The Customer Service Survey
The Message is Getting Out
Tue - August 15, 2006 02:37 PM in
Besides Peter, I also moderated a panel earlier in the SpeechTek convention on the latest in Voice User Interface (VUI) design of speech recognition systems. There was a short presentation on dialog phrasing with an emphasis on using language that is actually useful for the caller instead of being there to mollify the designer. (The caller doesn't care about "listen carefully as our menu options have changed"...just provide the instructions, etc. etc.) Another speaker outlined a design that included voice print authentication for the US Justice dept. A third speaker charged with improving the 1-800-ask-USPS IVR spoke of the importance of satisfaction testing, and Melissa Dougherty of Voicepartners wrapped up the presentations emphasizing a holistic approach to customer care that includes executive buy in to increase the odds of building caller centric designs.
That is a vast difference from just a few years ago when VUI designers felt testing for caller ease of use and satisfaction was either an afterthought, or not considered necessary.
I wrapped up the discussion by including the admonition that while pleased that the industry is now recognizing the importance of user focus and thorough design tests of IVR applications, it is important to understand how-what-when and why to test so as to avoid misleading results. I pointed out that surveying and consumer feedback assessment is a science itself and used the examples of the end-of-call survey that inflates satisfaction scores* and that later feedback studies are limited in the delivery of actionable improvements because humans forget details so quickly.
*Sample bias arises because dissatisfied callers who hang up never get to the survey, and agents can manipulate who participates. The result is our estimation that the end-of-call survey inflates true caller satisfaction scores by 20-40 percent.
Posted by Rick Rappe
[UPDATE: 8/25/06 Corrected the name of Melissa's company.]
I wrapped up the discussion by including the admonition that while pleased that the industry is now recognizing the importance of user focus and thorough design tests of IVR applications, it is important to understand how-what-when and why to test so as to avoid misleading results. I pointed out that surveying and consumer feedback assessment is a science itself and used the examples of the end-of-call survey that inflates satisfaction scores* and that later feedback studies are limited in the delivery of actionable improvements because humans forget details so quickly.
*Sample bias arises because dissatisfied callers who hang up never get to the survey, and agents can manipulate who participates. The result is our estimation that the end-of-call survey inflates true caller satisfaction scores by 20-40 percent.
Posted by Rick Rappe
[UPDATE: 8/25/06 Corrected the name of Melissa's company.]
Posted at 02:37 PM | | | | |