SpeechTEK Reinforces Critical and Growing Demand for Voice Biometric Solutions

The SpeechTEK Conference in New York last month confirmed the ongoing challenges companies face in controlling costs in their contact centers while simultaneously improving the customer experience, and protecting private and personal information.

Fifteen million Americans were victimized by identity theft in a recent 12-month period, according to a Gartner study. Greater amounts of money are being stolen than ever before. And, more of what’s lost stays lost, with only a 61 percent recovery rate reported in 2006. Indirect identity authentication tools like tokens, badges and smartcards can be lost, stolen or duplicated. PINs and passwords are inconvenient and compromised far too easily. People share them, or write them down, and they can be stolen when used in public places.

Of the 43 billion calls that U.S. contact centers will receive in 2007, 41 percent will involve a contact center agent asking identity verification questions. Although this process takes only 20 to 30 seconds, the industry will spend $11.7 billion and more than 11,000 years of contact center agent time this year just checking caller identities. -U. S. Contact Center Operational Review 2007, Contact Babel

Fifteen million Americans were victimized by identity theft in a recent 12-month period, according to a Gartner study. Greater amounts of money are being stolen than ever before. And, more of what’s lost stays lost, with only a 61 percent recovery rate reported in 2006. Indirect identity authentication tools like tokens, badges and smartcards can be lost, stolen or duplicated. PINs and passwords are inconvenient and compromised far too easily. People share them, or write them down, and they can be stolen when used in public places.

Voice biometrics, on the other hand, offers the only biometric solution available for secure remote transactions. Your voice is yours alone, and it’s always with you. “Voice biometrics is an essential component of any authentication solution,” said James Harvey, Vice President, Technology for First Data Corp., appearing at the SpeechTEK Conference.

A Business Decision
The business case for voice biometric security solutions continues to gain momentum, keeping pace with the rising tide of fraud and identity theft. Voice biometric technology has been around for decades, used primarily by government entities behind the scenes. It’s rock solid and proven to work effectively. As the technology continues to emerge into a broader market, providing solutions for financial services, telecommunications and healthcare providers, it’s clear that decisions must focus on business needs rather than IT issues. When evaluating the options available from service providers, integration complexity, ease of use and accuracy should be compared side by side, but the question of whether to implement a voice biometric solution can be answered easily with a straightforward business problem and solution analysis.

From Gatekeeper to Concierge
The buck stops at the call center. Phone-based customer service is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, but the balance has shifted, with simpler transactions migrating the way of automation. “To maintain their competitive advantage, contact centers need to rethink their identity verification strategies and implement a process that delivers a better customer experience, security that is auditable and compliant with regulations, and realize cost savings,” says Steve Morrell, Principal Analyst, Contact Babel.

Implementing a voice verification system in a contact center receiving 10 million inbound calls per year with existing identity verification procedures taking an average 20 seconds could save $6.5 million each year. -U. S. Contact Center Operational Review 2007, Contact Babel

The highest cost in the contact center is labor. If speaker identification is automated, call time is reduced and money is saved. Agents then can focus on what they do best… respond to more complex customer needs and explain/up-sell other services. This provides a significantly higher value add, resulting in a win for the service provider, a win for the contact center agent, and a win for the customer.

Topping the list of objectives for today’s leading companies in any industry are retaining existing customers and acquiring new ones. Voice biometrics enables simple and secure self-service applications, such as password reset and account balance inquiry, that are proven to help accomplish both these objectives by improving the customer experience.

Customer Satisfaction Is Key Driver
Industry experts agree that customer satisfaction must be the primary driver of any speech deployment because if customers don’t like the system, they won’t use it. Successful completion of a transaction should be the ultimate goal, not just automated self-service. A mixed approach that directs callers to agents for more complex transactions works best.

Two-thirds of online banking customers are concerned about unauthorized access to their accounts, and half are willing to switch banks over this issue alone. One-third are willing to pay for extra protection. -2006 Unisys Survey

Return on Investment (ROI) is obviously another important consideration, but it goes hand in hand with customer satisfaction, says Sanjay Nair, Managing Director, Customer Contact Strategy and Performance, United Airlines. “ROI must justify the project, but application development and design focus must be on customer satisfaction. ROI will result from an optimally designed application.”