AUSTAR Steers Customers Toward Entertainment with Speech

MENLO PARK, Calif. - When AUSTAR customers want to watch a pay-per-view movie, they just need to ask for it. Australia's AUSTAR selected Nuance along with Australian voice services partner, VerifyMe, who have teamed to voice-enable the satellite TV service provider's customer service center and enhance the experience of customers calling the company's Box Office near-video-on-demand service.
Nuance Call Steering™ and voice-enabled commerce applications allow callers to speak to order the movie they desire, instead of punching their way through touchtone menus or waiting on hold to talk to an agent.

AUSTAR supplies subscription TV, Internet and mobile phone services to regional and rural Australia, serving more than 467,000 television subscribers. After introducing its enhanced digital service, AUSTAR Digital, this year, the company sought to revamp its touchtone phone system. AUSTAR's call volume is projected to top 3.6 million this year.

"We are extremely pleased by the way our customers have responded to our voice technology," said Dean Walters, chief information officer at AUSTAR. "Much of the credit goes to the efficiency and accuracy of Nuance Call Steering, which enables our customers to obtain the services they want quickly and easily without having to punch numbers or work through a complex menu system."

Nuance and VerifyMe developed the complete AUSTAR solution in four months. The system handled thousands of calls the first week, and in a survey conducted by AUSTAR, customers reported they found the system appealing and easy to use. In fact, 97 percent of surveyed customers would recommend (77 percent would "highly recommend") the Box Office service to friends.

At the forefront of the AUSTAR system is Nuance Call Steering™. It is powered by Nuance Say Anything™ and AccuRoute™ technologies, and is integrated with the Nuance Voice Platform.