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Multi-lingual speech recognition now supported on Aculab Cloud

We’re listening – what would you like to do today?

A generation of people have grown up trying to avoid ringing a contact centre – not because they didn’t like talking to the cheery people who work in such places, but because they first had to get past the IVR system put in place to direct the call. Press 1 for support, 2 for sales, 3 if you know the extension of the person you wish to speak to.…and so on, and so on. We quickly realised that many of these systems would let you bypass the IVR menu and get to a real person if we pressed ‘0’.

So, the IVR system was often bypassed and everyone became disillusioned with the experience, including the IT manager who had just managed to persuade the company to invest in the system.

 

Scroll forward 20 or more years to the present day and what follows is more like the experience you will get when you ring into a contact centre

“Hello, how can we help you today? Please explain briefly why you are calling”

And more often than not, the caller is more than happy to talk to this automated interface.

As you are likely aware, the market for text-to-speech and speech recognition has exploded in recent years. The engineering efforts undertaken by the giants of the tech world (Apple, Google, and Amazon, for example with Siri, Google Home and Alexa respectively) have rapidly increased the sophistication, accuracy, and ease of use of such systems. Many of us now have our own personal voice recognition system at home or in the car, and the acceptance level amongst consumers for such systems has increased substantially. This in turn is driving greater use of voice-driven systems in enterprise application areas such as call centre. For example, both Alexa and Amazon Connect (the AWS contact centre offering) have dialogs driven by Amazon Lex with Transcribe and Polly under the hood to convert between speech and text.

Our TTS and speech recognition partners

When we decided to offer our media processing capabilities as a cloud-based service (CPaaS), we scoured the market for partners to help us offer the best possible service to developers wishing to build their own communications applications. We were not limited in our choices to a single favoured supplier – each one had to be a best-of-breed partner. We chose to host our service on Amazon AWS infrastructure – with separate clouds to support the US and Europe to allow customers to keep their data where they wished, and we chose voice carrier and SMS messaging partners to give us the highest quality, worldwide connectivity options for calls and messaging.

As the market progressed, we evolved the Aculab Cloud platform to keep up with these developments – the first step in that evolution was the integration of HIPAA-compliant text-to-speech (TTS) voices from Amazon Polly.

TTS support is a key feature for systems sending outbound voice messages such as appointment reminders. Rather than record and store the voice message before sending to customers, TTS can be used to deliver clear, natural sounding, bespoke voice messages in multiple languages.

To complement the multi-lingual TTS support, we needed a speech recognition system – and for that we again sought a best-of-breed partner, choosing Google Speech Recognition, one of the Google Cloud AI building blocks.

Speech recognition in 120 languages

If you want to localise your communications system for a new region, then it's likely we can support you with that requirement.

The Aculab Cloud speech recognition feature enables developers to convert audio to text by applying powerful neural network models in an easy-to-use API. More than 120 languages and variants can be recognised.

Since our platform is predominantly for conversational communications over the phone, we have focused on that use case - speech recognition is integrated cleanly into our REST API v2, making it easy to implement speech driven conversational dialogs. We've also provided real-time transcription of calls, allowing you to augment the agent's screen based on what's said on the call, perform sentiment analysis to show the contact centre manager where the hot spots are, etc. In addition, our API allows for voice-command interrupts that could be used, for example, in voicemail systems where a voice command such as ‘repeat’ spoken during message playback will prompt the system to replay the message from the beginning, with other words being ignored. And of course you can feed our call recordings to a speech recogniser for offline transcription, allowing later search, etc.

Conversational dialogs on Aculab Cloud

Armed with our high quality TTS and natural language Speech Recognition, you can now use conversational dialog services such as Amazon Lex and Google Dialogflow to drive your call flows on Aculab Cloud. As well as providing a high quality customer experience, this means you can use these same services across other channels such as chat and messaging, providing a consistent user experience. 

Further information about the feature can be found in our documentation area.

10 reasons to use voice biometrics – part 2

Although it often appears on lists like 'the Top (choose a number) most important areas' of contact centre plans, it has been a challenge traditionally for executives to build a viable business case for new contact centre technologies, and voice biometrics is not immune to that. Following on from the initial 5 reasons, below are the remainder of the top-10 reasons.

Reason #6 – ID&V time/costs

The time vs. cost equation is one of the classic arguments for automation and self-service, and hence, voice biometrics. Of course, if you save time, you save costs, but there’s more to it than that. From increased use of self-service options (e.g., IVR containment) to reductions in the cost per call, or per transaction, voice biometrics can dramatically improve business performance. A high percentage of callers are authenticated via call-takers. That means the opportunity for cost saving, by diverting to an automated, self-service option, is significant. Reductions of 70% are feasible. When multiplied on a per seat, per day basis, that can generate significant financial and human resource savings.

Reason #7 – agent morale

According to the Call Centre Association (CCA), agents are motivated by using their skills, and applying their knowledge to resolve customer issues. Agents feel valued where they can be seen to exercise empathy and deal with callers of all dispositions and demographics. Posing the same knowledge-based authentication (KBA) questions, day after day, does nothing for agents, who can be highly educated, highly skilled, and have high expectations in relation to job satisfaction. Demoralised agents lead to poor staff retention – or churn – and that isn’t good for any business. So, don’t underestimate the positive motivational influence on staff of taking away a tedious part of their job by using voice biometrics for ID&V.

Reason #8 – agent engagement

The other aspect of agent morale is when they are motivated and engaged on behalf of the business. Industry reports, from the likes of the CCA, suggest that a majority of agents are dissatisfied with KBA. That’s because of things like increased average handle time, lower overall customer satisfaction, and the idea that KBA actually leads to a false sense of security. According to Gallup research, only 13% of employees are engaged, which results in huge costs in lost productivity, and it will be no surprise to learn that 30% of contact centre managers think improving empowerment and engagement is the number one transformation they’d like to make. Think of voice biometrics as the technology that will rescue call-takers from purgatory, reduce their frustration and enable them to contribute – to be more engaged.

Reason #9 – ROI

There is a false perception that organisations can only afford voice biometrics if they can demonstrate substantial cost savings over time. This is rooted in the belief that voice biometrics is prohibitively expensive to implement. It may surprise you to know that voice biometrics can cost less than £1 per seat per day. The annual return on investment far outweighs the operational expense, so it should be a 'no brainer'. What’s more, that level of affordability applies equally well if you’re operating a 20-seat contact centre or an enterprise-scale operation with hundreds (or thousands) of agents. ROI can be calculated on the basis of many things, including all of the reasons in this blog post. However, an ROI can be attributed to voice biometrics also through not suffering losses to fraud, no costs for investigations, and no compensation or reimbursement payments.

Reason #10 – brand differentiation

Voice biometrics can create a key point of differentiation, especially if promoted as part of your brand strategy. If your business is seen to be doing something about security, your brand gets associated with an emphasis on security. If customers leave, because they’re fed up with over-aggressive security controls, your business has a problem. So, it’s about risk assessment and mitigating actions. That means your business should take a balanced approach that will have a beneficial impact on your reputation. For customers, telephone interrogations are cumbersome, painful, and disruptive to their purpose in calling. Ultimately, that impacts how customers feel about your brand. If there’s a focus on authenticating callers quickly and conveniently – creating a positive experience by using voice biometrics – your brand will be the one everyone’s talking about.

Useful Links:

• Voice biometrics FAQs
• Implementing speaker verification infographic

If you are thinking of introducing voice biometrics for identification in your business, and would like to discuss your requirements, contact one of our consultants today.

The true value of voice biometrics

Research has shown that the majority of customers prefer voice authentication to the onerous call and response process that’s in place for many contact centres. If it’s proven to deliver a more seamless customer experience, and save agents’ time, why isn’t everyone using it? One reason might be the perception (false) that it’s tooWhen weighing up the pros and cons of any new technology implementation, the discussion will inevitably come around to price at some stage. I’m going to be a little controversial here and say it shouldn’t. Price, in isolation, is not a valid comparison metric. Value, on the other hand, is. Take biometric speaker identification or verification for instance. The market has, to date, been dominated by one large vendor. When there was little or no competition, there was little or no incentive to price competitively. This may have led to a “take it or leave it” paradigm that reinforced the impression that it was too expensive to implement or maintain. As the market has evolved, a number of challenger brands, including Aculab, have established a position that is encouraging more organisations to explore their options. As potential customers become more aware of the alternatives, they are beginning to form preferences based on value propositions, not just price points.  When assessing the value of voice biometrics, it’s important to consider all the broader benefits of the technology:

• Increased data security
• Enhanced fraud protection
• Streamlined customer experience
• Shorter call duration
• Improved agent morale
• Positive brand differentiation

Offsetting all these benefits against the cost of the solution represents a true reflection of the value of the technology. Still not convinced? OK, if we absolutely have to talk about price, how about this. VoiSentry, the biometric speaker verification and identification solution from Aculab, is available for less than £1 per seat per day. Now, do we have your attention? If you’d like to find out more about the real value of voice biometrics, give us a call on +44 (0)1908 27 38 00 or email one of our consultants on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Coronavirus and the role of biometrics

With much of the world’s population subject to restrictions on their movements, home working and social distancing have become the new normal. This raises some interesting issues around remote identity verification. In this post we explore how voice biometrics can be applied to many scenarios; offering the advantage of a safer, sanitary, contactless alternative to fingerprint scanners and similar biometric technology devices.The coronavirus (COVID-19) is changing the face of businesses worldwide. The pandemic and associated quarantine measures, hitherto unprecedented, have transformed the global economy and affected almost every industry in just a few weeks. With many organisations following government advice, implementing home working and social distancing, the problem of remote identity verification has become more acute. It is particularly relevant to essential staff who need to attend a place of work and have their presence logged and/or authenticated. Biometrics is a technology that is used in its various forms for identity verification, access control, workforce management, time and attendance, and many other authentication applications. However, in relation to mitigating the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on life at work, some biometric technologies would seem to be more practical than others. Fingerprint biometrics poses an obvious risk because it involves contact. Time clocks using fingerprints have become increasingly popular among many organisations, as they heighten security and add convenience. However, if person after person has to touch the sensor pad on the scanner, that can mean thousands of people in a day. According to the National Institutes of Health Laboratory of Virology in Hamilton, Montana, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, whose joint experiments are described here, the fomite transmission of the coronavirus (HCoV-19) is plausible. The team found that a viable virus could be detected up to 72 hours, post application, on plastic and stainless-steel surfaces, albeit by then the virus titre (viral load) was greatly reduced. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s possible for a person to get HCoV-19 by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their own face. Considering the large number of people who have to touch biometric time clocks, day in and day out, including vulnerable workers in hospitals and health facilities, the risk would appear to be considerable. The same applies to other biometric technologies based on proximity or involving touching a device shared by others, such as iris and retina scanners.It’s a risk that has resulted in many biometric time and attendance systems having been suspended in an attempt to slow down the spread of the virus. At the same time, governments and organisations have been demanding contactless payments, and even increasing the limits for such payments, to minimise risk to employees and customers alike. The landscape has changed. Many businesses and consumers will need personal identity management solutions and cyber-security measures across a range of online and mobile applications, including distribution and delivery, at this time of greater risk from infection. Reverting to on-site registration and signing in is one answer, but that doesn’t solve the problem biometric systems were introduced to deal with in the first place.

Voice biometrics is the solution

Voice biometrics is a technology that can be applied to many scenarios, including time and attendance applications. It offers the advantage of a safer, sanitary, contactless alternative to fingerprint scanners and similar biometric technology devices. As it can be used remotely over the telephone, voice biometrics has the distinct advantage that contact with the device e.g., someone’s smartphone, is limited to the individual user. Often, the best solutions emerge in times of crisis. Voice biometrics could be described as an emerging technology. Perhaps now is the time for it to become mainstream. If you are thinking of introducing voice biometrics for any form of identity verification in your business, and would like to discuss your requirements, contact one of our consultants today. If you are interested in using voice biometrics for workforce management e.g., for time and attendance applications, see our case study here. In more immediate terms, you can help stop the spread of HCoV-19 by periodically wiping down workstations and devices, frequently washing your hands, sanitising when soap is not available, and saving the handshakes for later.

Stay safe!

10 reasons to use voice biometrics – part 1

Developing a business case for the deployment of new contact centre technologies can be challenging. At the top of many executives’ wish lists are things like omnichannel, AI/machine learning, webchat, self-service, workforce management and interaction analytics. Voice biometrics often also shows up on lists like ‘the Top (choose a number) most important areas’ of contact centre spending plans.Adoption of voice biometrics technology is still relatively low, perhaps due to the perceived high cost of implementation – a myth that can be easily dispelled. In reality, cost should not even be a consideration; there are at least ten good reasons for deploying voice biometrics, all of which contribute to an ongoing, year-on-year return on investment (ROI). As voice biometrics is the only biometric that can be used remotely over the phone, it’s ideally suited to verifying the identity of inbound callers. Equally, it can be used to authenticate people on the end of outbound campaigns, where ID verification is also needed. Calls to live agents still represent 60-70% of all inbound interactions and over two-thirds of respondents to industry surveys, across all major vertical markets, use outbound calling. So, both inbound and outbound channels can benefit from the use of voice biometrics.

Reason #1 – fraud mitigation

A major benefit of voice biometrics is that it mitigates the risk of fraud. There’s lots of evidence for the scale of fraud, with organisations such as FFA-UK and CIFAS claiming that it has reached epidemic levels. It’s also the case that no business, large or small, is immune. No wonder then that the Payment Service Directive (PSD2) (mandatory from September 2019) requires strong customer authentication (SCA), or two-factor (multi-factor) ID verification. If you have a choice of two from three factors, voice is the obvious primary factor to use for inbound and outbound calling – for the voice channel. PSD2 means providers must choose two from the following: knowledge-based authentication (KBA); token-based authentication; or a biometric. Find our more in our ‘Multi-Factor Authentication and PSD2’ article.

Reason #2 – customer experience

Beyond mitigating fraud risk, arguably the major benefit of voice biometrics is its impact on the customer experience (CX). Customers, fundamentally, are looking for transparency and simplicity. Take passwords for example; the Biometrics Institute reports that 93% prefer biometrics to passwords and that 70% perceive biometric authentication to be easier than password authentication. Those percentages ring true for callers presented with KBA (security questions / secret sentences) when calling into a contact centre. Agent-led identity verification (ID&V) on the voice channel is neither quick nor simple, and with voice biometrics presenting a form of self-service, using the technology will improve the experience of a majority of callers. Find our more in our ‘The value of accurate voice identification’ article.

Reason #3 – speed and convenience

Speed and convenience is a mantra often heard in relation to voice biometrics. That’s because there’s a need to balance those aspects with security measures, regardless of the industry or use case in question. Customers understand the need to take security seriously. However, when they call the contact centre, customers’ overriding concern is to have their issue resolved. As a result, they don’t appreciate delays caused by having to answer security questions. So, if it’s quick, convenient and secure (because the business is using voice biometrics), it gets a thumbs up!

Reason #4 – reduce frustration

If you’ve never experienced frustration when calling in to a contact centre, the chances are you’ve never needed to call one! Those interminable security questions are like the Spanish Inquisition, and an agony for the majority of callers. Answering the same old questions, repeating secret sentences, call after call, leads to extreme frustration. Don’t even get us started on the need for repetition when you’re transferred from department to department, or what happens when you’ve forgotten the answers you originally gave months, if not years, ago. Callers haven’t got time for a multitude of questions; they just want their issue resolved. Voice biometrics takes this pain away.

Reason #5 – call centre metrics

There are many metrics – or key performance indicators (KPIs) – involved in managing a contact centre. They include things like time to answer; agent-led ID&V time; call waiting time, etc. All of those things are important; some more so than others. What’s important to call centre managers is customer satisfaction (CS), or net promoter score (NPS™), adherence to service levels, and first call resolution. However, what’s important to customers is not quite the same; they want to get through to the right person, first time, and have their query answered quickly and accurately. There is clearly some common ground between the two viewpoints. Both CS and NPS can be improved by ensuring callers get through quickly and conveniently, and have their issues resolved in the same call. Voice biometrics can help with that.

Useful Links:

• 10 reasons to use voice biometrics blog - part 2
• Applications for voice biometrics infographic
• VoiSentry datasheet

If you are thinking of introducing voice biometrics for identification in your business, and would like to discuss your requirements, contact one of our consultants today.