Jingle Networks Selects Nuance Communications to Automate FREE411

Jingle Networks, developer of a nationwide free telephone directory assistance service (1-800-FREE411), selected automated directory assistance (DA) solutions from Nuance Communications to help provide a consumer 411 service to consumers.

The 1-800-FREE411 service introduces a performance advertising model: consumers get free directory assistance, saving them from $0.75 to $3.49 per call, and Jingle gets paid by advertisers who play 10-12 second audio advertising messages with a special offer targeted at the specific type of business the consumer is requesting.

Jingle launched its service last year utilizing Nuance's automated DA solutions, including automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies, voice user interfaces and patented pre-processing methodologies for voice search. The system, which achieved automation rates of 50 percent for national business, government and residential listings, was rolled out within two months.

Jingle has now deployed all Nuance ASR and TTS applications for its premise-based DA automation platform. The Nuance professional services organization continues to work with Jingle on custom voice development and voice user interface optimization, along with customized applications that will continue to improve automation rates.

"Our free service offers a win-win solution for consumers and advertisers - but it's vital that the caller interaction is accurate and efficient and that's why we rely on Nuance's technology to help deliver a high quality service," said Scott Kliger, founder and chief technology officer, Jingle Networks. "We selected Nuance to automate our DA efforts because of its unique ability to deliver the highest automation rates and accurate access to more than 160 million listings, thereby controlling our costs without sacrificing the level of the overall customer experience."