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For Release 12:01 a.m. EDT
Aug. 8, 2006
GetHuman, Microsoft and Nuance Aim to Improve Phone-Based
Customer Service
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."
About Paul English and GetHuman
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.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
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.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the
worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people
and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft
Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual
companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional
information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate
information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were
correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For
additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact
Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed
at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.
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For more information, press only:
- Sarah Warrick, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide for Microsoft,
(425) 638-7000, swarrick@waggeneredstrom.com
- Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide for Microsoft,
(503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
- Kristen Wylie, Nuance,
(781) 565-5428, kristen.wylie@nuance.com
- Paul English, GetHuman,
(781) 648-1500,
- Lorna Rankin, GetHuman,
(781) 718-4047,
(1) "Call Center Performance - America Speaks," Opinion Research,
December 2005.
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