Broad Daylight Launches Voice-Activated Self-Service Product

SANTA CLARA, CA - Broad Daylight Inc. announced the release of VoiceFAQs, a self-service application that uses speech recognition technology intended to provide increased cost-efficiency and improved customer service. VoiceFAQs enables customers to solve problems faster, by using voice commands to search or browse a knowledge base over the telephone. VoiceFAQs leverages advanced speech recognition technologies provided by VoiceGenie's VoiceXML Gateway. VoiceFAQs is an add-on module to Broad Daylight's flagship eService suite, Broad Mind, a Web-based self-service application that allows companies to answer questions online for a fraction of the cost incurred when interacting with a live agent. The launch of VoiceFAQs responds to an increasing demand in the CRM marketplace for efficient self-service solutions. Forrester Research recently found that the average cost of a call to a live agent is $12.00, compared to $0.35 for a call using an interactive voice response (IVR) based on a touchtone menu. However, many customers find touchtone menus inconvenient and hard to use, and as a result bypass the system to speak with a live operator. Speech Recognition Accelerates Savings and Satisfaction Broad Daylight's VoiceFAQs is an advanced speech recognition (ASR) application offering the same automation benefits but in a much more user-friendly way. A study by Nuance, Inc. found that 80% of customers preferred speech systems over touchtone applications. More than 84% of those surveyed actually preferred ASR programs to speaking with a live agent, and 87% expressed overall satisfaction with speech-activated systems. With fewer calls reaching live agents, call centers can easily accommodate increased call volume with existing staff levels. "Companies are progressively looking for ways to reduce costs while maintaining a high level of customer service," said Louise Kirkbride, chief executive officer of Broad Daylight, Inc. "VoiceFAQs allows customers to get fast and accurate answers to their questions while using a very comfortable and familiar format - the telephone." Uses VoiceGenie VoiceXML Gateway Broad Daylight developed VoiceFAQs in partnership with VoiceGenie Technologies Inc., the provider of VoiceXML Gateway solutions. Engineered for small- to large-scale applications in a completely open-standards architecture, VoiceGenie's turnkey voice-web platform technology integrates software and hardware components by the creators of voice technology. It supports multiple speech and text-to-speech engines and delivers the highest levels in scalability, robustness and reliability. "We are excited about Broad Daylight's new approach based on our VoiceXML platform," said Eric Jackson, VP of Strategy and Business Development at VoiceGenie. "FAQs are a commonly deployed Web-based application that every customer service organization will be interested in voice-enabling. We look forward to working with Broad Daylight in tackling this market." How It Works Upon reaching the VoiceFAQs system, a caller can ask any question in conversational English. Broad Daylight's VoiceFAQs product performs a natural language search of the Broad Mind knowledge base for the closest match to the caller's question and reads back a summary of the answer. Callers may also listen to the day's top questions, or browse the knowledge base by topic. If the VoiceFAQs system is deployed in a call center environment, all of these self-service options can be used without losing one's place in the queue. New questions asked of the system that are not contained in the knowledge base are routed to a customer service representative and the answer is e-mailed or faxed to the original caller. The Broad Mind application then adds the new FAQ to the knowledge base, benefiting future callers. Advanced speech recognition features also include: · On-the-fly grammar generation
· "Noise word" list
· Algorithms to ascertain key words
VoiceFAQs can be used as a stand-alone automated system or as a self-service option while on hold for a call center agent.