DialogCONNECTION - Voice Recognition App Design
DialogCONNECTION Ltd | maria (at) dialogconnection (dot) com
RECOGNISE SPEECH
UNDERSTAND USER INTENTION
PRODUCE SPEECH
PROVIDE CONSTANT FEEDBACK

There is a lot of talk nowadays on the use of Speech and Voice Recognition technologies, for everything:
  • from automated call routing to the appropriate agent skill group, and voice self-service in the context of Call Centre automation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process optimisation and channel integration;
  • to speech-enabling websites and turning them into "voice portals";
  • to speech-activated navigation systems and device control;
  • to voice-to-text services in general, especially in the context of mobile applications (e.g. voice search on smartphones, voice dialling, SMS dictation, Twitter and Facebook status updates using speech, automatic voicemail transcription).
 
DialogCONNECTION Ltd. is a "One-Stop Shop" for consulting and Professional Services on voice recognition applications and the related language technologies. We envision, devise, conceptualise, specify, design, brand, craft, develop, test, tune, optimise and document multilingual and culture-specific speech applications or "VUIs" (Voice User Interfaces). Companies and organisations of all sizes come to us for a number of different reasons:

 CLIENT  ISSUE

 OUR SOLUTION / SERVICE
They want to find out what Speech Recognition is and what it is used for and where.

We explain the different underlying language technologies available, list the different technology providers, and provide examples of speech-enabled applications and services relevant to their industry and vertical.
They wonder whether and how they could introduce speech in their existing services and legacy / touchtone IVRs.

We analyse the existing CRM channels, Call Centre processes and any IVRs in place, and specify those subprocesses and channels that would benefit from speech automation, those that should use both speech and touchtone / DTMF (and where exactly), and those that shouldn't be touched!
They have decided they want to introduce speech in their CRM channels and want to get going!
  1. We carry out Discovery Workshops with them, trying to understand the existing CRM processes and their targeted user groups.
  2. We study the existing marketing strategy and the company branding and conceptualise and specify the most appropriate system persona for brand consistency and stickiness.
  3. We design detailed Call Flows representing the business and application logic, including error cases and repair strategies to deal with misunderstandings
  4. We carry out Wizard-of-Oz tests before a prototype is developed and Usability tests after the first prototype has been developed to gauge the acceptability and effectiveness of the new speech interface among the client's targeted user groups.
  5. We specify all the different system prompts, i.e. everything that the system may need to say to the user at any one point (including error cases)
  6. We identify the most appropriate voice talent to record all those system messages (if the client is against TTS) and sit down with them at the studio and coach them through the recordings to capture the right communication style and tone of voice.
  7. We write speech recognition grammars trying to capture all the things that the callers are likely to say at any one point in the dialogue.
  8. We carry out design logic and functionality tests, identifying any bugs, errors and inconsistencies in the logic, the system messages, their pronunciation, or the recognition grammars.
  9. We provide tuning services of any of the above things that need optimising (prompts, pronunciations, grammars, repair strategies and speech recognition parameters).
They have started introducing speech in their IVR but need to ensure the usability and effectiveness of the design, the recognition grammars or the system prompts.
We review any existing call flow designs, system prompts and recognition grammars, checking for inconsistencies and any holes in the application logic or the system messages; for unnecessary complexities in the call flow or the prompt wording; for superfluous steps and missing steps; for overgenerating grammars and grammars with incomplete coverage. We optimise the original design (e.g. the order of the questions to the user), reformulate certain system prompts and tune certain recognition grammars and speech recognition parameters.

They already have a speech IVR in place or a live system and want to improve its usability and acceptability, improve call completion rates, or shorten call duration times.
As above: we review all existing call flow designs, system prompts and recognition grammars; minimise any unnecessary complexities and any superfluous steps in the call flow and optimise the order of the questions to the user; simplify and reformulate the prompt wording; eliminate overgeneration in the recognition grammars and tune some of the grammars, and potentially certain speech recognition parameters.

Those observations, recommendations and changes are also based on our independent testing of the client system, and on an analysis of live recordings with their callers.

They already have a speech IVR in place or a live system and want to quickly identify and resolve any issues.
We listen to and analyse live calls that the client has recorded on their speech system and also carry out our own independent testing, to come up immediately with a list of urgent recommendations for modifications, additions or things to take out, that will have an immediate positive effect without any repercussions on the system as a whole. For instance, a slight change in the wording of a system message may get rid of the need to change the whole recognition grammar at that step! Or disallowing barge-in in a call may immediately improve speech recognition accuracy, because the system will be analysing complete user utterances and not their .. endings!

 Your Issue?
We are confident that we have both short-term - easy to implement - recommendations and a longer-term solution for you, depending on your time and budget limitations!


But don't take our word for it! Check the list of our past and current clients for reference applications we have worked on and for inspiration on what you can do for your organisation and your own customers!

Or if you already know what you want, have a look at our comprehensive list of different services that we provide and contact us to find out what we can specifically do for you!