Automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology has gotten a lot better in the past few years — and much less expensive. Even the free speech-to-text tools can produce fairly accurate transcriptions of phone calls.
You might think call centers, which have massive amounts of voice data, would be major adopters of ASR — and you would be right. Using ASR in call centers is nothing new, but recent advances in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing have increased its business value.
Here are seven surprising and innovative ways call centers are already using ASR to improve efficiency and better serve their customers.
1. Creating audit trails
Compliance is a major concern for call centers, especially those dealing with sensitive information such as patient data or credit card numbers. There are strict regulations in place to protect customer privacy and ensure data security. ASR technology can make it easier to ensure compliance within these sensitive environments.
ASR enables real-time transcriptions of conversations between agents and customers. Text logs are much easier to navigate than audio recordings, which can be time-consuming to review. Text logs enable quick searches for specific keywords, making it easier to monitor compliance.
For example, in a healthcare call center, a supervisor can verify whether an agent handled patient information according to HIPAA guidelines with a quick search through the transcribed logs.
Similarly, in a financial services call center, if there’s a dispute about a customer’s credit card transaction or a concern about proper disclosure of terms, the transcribed conversations can be reviewed quickly to resolve the issue.
2. Improving IVR
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems guide customers through menu options using voice commands or touch-tone keypad selections. On their own, these systems are limited to recognizing specific, programmed voice commands or keypad inputs, often leading to a rigid and sometimes frustrating user experience.
The integration of ASR technology revolutionizes this aspect of customer interaction. By incorporating ASR and natural language processing (NLP), IVR systems can start to understand and respond to verbal human requests.
Known as conversational IVR, these systems allow a much greater degree of flexibility for customers, who can now verbalize their requests rather than listen to phone menu options. This more natural, conversational interaction significantly improves the traditional IVR experience, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.
3. Increasing accessibility
By converting spoken language into text in real-time, ASR creates opportunities for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to engage in conversations more easily and effectively. This feature is particularly valuable in call centers, where clear communication is the core of their business.
For instance, a customer who is hard of hearing and needs to communicate with a call center agent can benefit from real-time captions provided by ASR technology. These captions allow the customer to read what the agent is saying as they’re speaking, ensuring they can fully understand and participate in the conversation.
This not only improves the customer’s experience but also fosters inclusivity and ensures that call centers can provide high-quality service to all customers, regardless of their hearing abilities.
4. Enhancing VoIP systems
ASR technology can boost Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality, making systems more efficient and improving communication.
Voicemail transcription is a fairly familiar example. ASR converts voicemails to text, enabling users to quickly understand messages without listening to audio, which is often too time consuming for busy work environments. A sales rep can review any messages with a quick scan rather than having to listen through and take notes.
In a contact center, where agents may be on additional channels beyond VoIP, they can use ASR to craft emails or respond to chats.
5. Automating data entry
Human error in manual data entry is unavoidable, yet such errors can have serious consequences — from overcharging a customer to sending a delivery to the wrong address. ASR can help.
When customers provide information verbally, ASR can transcribe this data directly into the system. For example, when a customer calls to update their address, ASR technology will automatically transcribe and update this information in their profile.
Once they enable talk-to-text using ASR, there are lots of places where call centers can use data entry software for automation to streamline processes, minimize errors, and let agents focus on helping customers.
6. Enhance the call center experience
ASR technology enables agents to provide a much more personalized call center experience for every customer. With real-time transcriptions of customer conversations, agents can reference specific details later in the call for more effective communication.
There is also opportunity for post-call quality monitoring, where you can dig for trends, issues, and opportunities. Having searchable call transcripts instead of audio files will make data collection and analysis much easier.
Let’s take a closer look at how this tech allows call center agents to better serve callers.
- Better detail recall: Agents handle dozens of calls every day, each with its unique context and details. Real-time transcription allows agents to quickly refer to specific parts of the ongoing conversation without relying solely on memory.
- Enhanced issue resolution: For calls related to ongoing issues, a customer might mention previous interactions or steps taken. The ASR-generated transcript provides a written record of these mentions, allowing the agent to seamlessly connect the current conversation with past interactions. This helps when dealing with complex issues with a history of previous calls and steps, which the agent might not immediately recall.
- Opportunities for cross-selling and upselling: Real-time transcription allows for the analysis of customer speech to identify potential sales opportunities. While an agent might pick up on these opportunities while talking to the customer, having a written record ensures that these moments are captured for subsequent analysis. At scale, you can analyze call center data for sentiment analysis using Chat GPT or a business intelligence tool.
- Consistency and accuracy in customer service: We’ve all experienced the frustration of being transferred multiple times and having to explain our issue all over again to different call center agents. It’s an inefficient process that creates endless opportunities for important details to be lost. By creating a written record of everything said on the call, new agents can get up to speed on the details of the customer’s call and provide personalized service without forcing them to repeat themselves.
7. Improving training and quality assurance
ASR technology enhances training and quality assurance in call centers by providing easily searchable, text-based transcripts of customer interactions. Unlike traditional recorded calls, which can be time-consuming to listen through, these transcripts allow supervisors to quickly locate specific parts of a conversation using keywords or phrases.
Being able to easily review text logs and pinpoint exact moments or issues within a call makes ASR transcripts a more practical and effective tool for identifying areas of improvement in agent performance, refining communication techniques, and deepening product knowledge.
Here are a few more ways ASR can improve training and quality assurance.
- Handling difficult situations: Transcripts of calls where customers are frustrated or upset can be reviewed to train agents on effective de-escalation techniques and empathetic communication.
- Role-playing scenarios for training: Transcripts of complex customer interactions can be used in training sessions as role-playing exercises. Agents can practice responding to these scenarios, improving their problem-solving and communication skills.
- Improving customer service scripts: By reviewing how customers respond to certain phrases or instructions in the transcripts, supervisors can refine the scripts used by agents to make them more effective and customer-friendly.
- Feedback and performance reviews: ASR transcripts provide easy-to-search examples of an agent’s interactions, which can be used for constructive feedback during performance reviews.
- Quality assurance monitoring: Regularly reviewing transcripts allows for ongoing quality assurance, ensuring that all agents adhere to the standards set for customer interactions.
