If you were to ask most wireless subscribers what they wanted out of their wireless service, you would get a variety of answers that led to one overriding desire-more. If a little is good, more has to be better.
Wireless carriers increasingly are turning to enhanced-service offerings to fill the “more” that customers are looking for. They also are using these services to lure new customers and keep the customers they have from defecting to other carriers.
Enhanced services generally have moved the cellular phone away from a voice-centric device and toward an all-purpose communications tool. Wireless Internet and messaging solutions have been the two most common forms of “more” services recently offered.
But a new trend in enhanced services is emerging, one that is focusing the phone on what it does best-voice. Specifically, voice-recognition technology. According to a report by Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based Allied Business Intelligence, the voice-commerce market is expected to reach $50 billion by 2005.
“Advanced speech/voice systems, new industry standards, the expansion of wireless subscribers, the growth of the Internet for wireline and wireless users and the new age of mobile and location-based applications will drive the emerging voice-recognition system market,” Allied Business said in its report, “Voice Recognition Systems.” “As speech-recognition systems provide newer and more advanced features and applications, these systems will provide solutions to address a plethora of new industries and markets.”
ABI predicts there will be about 4 million fixed voice portal users in North America by 2001, climbing to approximately 17 million users in 2005. Mobile voice portal users are expected to climb from 1 million users next year to more than 56 million users by the end of 2005. In addition, ABI said there will be approximately 2,000 voice sites by 2001, reaching 250,000 sites by the end of 2005.
“At the moment, users can check their e-mail, get information about stocks, weather, driving directions and traffic conditions, but in the near future voice-portal companies will introduce much more improved and worthwhile applications,” said Anna Karampahtsis, author of the ABI report.
One of the leading companies in the voice-recognition market, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Nuance Communications Inc., recently released figures showing that more than 80 percent of consumers using its service prefer speech-recognition systems to touch-tone, the Web or speaking with live agents or operators. The survey, conducted by Evans Research Inc., also showed that 96 percent of wireless users were satisfied with their interactions and experiences with voice-driven systems.
“Consumer acceptance of voice-driven applications has reached an all-time high,” said Steve Ehrlich, vice president of marketing at Nuance. “Satisfaction among mobile-phone users is especially compelling and confirms demand for voice Web and v-commerce applications. The research suggests that speech-recognition technology has definitely moved beyond the `early adopter’ phase and that consumers have become increasingly comfortable and satisfied with the user experience.”
That satisfaction has increased along with the quality of voice-recognition services. Mikael Berner, co-founder and chief executive officer of privately held voice-portal company BeVocal Inc., said recent advancements in filtering and speech-recognition technology have improved accuracy rates among voice-recognition services to 90 percent or better.
In August, Sprint PCS completed its nationwide rollout of Sprint PCS Voice Command, a Nuance-based voice-activated dialing service that allows consumers to place calls, access directory assistance and update address books and contact information by simply speaking.
Sprint PCS customers who sign up for the service are provided a personal Web page to manage, organize and enter up to 2,500 numbers in an address book, eliminating the need to voice train each entry. By using their voice, customers can dial, look-up directory names, modify their address-book entries and perform various speech-enabled, voice-independent functions from their wireless phone.
“Others carriers have implemented a very limited voice service through first-generation technology, which gives customers only a handful of entries in their address book, the need to voice train every entry, and recognize a very limited vocabulary and only one at a time,” explained Ronald LeMay, chief operating officer of Sprint PCS. “By using the latest generation technology, Sprint PCS is able to offer a complete package of voice services to our customers nationwide.”
Sprint also said it plans to offer a custom group-dialing list feature for business customers, allowing them to create dialing lists for a company in addition to an employee’s personal address books.
In addition to Sprint, Qwest Communications International Inc. recently released a voice-activated Web browsing service to its customers using Santa Clara, Calif.-based BeVocal’s voice-recognition technology. Qwest’s service offers personalized news, sports, traffic reports, airline information, stock quotes and weather to its customers in eight western and Midwestern states.
“Qwest Voice Browsing not only lets subscribers talk to the Internet, it lets the Internet talk back over a wireless phone,” said Peter Mannetti, president of Qwest Wireless. “Customers do not need a computer. They simply ask for the information they want and Qwest Voice Browsing will provide answers within seconds.”
To promote the service, Qwest said it is waiving the $5 per month charge for the service through the end of January for both existing and new customers.
In addition to offering enhanced services to customers, voice-recognition services allow companies to provide customers with quicker access to information than current systems that rely on number-pushing on the keypad or an auto attendant.
“Customers with touch-tone telephones must plod through slow, frustrating [interactive voice response] menus, press the right buttons, and then they are usually put on hold. Or they `zero out’ to a live attendant, who usually puts them on hold. As everyone knows, all of this amounts to a serious quality-of-service problem,” said the Aberdeen Group in a recent profile of voice recognition companies.
Previously, companies would address these problems by hiring additional customer service representatives or outsource the service to a third party. These solutions typically cost between $1 and $15 per call. With the integration of voice-recognition technologies, the cost per call is reduced to between 10 cents and $1 per call.
Voice recognition technology can also provide security measures that are becoming more important as wireless commerce activities increase. In a recent study conducted by the University of Edinburgh’s Center for Communication Interface Research in England, voice-authentication software provided by Nuance delivered greater security to a range of banking and financial applications when compared with traditional PIN-based methods.
Kathy Frostad, director of telecom marketing for Nuance, said this voice-authentication technology was possible because every person has a unique voice print, much like how everyone has a unique fingerprint.
While the possibilities for voice-recognition services seem abundant, Bruce Eidsvik, vice president of sales and marketing for voice portal infrastructure provider VoiceGenie Technologies Inc., cautioned the industry on how it markets voice portal and recognition technology at the recent Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association Wireless I.T. conference.
“Voice portals are not about cruising the Web using voice-recognition technology,” Eidsvik said. “The real benefit of this technology will be in helping consumers with daily tasks. Major speech vendors love market-ready products, but
the user community is not ready for the technology yet.”
While the consumer market may
take some time to warm up to voice-recognition technology, the Aberdeen Group noted that companies that want to offer the capability when their customers call for it may want to begin implementing voice-recognition options soon.
“Organizations that implement such applications sooner rather than later will not only improve their call centers, auto attendants and company phone directories, they will also help set standards for quality in customer service that will help retain and may even acquire customers,” the Aberdeen Group said.
