Aeroplan Flies with Speech Recognition

Security improved, but integration is a challenge They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, but according to Aeroplan, the people you should really watch are family members. The Montreal-based airline loyalty program operator is using speech recognition technology to help its customers do just that. When a customer’s Aeroplan reward-miles are stolen, you usually don’t have to look too far to find the culprit. "Account monkey-business tends to happen within the same family," said Brian Rowland, Aeroplan’s director, customer service and technology, speaking at a February event hosted by speech recognition seller Nuance Communications Inc., IVR maker VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. and service provider Rogers Communications Inc. Consequently, Aeroplan is installing a speech recognition system to fend off sticky-fingered spouses, sons and daughters. The technology collects a "voiceprint" from account holders and uses the audio template to ensure only authorized users access reward-miles by phone. "With voice authentication, we can plug that hole more effectively than we could with anything else we’ve come across to date," Rowland said. Aeroplan’s situation suggests some companies are starting to use voice recognition technology for more than customer-service cost reductions. Although it can cut down on the number of calls funneled to the business contact centre, voice recognition can also provide enhanced security. But it’s not easy to make voice recognition systems work well: companies must massage the technology to reap the benefits. Aeroplan chose voice recognition to increase security and to cut calls to the contact centre. The firm also wanted to improve customer service, but some company insiders were not convinced of the technology’s benefits. "Speech was anything but a slam dunk in the organization," Rowland said. People in the e-business department thought it was "little better than an IVR tree." And to a certain extent, they were right. Complicated transactions such as booking flights are best left to the Web, Aeroplan decided. For now speech recognition will handle address changes, Web password resets and other repeatable tasks that otherwise drive a large amount of traffic to an outsourced call centre, which is expensive. It can also be difficult to make customers comfortable with the technology. In trials, "certain members said they didn’t like it," Rowland said, indicating that for some, leaving a voiceprint was "too ‘Mission Impossible’." They didn’t care for the ultra high-tech feel of the thing. But in the end, 80% chose to create a voiceprint, which surprised Rowland, who thought comfort would be key to the system’s success. "We’re not getting the push-back I thought we would," he said. Integrating the speech recognition system with Aeroplan’s back-end technologies was tough. "If there’s one thing in this project that gave us grief, it’s this," Rowland said. The voice platform had to connect to IVRs, hosted websites, a direct-marketing database and a secure personal-identification-number server, among other things. Each step in the transaction, from the moment the system answers a call to completion, had to be checked. If one step failed, the transaction failed. Phase I of Aeroplan’s rollout (which the firm was in the midst of at press time) includes a miles-needed calculator to answer a common customer question: "How many reward-miles do I need to get from this place to that place?" Phase II, due to begin in the fourth quarter, will include email address captures so callers can receive further Aeroplan information by email. "Don’t bite off more than you can chew," Rowland said. He also said companies shouldn’t underestimate the extent to which speech recognition can impact their IT infrastructure. Speech spells more data flow to and from back-end systems. Companies should prepare the network to handle the load. According to a Datamonitor report, the Canadian IVR market is growing thanks in part to speech systems, although it’s no speedy ascent. The New York-based research firm figures Canadians spent $229 million on IVR systems in 2004, and they’ll spend $374 million in 2009. Small- and mid-sized companies are starting to consider speech recognition systems. "It’s no longer just for the enterprise customers," said Tony Janusky, a Nuance manager. Frank Tersigni, vice-president of marketing and business development at VoiceGenie, said companies are acquiring speech recognition for more sophisticated reasons. "We’re seeing more and more new projects around customer satisfaction levels and productivity improvements," he said. Janusky said it’s only a matter of time before speech becomes "the de facto standard for interaction with the network." And Rowland from Aeroplan said speech recognition is inevitable as businesses seek new customer interaction methods. "It’s not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’."

Aeroplan Flies with Speech Recognition

News | 04/01/2006 5:00 am EST

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