Nuance Communications today unveiled the first two applications in its new Mobile Advantage portfolio. These applications are Nuance Call Intercept, which is designed to steer smartphone users to a company's mobile application when appropriate, and Nuance Voice Control, which allows enterprises to voice-enable virtually any mobile application.
When a caller dials into a company's service line, Nuance's patented Call Intercept application automatically detects if that caller has the company's mobile application installed on his smartphone and offers to take him there instead of continuing with the phone call. "Instead of the phone ringing, Call Intercept takes the call and suggests that the caller goes to the mobile app on his phone," explains Robert Gary, vice president and general manager of mobile enterprise applications at Nuance. "Prior to transferring the call, it gives the user a prompt and can then launch the mobile app."
The application, he says, does not look at the caller's intent, so the mobile app might not always be appropriate for all tasks. In those instances, the caller can opt to continue to the company's automated telephone self-service application or transfer to an agent.
Call Intercept is perfect for customer transactions that generate a large number of calls, Gary says. For companies, the benefits of using Call Intercept include call-deflection, self-service containment, and better routing results, he adds.
Call Intercept is currently only available for smartphones that run on the Android operating system, but Gary says Nuance will release a version for BlackBerry early next year, and is also working on versions for Apple's iOs and Micrososft's Windows platforms.
Nuance Voice Control is a cloud-based software development kit that allows enterprises to voice-enable virtually any application using Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. Companies can, for example, use Voice Control to allow Web site visitors to input information on forms with their voices. Any developer within any enterprise can add that capability quickly and easily with Voice Control, Gary says.
Both applications, he adds, place a focus "on the increasing mobile environment" and address an "expressed need to keep customers motivated and develop the [mobile] channel."
"Smartphones have truly changed the way consumers stay connected while on the go," Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer and head of the enterprise division at Nuance Communications, said in a statement. "Nuance has seen tremendous success with our voice-driven consumer mobile applications, and with this set of mobile offerings tailored for the enterprise, we know they too will yield a significant advantage in the mobile channel. These solutions allow enterprises to reinforce and elevate their brands through unique and effective consumer experiences that truly understand how they want to interface with self-service and implement compelling conversational speech capabilities."
"Nuance's vision for innovative customer care includes products that enable enterprises to deliver a better experience in the mobile channel," Gary adds. "Enterprises will be able to cost-effectively automate interactions with their customers using smartphones—interactions that were previously thought to be the domain of contact centers and assisted service."
Gary points out that Nuance Call Intercept and Nuance Voice Control are just the first offerings in the Mobile Advantage portfolio, which will be expanded as the company further leverages its natural language understanding, multimodal, and multichannel capabilities.