Many companies have self-reading and replying email systems and computers, which screen a Resume, by way of “character recognition” using SQL and XML databases. Do you really think your Congressman reads that garbage you send? No way. They have even figured a way to delete those messages from certain servers which allow you to go to a website, fill in your name and it blasts all your Senators. The Forest Service got 40,000 emails this way from a massive Spam internet site in the SF Bay Area when it asked for comments, then it delayed the committee, nothing got done and of course the Santa Ana winds and delivered us some pretty bad fires in CA. Gridlock bureaucracy.
Sometimes automated systems can overwhelm a company’s system, this time the government. This technology combined with voice technology should work in call centers and without the inherent problems associated with the Press 1, Press 2, Press 3 phone systems that make consumers angry and customer switch and lead to negative referral comments from users who eventually leave for another company. And in fact many systems are doing this now, with a synthetic human voice and a complex artificially simulate program behind it. Learn more about this voice technology and where it is going. Here is a white paper by VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. Title: Say Hello to the Voice Revolution: A Guide to Voice-Enabling Your Call Center for Success;
Soon a nice voice will come on based on what you say and talk to you in a pleasant conversation. Now if you say something really weird you will screw it up such as;
“What is the price of rice in China today.”
If you are talking to an American Airlines call center the computer with a polite voice, not HAL, might say something like or first class price to China is $2,458.00 and you have 18,000 miles left on your;
“Free Miles” so your price would be $1,100.00 plus tip, tax and license.”
Then you can say something funny like;
“how much for the foreign rice because my Football Coach told me to eat them?”
Then the computer would say;
“Yes, we do play several channels, but you cannot watch Sunday’s game in Coach. The cost for coach is $988.00 if you book it now. Can I book that for you?”
Until this gets completely worked out, there will be a few problems. If you look at the TIA system and the Cell Phone activity. This has worked for the NSA and CIA for years, oh you didn’t know? Well this technology is finding it’s way into the private sector where of course it originated, here are some previous thoughts on this subject you’re your further study of the applications for such new technologically advanced systems;
this also can assist in the interface with service companies who want to use call centers to do real-time (There’s That word again) dispatching. Learn more about grid marketing and service and service industries and how they can use this adaptive technology and implement it in a scalable fashion::
It is still going to be a rocky deal for call centers, those customers who use them and those companies, which try to implement some of this new technology. But the rewards are huge. An automated system with no people can be handled for under $.10 as opposed to even the very best and most efficient companies like B of A, AT&T, Fed Ex, CitiGroup or Airline Companies. Here is a great article and white paper on the challenges we (all citizens) will face as consumers of Corporations and companies using out sourced call centers and answering services. This paper is also very good for those who have in-house call centers. Title: The Top 10 Information Challenges in Today’s Call Center;
Call centers are also using the dead time between calls to do online training of products. Which is smart as product lines and products become more complicated. They are also getting referrals from companies to other companies who may wish to buy services or products thus turning there in-bound call centers into out-bound sales centers and therefore end up paying for their entire division of the company. And with incentives available the operators are ten times more likely to not waste that time at all. Some of these training course of products, sales, customer services and human relations are modeled off the online educational systems:
These systems are also being used with flash sentence reading for hyper-reading, where workers can read over 400 words per minute. We have been trying to figure out a way to integrate the call center, with the scheduling software, Online ordering system at our company with wireless transaction software and the mobile technology. Not an easy task without some customized patchware, which can get expensive as anyone in the software industry will tell you there is always feature creep when designing and implementing such systems. We are hoping to get some other service company to try it out, screw it up and learn from their mistakes. We hope that ServiceMaster is reading this, because we would like to see how they go about streamlining their WeServeHomes website, with their multi-brand franchise and in-house units to cover the territories and service the clientele without the complaints. Our strategy appears to be somewhat involved, we would like someone to throw some huge dollars at this and see what happens and then we can copy the system. We also see Microsoft research getting into the wireless and small business software business to integrate all of their current products. The future will be bright, but currently it is not quite there yet. Even companies like FedEx and 1-800 Flowers have some more they would like to do on their systems to make them perfect for the company and consumer. Think on all this, the world is getting more efficient each and every day.
“Lance Winslow” – If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance;
