analyst with Jamison Consulting.
Microsoft's goal with the Tellme enhancements is to improve the speed and accuracy of speech-recognition systems so customers don't get frustrated and try to get a human operator, she says.
Companies save money when customers use self-service systems to answer their questions.
"Everybody is trying to figure out how to hold on to customers and make their customer service the best it can possibly be while at the same time reducing their costs," Bertasi said.
A customer service call handled by a live agent costs an average of $3. A phone service that handles 200,000 calls a day would save more than $2 million a year for every 1% improvement in call automation.
Trials of the new Tellme services with customers that handle millions of calls every week indicate an increase of up to 2% in automated task completion, Bertasi says.
Tellme provides voice services for nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service centers and voice-enabled mobile search. Its rivals include IBM (IBM) and Nuance Communications (NUAN).
Tellme offers cloud-based services, or resources that are accessed over the Internet instead of from on-premise computer hardware. That means no big upfront costs for customers, Bertasi says.
Source: Investor's Business Daily
