October 30, 2006

For Better or Worse -- self-service

Nice article from Wall Street Jounal on self-service and the limitations of it that people see. Could be when they call in for the voice-recognition system for the airline reservation or just checking-in. Last week Target found itself on the spot with its website and how its design did not accomodate certain users.

For Better or Worse
High-tech tools can be a godsend for companies looking to improve customer service. Or they can be a nightmare.
By DIONNE SEARCEY
October 30, 2006; Page R5

One evening last year, Faye Kiefer was supposed to pick up her daughter at the airport. But she wanted to check the status of the flight before she left home.

So she phoned Northwest Airlines, and its automated customer-service system picked up the call. Again and again, Ms. Kiefer spoke her daughter's flight number into her speakerphone. But the system couldn't understand her, and she couldn't find a way to get to a live operator. Frustrated, she hung up.
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The automated phone system is "a wonderful feature to make your life simpler so you don't waste time," says Ms. Kiefer, a homemaker in Madison, Wis. "But if you can't get your message across or you can't make them understand you, then you're just sitting there...speaking to a robot."

According to Northwest, the trouble, most likely, was Ms. Kiefer's phone. The airline says its voice-recognition system may have trouble understanding some callers with poor speakerphone connections.

Ms. Kiefer's complaint, though, sums up a glaring truth about modern customer service: Technology has made life a lot easier for customers. And a lot harder.

Over the past few years, companies have plowed billions of dollars into automated customer-service systems, from call centers to Web sites to self-checkout lines in stores and hotels. When they work properly, they can simplify a host of chores. But tiny problems can sometimes throw these systems for a loop -- leaving customers feeling cut off and frustrated.

Some voice-recognition systems have trouble deciphering speech across a fuzzy phone connection. Company Web sites can take customers on virtual tours to nowhere with broken links or incorrect information. Self-service checkout terminals sometimes jam, leaving customers to search for a clerk to help them out.

The solution, say customer-service experts, is the human touch. Too often, companies abandon service workers altogether, or dramatically reduce their role, when installing automated systems. Companies must ensure that employees monitor and regularly update the technology to weed out glitches, keep the systems running smoothly and gauge customer satisfaction, the experts warn. Otherwise, frustrated customers may take their business elsewhere.

"Automation really just complicates things more unless you have a lot more knowledge and you have people behind it," says Howard Lee, chief executive of HyperQuality Inc., a Seattle firm that helps companies improve call centers and other customer-service operations. "People expect technology to be a magic bullet, and it's not and never will be."

The good news is that companies are starting to pay attention to the complaints. Here's a look at some of the biggest gripes about the most popular automated service systems -- and what companies are doing to fix them.

VOICE RECOGNITION

Dialing into an automated phone system can be one of the most frustrating customer-service experiences out there.

If conditions are right -- the caller has a land-line connection with a quiet background and enunciates carefully -- the systems can work like a dream. Needless to say, conditions are often less than ideal. Systems sometimes can't understand callers using a speakerphone with background noise or a cellphone in the middle of loud traffic (or sometimes any traffic, for that matter). And even if the connection is crystal clear, the systems may stumble if the caller has a speech impediment or foreign accent.

Silvia Mazzucchelli, a native Italian who lives in the Los Angeles area, says she has learned to "Americanize" her accent when dialing directory assistance or other voice-activated systems. "I hate them, I hate them," she says. "I always try to get to the operator. I just can't stand it. Most of the time they're giving me information I don't want."

Sometimes even regional quirks can hinder voice-recognition technology. When Verizon Communications Inc. rolled out its new automated 411 directory service system in Boston about two years ago, callers were greeted by a recorded voice that chirped, "City and state, please." But the system had a big problem: It couldn't understand a Boston accent. Callers who pronounced "Worcester" and "Peabody" in the local fashion ("Wooster" and "PEE-buh-dee") were told, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." The system eventually transferred them to a live operator for help.

Fortunately, experts say, companies commonly check their automated systems to fix the glitches. Verizon tweaked its system after complaints, and says it has had few problems since. Similarly, Northwest says it constantly updates its system based on customer feedback and the comments of employees it hires to track the system's performance. The company also brings in speech experts to tweak the system to ensure that customers looking for information about, for example, flights in and out of Asheville, N.C., aren't fed information about Nashville, Tenn.

In some cases, advanced voice-recognition systems such as Verizon's can actually fix themselves if a critical mass of callers continue to pronounce a word a particular way. Moreover, some companies are trying to make the caller's experience as smooth as possible if the system screws up. Northwest, for instance, says that if its system fails to understand a caller's request twice, the caller is now routed to a live operator -- instead of getting stuck repeating the information again and again.

Companies are also increasingly using a "whisper," or a recording of the caller's request, to make things easier for customers. If an automated system can't answer a caller's question, it plays the whisper for a live operator before transferring the call. By listening to the whisper, operators know what the customer is looking for. That way, the caller doesn't have to repeat information they've spent the past few frustrating minutes trying to convey to a computer.

TOUCH-TONE SYSTEMS

Some companies don't splurge on high-end voice-recognition systems and instead ask customers to use touch-tone keypads to input information such as account numbers or other data. "The nice thing about touch tones is they're reasonably reliable. If you push the button, it does what you want it to do," says Paul Kowal, a customer-service specialist who runs the Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm Kowal & Associates.

But too often, Mr. Kowal says, companies spend money only on the initial programming of the system -- and don't invest more as customers' needs and expectations evolve, or as the company itself changes. Recorded information may grow outdated, or calls may get routed to departments that no longer exist.

Even worse, many touch-tone systems trap customers in a seemingly endless automated loop in which they can't easily reach a live operator. Dialing zero doesn't always work. Sometimes there's a secret code for reaching the operator, but the system won't tell you what it is. Other times there's no operator at all.

As customers become more vocal about their unpleasant experiences, more companies are learning to stay on top of problems, Mr. Kowal says. And some amateurs are lending a hand, as well. Frustrated by his own experiences with automated phone systems, Boston-based consumer advocate Paul English began asking associates how they get through to humans when phoning various companies. He compiled a list of their answers and last winter posted it to his Web site, gethuman.com. The site now contains the tricks to escape phone loops at more than 500 companies.

"There are lots of conditions where the caller knows more than the machine, and the caller should decide when it's time to talk to a human," Mr. English says.

WEB SITES

For the most part, customer-service experts report overwhelmingly positive consumer experiences with company Web sites. Many credit-card, phone and bank customers love the convenience of paying bills and monitoring account activity online at any time of the day or night. And more Web sites are offering convenient new features and sales help.

So it's even more frustrating for consumers when they run across a site that doesn't do it all. Some companies simply don't have the money or wherewithal to offer anything but a basic site that answers generic questions. And sometimes, out of sheer sloppiness, they don't even get the basics right. Important information, such as phone numbers or driving directions, may be incorrect, or the links to the information may be broken. In some cases, there won't be phone numbers at all; some companies don't employ live operators, to push customer transactions onto the Internet.

But there's good news, according to the experts. As Web business becomes increasingly important to even the smallest companies, more businesses are making an effort to fix their sites. They're asking customers for their feedback, and assigning employees to monitor the sites as well.

As part of the cleanup, experts stress, businesses should always offer real-world sales assistance to customers. The very same technology that makes life better for some customers can make it miserable for others, depending on their age, familiarity with computers and other factors.

Consider Ms. Kiefer. When she has a banking question, she drives to her nearby branch, pulls into the drive-through lane and speaks with a teller. She knows she could use her bank's Web site from home. But she rarely turns to the Internet for help because she doesn't want to waste time firing up her computer.

"Of course everybody wants to give you their Web site," Ms. Kiefer says. "Well, for someone in their 60s, as I am, we've learned the computer but we aren't as adept at it as all the young people are."

SELF-SERVICE CHECKOUT

Increasingly, grocery stores, hotels and fast-food restaurants are installing self-service kiosks that allow customers to ring up their own purchases. The services can offer speedy checkouts for customers who have few purchases and don't want to wait in long lines.

But customers can end up frustrated and embarrassed when scanners don't ring up a price or kiosks won't accept their crumpled dollar bills. In April, a Texas man was arrested for shattering the screen of a self-service kiosk at a Wal-Mart when the machine jammed as he was entering his debit card.

For some customers, the possibility of problems keeps them out of the self-checkout lines altogether. "What do you do when it scans the wrong item or the item isn't scannable? You have to get someone to come over and make you feel like a moron because you can't get it to work," says Peter Ambrozaitis, vice president of Novations Group Inc., a Boston-based customer-service consulting company.

Many of these systems are fairly new. But experts say that businesses, facing lines of grumbling customers, realize they need to do more to ensure the technology works smoothly. One common solution: positioning workers near the checkout lines to help customers who encounter problems.

Customer-service consultants say businesses must also make sure they have enough information-technology workers behind the scenes to keep the systems working properly. And until consumers are comfortable with self-service kiosks, they need to have enough live checkout clerks available to cover demand.

--Ms. Searcey is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's New York bureau.

Write to Dionne Searcey at [email protected]

Posted by staff at October 30, 2006 09:39 PM