Say What? Conversive Helps Call Centers with New Automated Speech Solution

Conversive, a provider of both automated and live text chat solutions, recently introduced a new speech solution aimed at lightening the load of call center agents, while still delivering a good user experience.

Called “Conversive Speech Recognition,” Chairman/CEO Robert Williams told me the idea was to leverage the company’s natural language processing capabilities that power those automated chat systems. There was a time, you may recall, when “bots” were all the rage.

Don’t hear much about bots anymore, but the idea of automating a text chat dialog still makes sense… provided that 1) the system does a good job of understanding the request and delivering the right information and 2) an agent can be easily engaged upon request by the customer.

Williams says the new solution enables call centers to take a similar approach to automating a speech-enabled IVR session. The customer’s spoken question is first translated into text (by vendors like Genesys, Nuance and many others), then passed over to the Conversive solution to figure out what the user wanted, match it up with the right answer, and pass it back. The answer text is translated back to speech and then relayed to the user.

What if the request can’t be handled automatically? Williams says their system enables an escalation to an agent, either automated or upon user request.

Here are a few examples of a frequent flyer inquiry, ranging from basic to pretty complex, along with the answers given. In an audio demo I heard, the questions could be asked in a variety of ways and still resulted in the correct answer being given.

Question: Can I earn points for traveling on an Award flight?
Answer: You do not earn points when traveling on an Award flight.

Question: Can I earn points flying on non-partner airlines?
Answer: Major Airline Reservations and travel agents can book flights on airlines not affiliated with the Major Airline Frequent Flyer program. However, points can only be earned on eligible flights with Major Airline oneworld alliance and other partner airlines.

Question: Can I earn points on flights taken before I joined the Major Airline Frequent Flyer program?
Answer: Points for eligible flights taken up to thirty days before your enrollment date may be credited to your account. Forward by mail all original documentation, including boarding passes or ticket copies to the FF Service Center

Question: Can I transfer my points to another Frequent Flyer account?
Answer: Credit card reward points can only be transferred by the Primary credit card cardholder (sometimes called the Account Holder) to their Frequent Flyer account.

Question: Is it possible to automatically transfer points to the Frequent Flyer Program?
Answer: Check with your credit card provider as arrangements vary from one reward program to another.

For more information, read the press release.