This document discusses the importance of personalization in automated customer service interactions. It notes that while automated solutions are cheaper than live agents, customers still expect a personalized experience. The document advocates for personalizing automated phone systems using customer history and other data to improve routing and provide a better customer experience. It provides examples of how companies have implemented personalized IVR solutions to increase automation rates and reduce costs while improving customer satisfaction.

1. Claudia Hathway Editor Call Centre Focus “Making Automation Feel Less Automated and More Caring” Daniel Hong Senior Analyst Ovum Damian Kelly VP Sales & Marketing SpeechStorm

2. Why is personalisation important? Claudia Hathway Editor Call Centre Focus

3. Rise of automated self-service Telephony self-service up to 8 timescheaper than traditional live agent calls

4. Rise of automated self-service According to ContactBabel, 36% of contact centres offer telephony self-service* 86% in small centres use touchtone IVR, but 30% of large organisations are using speech recognition self-service * The ContactBabel report The UK Contact Centre Decision Makers Guide 2011 is available on www.contactbabel.com

5. Importance of being personal Customer service is the only competitive differentiator that matters – driving loyalty, likelihood to recommend, and increase spend Consumer demand for excellent service is higher than ever

6. Importance of being personal According to Top 50 focus groups, the minimum they expect from an interaction is that it is: Timely Easy to use Reliable Knowledgeable

7. Importance of being personal According to these groups, the only way to drive real delight with the service delivered is for it to feel personalised. “a degree of personal service, a degree of personal care”

8. Importance of being personal It’s not easy! Overall Top 50 results in 2010: Reliable: 96.4% Easy to use: 94.1% Timely: 87.6% Knowledgeable staff: 83.6% Personalised: 67.6%

9. How Automated Customer Care canFeel Less Automated and More Caring Daniel Hong, Lead Analyst Customer Interaction at Ovum daniel.hong@ovum.com Twitter: d_hong 15 September 2011

10. What’s going on in today’s market… Social Mobile Experience Cloud Customers have access to information and can share it with the large digital communities and the world. Smart phones and social media are becoming pervasive (75%) and have dramatically changed the dynamic between the enterprise and the customer Customer expectations of service, price and delivery is rapidly changing. It’s all about customer loyalty! $83 billion lost Cloud is changing the way products are created, delivered and priced.

11. When reaching out to customer service, through which channels have you had most success resolving your issue on the first attempt? Live agent (3,233) Automated service with speech recognition (260) Automated service with touchtone (435) SMS (393) Email (1,525) Social networking (ie Facebook or Twitter) (265) FAQ pages on company website or message board (715) Independent blogs and forums (473) Web chat / instant messaging (843) 4,500 3,500 Number of respondents 2,500 1,500 500 1 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 n=4086

12. What do you find most frustrating about using an automated telephony system that has speech recognition or a touchtone menu? Speech recognition doesn’t recognize my voice (582) Long/confusing menu options (1,642) Takes too long to find information (1,749) Unable to solve problems without a live agent (1,795) System doesn't remember past interactions (580) Incorrect routing (1,402) Other (56) Never used automated solution (183) 4,500 3,500 2,500 Number of respondents 1,500 500 2 3 4 6 1 5 7 8 n=4086

14. personalisation can route customers quicker and more efficiently by remembering past interactions and better predicting the reason for a call.I am indifferent 8% No, this makes me uncomfortable 19% 74% Yes, if it results in better service n=4086

15. What is personalised IVR? personalised IVR is not a single product… CTI + IVR Custom applications Business analytics Reporting tools Professional services A personalised IVR solution connects with enterprise databases… Caller histories Trends Geographic locales The solution can create a unique customer service experience by re-configuring the call flows or intelligently routing the caller – DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES. Image from www.jmorganmarketing.com

16. Levels of personalisation by caller behavior

17. Levels of personalisation by caller behavior

18. Levels of personalisation by caller behavior

19. Levels of personalisation by caller behavior

20. Levels of personalisation

21. Where personalisation makes sense High call volume and transaction environments Contact center operations that have strict SLAs for service delivery Financial services, communications, public sector and retail are leading the way Companies that have already deployed speech, and want to… Improve customer satisfaction Streamline identification and verification Introduce dynamic upsell / cross-sell campaigns Companies that are embracing multi-channel strategies Innovation for inbound and proactive outbound applications Rounding out the voice channel (automation and agent assist)

22. Vertical use cases for personalised IVR

23. The list – barriers to adoption Legacy infrastructure Proprietary back-end systems Misconceptions / awareness

24. Strategic recommendations Remember data integration is key! Improve your reporting/ monitoring and analytics capabilities… Avoid over-personalisation… Treat personalised IVR as one component of an overall multi-channel and cross channel strategy… Choose a strategic partner and build a roadmap…

25. Personalisation in Practice Damian Kelly VP Sales & Marketing d.kelly@speechstorm.com Twitter: @damianjjk

26. betterself-service lowercost toserve

27. making personalisation pay Industry: Communications Calls per annum: 5 million Solution Identify & verify Order status Balance enquiry Payments Reconnects Time to implement: 4 months Payback <12 months Presenting the right option first time increases automation rates and reduces cost-to-serve

28. personalisation demands greater flexibility and faster response Pre-built applications for rapid deployment Real-time performance management Instant changes and one-click deployment Leveraging investments you have already made

29. more context ... Agent Facebook Chat Twitter CRM Store Web ERP Delivery Branch Phone App Location ... more personal

30. Q&A Daniel Hong Senior Analyst Ovum Claudia Hathway Editor Call Centre Focus Damian Kelly VP Sales & Marketing SpeechStorm

31. Thank You! Daniel Hong Senior Analyst Ovum daniel.hong@ovum.com Claudia Hathway Editor Call Centre Focus claudia.hathway@ubm.com Damian Kelly VP Sales & Marketing SpeechStorm d.kelly@speechstorm.com