Technology Toolkit – Voice Biometrics

The problem:

Up to 25% of the average handle time (AHT) of a call can be taken up by lengthy processes used to authenticate customers. This reduces agent productivity and overall contact centre efficiency.

Solution:

Real-time authentication using voice biometrics.

How it works:

1. The contact centre uses their existing call-recording systems to create a unique ‘voiceprint’ for every customer and stores them in a Customer Voiceprint Database. These voiceprints are made using voice biometrics technology that analyses more than 50 unique physical traits of the vocal tract, such as mouth shape and size, nasal passages, as well as behavioural factors including pronunciation, emphasis, speed of speech and accent (a fingerprint has just 20 traits).

2. The customer calls the contact centre, or an agent makes an outbound call.

3. Within the first few seconds of the call, the customer voice is matched in real time with their unique ‘voiceprint’, stored in the Customer Voiceprint Database.

4. When used in a multi-layer approach to authentication (using voice biometrics along with real-time agent guidance, transaction analytics, context and telephony analytics) the system automatically notifies the agent if the customer’s identity has been verified. If further authentication is needed the agent can ask questions from the customer record, which has been automatically popped on to the agent’s desktop.

5. With the identity verified, the agent and customer can now proceed with the interaction.

The benefits:

• Using this technology it is possible to achieve authentication accuracy of over 95%, reducing the potential for a customer and the organisation to become a victim of ID theft and fraud.
• It can reduce AHT by up to 45 seconds per call. Multiply this by the number of calls handled per day and the operational efficiency gains and cost savings are significant.
• You can leverage existing call-recording infrastructure to deliver passive customer enrolment and seamless customer experience. It minimises the effort customers need to make in order to prove they are who they say they are, whilst expediting time to service on their call.
• According to Opus Research, 85% of customers don’t like the current authentication processes. Using voice biometrics, customers no longer need to remember PIN codes, passwords or key phrases.
  

  Jade Kahn

This Technology Toolkit was provided by Jade Kahn of NICE Systems