)
Speech Recognition technology is a disruptive trendsetter in retail, finance and other consumer-based industries. Internationally, the market for the technology is estimated to grow up to 1.6 billion by 2020 according to Markets and Markets.
Versatility of Speech Analytics
As it is relatively easier for machines to gain awareness on and decipher between hundreds of languages, Speech Recognition technology is playing a key role in multinational companies. This extends beyond consumers and everyday shoppers. In India, for example, where its massive agriculture industry is still in need of a modern setup, speech analytics has started improving the farming experience. Farmers have to deal with equipment and pesticide suppliers often through contact centers, and the mobile revolution, fortunately, proliferated fast enough to see it happen.
As per a study, the business ecosystem has made Speech Recognition technology solutions a necessity in India. However, in other parts of the world, government and regulatory compliance, or consumer-protection laws, have had a similar effect.
The study covered 500 Indian companies, of which 60% said that root-cause discovery of customer-experience failures was why they preferred using speech analytics to other forms of analysis.
How the technology works today
Speech Analytics may use tools for speech-to-text transcription, phonetic indexing, and caller identification. Enterprise analytics can mine data from voice calls and find out the emotions and propensities of the caller based on the agent’s approach, and boost BI in unprecedented ways.
Implementation of the technology is gaining speed across companies of varying sizes. Using dashboards and reports, personnel can identify opportunities and drawbacks accurately, without wasting time and money on manual analysis of calls.
Speech Analytics and Automation
Large-scale industries need to curtail their customer-service expenses. Automation was thus inevitable, especially in voice processes. Subroutine-driven and data-centric, the contact center is a perfect place to use speech-recognition programs that interact with humans who may provide inputs either through voice or the keypad.
The new breed of applications can help people run appliances, send messages, and provide transcriptions depending on the context.
The better experience
Customer service through contact centers is usually based on navigation menus. And we know they can be tedious! A better way is once a customer calls, they would just have to call out the name of the service. The audio signal is converted at the enterprise end and helps the person reach the module without having to navigate lengthy messages.
Virtual Assistant is a concept increasingly gaining popularity, as applications can simply respond based on the audio content. This is more prevalent in the text-based communication mode, but across-the-board voice-based automation is around the corner.
While more people enjoy the benefits speech recognition technology, companies are skeptical about it given the complexity involved. Each company needs a unique speech-based solution, although common modules and algorithms may apply. Collaboration with university research, as in the case of Uniphore and IIT Chennai, can be valuable when it comes to installing the technology pragmatically for sufficient leverage.