SpeechTEK Speakers Call for Conversational Technologies

Speech will always come up short until it can engage in two-way dialogues, panelists point out.

The 2014 Speech Luminaries

Can VUI and GUI Survive an Interface Marriage?

Even though voice user and graphical user interface designs differ greatly, some practitioners are committed to making their union work.

Voice User Interface Designers Learn to Cope with Rejection

Communication is the key to addressing issues when the design doesn't mesh with the customer's objectives

Mobile Speech Promises Glittering Prizes But Also Serious Challenges

Keynote panel at SpeechTEK 2011 explores smartphone frontier.

The 2011 Market Leaders

A Gray Area

Today's seniors can't be left out of VUI design decisions.

A New Year

As the economy rebounds, voice solutions continue to build use cases.

Coming into Focus

Companies are starting to realize what focus groups can provide, how to make the most of their feedback, and why the future of IVR design could depend on what they say.

It's a Persona, Not a Personality

In IVR design, it should be about finding the right voice, not the right character.

Bringing Video to the Voice Arena

The latest speech application development tools allow programmers to incorporate video applications as well.

Enterprise Strategy: Success on All Levels

When implementing a speech solution, everyone needs to be on the same page

Not Everyone Has a Phone Voice

The right voice is everything on an IVR, auto attendant, automatic call distributor, or voicemail system.

Hosted Speech: Trend or Foe?

A roundtable discussion with members of the hosted speech community reveals the benefits and concerns with a hosted speech solution

Heightened Level of Alert

As more risks become associated with VoIP, companies that did not take security into account before will need to start

On Good Speaking Terms

When dealing with a machine, it shouldn't sound too much like a human

The First 100 Days of Deployment

The design and development phase of your speech self-service application is complete. The system is installed and a rigorous process of usability and user-acceptance testing has been performed. Now what? How do you ensure that when you flip the switch your customers will be able to successfully use the system the way you envisioned? That is what the next 100 days after the initial deployment are all about.

Eleven Tips to Improve IVR Effectiveness

There's been a lot of negative press recently about poorly designed touchtone and speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) systems. I'm sorry to say that most of the problems that I've heard, read about, or personally experienced are real. To make matters worse, the situation is inexcusable because the underlying technology that powers these applications is very flexible and can do significantly more than what it is being used for today. Poor implementations are giving these systems a bad reputation, as has long been the case.

Is Paul English Right?

Why is it when Citibank launches an ad campaign saying its customers can press "0" to talk to a human, it becomes big news? Have we reached a point where the ability to reach an operator is that big a deal? By now, virtually everyone knows the magic phrase: "Hello. Your call is important to us. If you are an existing customer, please press or say one."

Ivy League IVR

Respect-it can be a difficult, yet highly desirable value to attain. Most people want respect; it's a basic human motivation to be treated with dignity.