For Release 12:01 a.m. EDT
Aug. 8, 2006
New GetHuman project initiative is intended to set the standard for customer service phone support.
NEW YORK — Aug. 8, 2006 — In his keynote at the annual SpeechTEK 2006 conference in New York, Paul English, the founder of GetHuman.com, announced the creation of new standards for telephone-based customer service. Microsoft Corp., Nuance Communications, Inc. and other industry leaders, businesses and consumers will work with the GetHuman project to drive adoption of these standards that are designed to eliminate poor caller experiences with automated systems.
Some of the proposed GetHuman standards include always giving callers the option to queue for a human, with estimated wait times provided, and also offering a call back option. The proposal also requires that systems never make a caller repeat any information that they had already provided during the call, and that all companies provide a simple mechanism for callers to rate a call for the quality of service provided.
After a comment period of 60 days, the GetHuman project team will incorporate community feedback and publish a final design document. Companies can then register their GetHuman-compliant phone service at http://www.gethuman.com and begin to adopt the GetHuman "earcon", an auditory icon that signals to callers that the company uses best practice customer service standards.
"I'm thrilled to work with Microsoft and Nuance on these important standards", said Paul English. "Consumers have put up with bad customer service over the phone for too long, and this new initiative will put some sanity back into how companies interact with their customers. Microsoft and Nuance are two of the key companies who can help make consumer-friendly phone systems a reality, and we are seeking other companies to join us in this effort."
Today, customers who wish to conduct transactions over the telephone may face confusing menus and frequently a different self-service experience for every company they try to contact. According to Opinion Research Corp., nearly seven out of 10 consumers say they are less likely to do business with a company after a bad call center experience.
"At Microsoft, we believe that powerful software combined with customer-friendly standards like this can elevate voice self-service to be a preferred solution for many tasks, just as the ATM and airport kiosk are today," said Rich Bray, general manager Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. "We look forward to working with Paul and the GetHuman project to incorporate community feedback and drive continuous improvement in the experience people have with voice applications."
"Nuance has been a consistent champion of best practices in speech-automated customer support with thousands of implementations and dozens of award-winning systems," said Peter Mahoney, vice president of worldwide marketing for Nuance Communications. "Paul's proposal for these standards is consistent with our Human Touch(tm) efforts, and we are excited to collaborate with Paul to accelerate the adoption of these best practices."
Paul English launched the non-profit GetHuman project in February of 2006, with the goal to change the face of customer service in the US. The GetHuman website has been visited by over one million consumers a month, and has been covered on virtually all national media outlets over this past year. Paul is a serial entrepreneur in Boston; his current company is Kayak.com travel search where he serves as CTO and Co-founder. For more information about the GetHuman project, please visit www.gethuman.com.
GetHuman is a registered trademark of Paul M. English.
Nuance is the leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for business and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications, and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share, and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
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