It's apparent to most anyone who calls toll-free numbers today that speech recognition is becoming a mainstream feature of interactive voice response
(IVR) systems. Clearly, this technology works and is paying off for many companies and government organizations. But like any technology, speech recognition may not be a good choice in all circumstances. What are its benefits, and just as importantly, its limitations? How can you come up with hard numbers that quantify its potential value for your organization?
This paper provides a simple roadmap for evaluating the impact of speech recognition technology on your organization and establishing a successful application strategy. First, you have to understand what speech-enabled can and can't do. Then you can categorize the phone transactions handled by your organization and determine which of them could be automated using speech.
Next, estimate the actual automation rates (in other words, taking caller cooperation into account) and calculate the expected impact on the bottom line. Finally, consider the soft benefits of speech-enabled from a marketing and customer-service perspective.