How much can an on-brand voice improve automated customer service? ~ Brand Mix

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

How much can an on-brand voice improve automated customer service?

Happy Duck! by BaylorBear78 on Flickr
Aflac is overhauling its customer service automated phone system to make it more on-brand. As reported by Marketplace, Aflac sees its brand as "friendly and lighthearted," as embodied by its duck but the voice used on its automated phone line was just generic. Now they've recruited an actress and re-recorded all the messages. They've not changed the system, just the voice.

Virgil Miller, the company's vice president of client services told Marketplace: "When you call in, we want you to feel that 'I am dealing with a company that values me, and is family oriented and of course, makes me feel secure.' So we were looking for a voice that reflected those type of things."

How much difference is that going to make? If you dial 1.800.99.AFLAC, yes there's the friendly voice but there's still the typical press "one" if..., press "2" if message. (At least they allow you to choose whether or not you use the voice recognition system. That drive me completely crazy.)

The economic benefit of automation is indisputable. Forrester Research says that a call handled by a person  costs around $6 and up to $30 if the call takes a long time. An automated call costs between five and 25 cents. But, as Marketplace says: "Given how frustrating these systems can be, is voice quality even an issue for customers?"

2 comments:

Inventory Management Software said...

Thanks for sharing your post and it was superb .I would like to hear more from you in future too.

Outsource Call Center said...

Hmm.. I think you better improve to a real customer service rather than using an automated customer service. Anyway, thanks for the post.

-mel-

 
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