© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco ConfidentialSpeechTEK 2007 1

August 22, 2007 Presented by Jason Tepper

Cisco Contact Center Business Unit

Worst Practices When Not to Use Speech

SpeechTEK 2007

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Worst Practice #1

Preparation. Who needs it?

“Build it and they will come"

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Best Practice

Preparation. We all need it.

Keep applications focused and interactions simple

Design a clear path in your call flow to quickly identify complex tasks better suited for an agent

Utilize speech applications for easy, repeatable and often needed tasks (“a lot of a little”)

Use speech where it makes sense (Remember DTMF)

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Worst Practice #2 Place speech applications in a vacuum.

"Leave me alone, I'm an IVR"

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Best Practice

Open the doors and let the air in.

Let callers know what to expect from the system immediately

Make service and messaging consistent with other channels

Don’t make it difficult to connect to a human

Don't ask callers to repeat information to an agent already given to the IVR

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Worst Practice #3

Create prompts you love to hate.

“Can you hear me now?”

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Best Practice

Create prompts you love.

Use simple, crisp prompts and design for one word responses

Limit menu choices (e.g., Malcolm’s jars of jam, 401k)

Pay attention to voice talent direction/coaching "Are you calling about a 'new request' or an 'existing request‘ ?"

Don’t over “persona”

Use TTS cautiously

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Worst Practice #4

Be tough on your callers.

“You talkin’ to me?"

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Best Practice

Embrace your callers.

Don’t ask callers to repeat themselves when the system doesn’t understand them

Handle errors courteously with tapered error handling

Don’t disconnect on errors; connect to a human

Provide flexibility with universal commands and input preferences

Personalize the caller experience with dynamic customer information

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