20th January, 2009 - Telephonetics VIP, the speech automation specialist, is pleased to announce the general availability of a range of Automation Agents to help organisations maximise efficiency for routine transactions over the telephone.

High volume routine calls can be a waste of staff time. This time could be more efficiently and cost effectively used on other more complex calls. Automation Agents are designed to handle high volume calls which are simple and transactional, including operator services, payments, recording requests for information, reporting missed services, undertaking customer surveys, providing appointment or key date reminders.

Providing a professional and consistent service, 24/7, the Automation Agents from Telephonetics VIP are specifically designed to improve access to services and provide an enriched customer experience.

The increasing demand for automating these transactional services was highlighted in a recent Telephonetics VIP survey of Call Centre Expo attendees. In particular customer surveys and taking payments were confirmed as key areas of focus.  From the responses collected 100% of respondents cited customer surveys as important to their organisation and wanted to improve response rates. Automation gives your customers the option to provide customer feedback or survey information, quickly and anonymously.  60% of the respondents regularly took payments over the telephone and all respondents agreed that payment security was a concern. Using automation for payment services enhances privacy of financial data.

New Forest District Council is one of several organisations already using Telephonetics VIP automation agents to streamline their payment services and help work towards Varney and NI14 recommendations.

“The payments line has lots of advantages for customers and the council too. Customers can contact us any time of day to suit them and from the council’s point of view, we can free up our operators to deal with the more complex enquiries, if the more routine enquiries are dealt with automatically via the payments line” explains Glynne Miles, Head of Customer Service, New Forest District Council.

Mike Matthews, Head of Product Management, Telephonetics VIP comments “The use of speech self service has risen significantly since 2007.* This is in part due to the proven effectiveness of speech self service as a method of improving services without increasing costs, which is of particular importance in the current economic climate. Those organisations that listen to and focus on meeting their customers’ needs are best placed to emerge a stronger organisation against competitors. Telephonetics VIP’s Automation Agents provide organisations with the tools to lead the way in providing superior customer service.”

To hear a demonstration of our self service solutions call 01442 242 242 and say “Automation Agents”.

(*Source: ContactBabel 2008.)