Speech-recognition is not making phone menus any better

Call Center

The use of speech recognition in phone menus is one of those advances in technology that sounds great in theory but doesn’t live up to the promise in the real world. Maybe it’s because it works so well in the movies!

There are certainly use cases where speech recognition is the absolute best approach. Directory assistance is a great example. But, sadly, a far more common implementation involves replacing “press 1 for billing” with “for billing, say ‘billing’.” This kind of borderline-comical situation is what leads to so much user dissatisfaction with the technology.

Blogger Blake Landau summed up nicely in a recent post on the CustomerManagementIQ blog:

It’s not a rare day that I hear someone walking in the street on the phone with customer service… screaming into their phone: ‘AGENT, AGENT,AGENT!’ Fortunately the recipient of this anger is not getting their feelings hurt… it’s an automated attendant at the other end of the line. … as consumers, we come to begrudgingly accept these as a fact of life.

Fonolo Resource cover image

Trend Alert! Contact Center Industry Predictions for 2023

This report offers perspective on where the contact center industry stands today, plus our trend predictions for 2023.

Download Now

Trend Alert! Contact Center Industry Predictions for 2023

Contact Center Trends 2023
Download Now
Fonolo Resource cover image

Trend Alert! Contact Center Industry Predictions for 2023

Download Now

See Fonolo in Action

Select the type of demo you'd like.

By continuing to browse our website, you agree to the use of cookies for providing our services, marketing purposes, and analytics. To understand more about how we use cookies and ensure the safety of your data, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Accept and Close