update Centrelink is to implement a new voice recognition application for callers wanting to arrange appointments at its offices across the country.
The welfare and social services agency has put to tender design services for the application, the latest in its voice recognition portfolio.
Centrelink currently runs 10 voice recognition applications since trialling its first in 2002. Of the 30 million inbound calls per year, four million are provided the self-service option.
The new application will run on a dedicated phone line and allow Centrelink clients to arrange, confirm, change or cancel an appointment via voice commands.
Under the proposed model, callers will first state their Centrelink Access Number (CAN) to identify themselves. If they then choose to make a new appointment, they are asked for the postcode of the location where they wish to attend the appointment.
The access number would already have identified the home location of the caller, but choosing the suburb of the appointment would allow callers more choice and convenience, especially during business hours, said Centrelink.
The caller would then be asked to state the days of the week they could attend an appointment, followed by their preference for morning or afternoon. Next, they would be asked for the earliest date on which they could attend. The system would then identify the closest Centrelink office to the postcode and read out 10 available appointment times. After confirming a time, the system would issue the caller a receipt number for the appointment before the call ends.
The application is expected to remove the frequently requested task from the workload of Centrelink's 3,000 call centre agents.
"Many Centrelink agents are involved in the arrangement of customer appointments each day. Consequently, the widespread usage of this new application should free up staff resources in the Centrelink networks to attend to customers with more complex individual matters," Centrelink said.
The agency bases its voice recognition applications on the SpeakFreely interface from speech recognition vendor Nuance Communications.
In its statement of requirement, Centrelink asked that tenderers address:
- generating values to enable reporting on the application
- catering for users with varying degrees of familiarity with the service
- recognition of Australian voices in general and specifically those of Centrelink's customer population
The successful tenderer would also be required to tune the application six months after deployment.
The contract is for two years with a three year extension option.
Interesting to know other peoples opinion - I have used a couple of voice systems, and always have trouble with them, to a point now where as soon as I get one, I continually say operator until I get one. Optus is especially woeful. When are these companies going to realise this is not customer service, and probably adds to the frustration of customers.