Speech automation solutions can be an integral part of a contact center. By letting callers interact with the center using their most natural form of communication — their voice — speech automation enables the contact center to handle more calls with less agent interaction.
By automating functions before connecting the caller to an agent and allowing callers to completely handle their own requests (such as account balance inquiries and placing a reorder), speech automation can make a very positive impact. Yet, because of the expense, perceived difficulty and overwhelming technology options, most contact centers have not implemented any speech solutions.
Traditional Speech Automation
Most common speech automation solutions are complicated. They involve premise-based hardware and software and require a very knowledgeable staff to implement and maintain them. In addition to the expense of managing the investment required in hardware, software and personnel, the ongoing licensing and maintenance costs can be considerable. Any decision to implement a premise-based speech automation solution requires a decisive return on investment (ROI) case. This lack of a clear-cut ROI prevents most contact centers from ever seriously considering speech solutions, which leaves only the largest and most complex centers to be the users of speech solutions.
Revolutionary Change — Hosted Speech Solutions
There is a new paradigm in speech solutions that changes the way all contact centers should think about implementing speech automation. Hosted speech solutions will now enable smaller centers to take advantage of the benefits of speech solutions and to allow the larger centers to complement their existing infrastructure to address seasonal peak volumes or special projects. The reasons for this are several. For one, the cost model is much more favorable.
Hosted speech solutions require much less of an up-front cost as the contact center does not have to pay for equipment, licenses and staff, and…