When you’re looking to improve the customer experience (CX) in your call center, voice ID verification can be a powerful tool. With voice ID verification, you can streamline your process and reduce the amount of input required from callers, allowing customers to progress swiftly.
If you’re wondering about voice ID verification – including what it is, how it works, and how it can benefit your contact center – here’s what you need to know.
What Is Voice ID Verification?
While voice ID verification may seem similar to speech analytics based on the names, the two technologies are actually quite different.
With speech analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) assesses customer interactions. Using triggers like tone and word choice, the system can determine a caller’s mood, provide recommendations to representatives to keep conversations on target, and even determine whether transferring to a manager is the best choice.
Voice ID verification focuses on analyzing the characteristics of a caller’s voice, using the data to craft a unique biological parameter that can later be used to identify the customer. Cadence, pitch, volume, accent, and other qualities are measured, creating a data point as distinct as a fingerprint.
Once the data point is established, voice ID verification can then determine whether a caller is who they claim. Not only can the process happen automatically, but it also reduces the need for more manual or interactive verifications.
How Voice ID Verification Benefits Your Contact Center
Voice ID verification can benefit contact centers in a few key ways. The most obvious is shortening overall call times. When customers call it, their voice can be used to confirm their identity, eliminating the need for manually entering data like the last four digits of Social Security numbers, zip codes, or similar common types of verifications.
For low-risk calls, voice ID verification may make all active participation on a customer’s part unnecessary. When combined with other automated customer authentication processes, such as automatic number identification (ANI) and phone number validation, identity verification can potentially all occur in the background.
When you can reduce the number of knowledge-based authentication (KBA) steps, you streamline CX. Customers will spend less time confirming their identity, allowing them to advance through the call faster.
Since shorter wait times before speaking with a representative or gaining access to critical information through automated systems result in more positive experiences, customer satisfaction typically rises. The process is simple, convenient, and non-invasive. Plus, it can be highly cost-effective for contact centers.
For higher-risk calls, voice ID verification is still beneficial. It gives you an automated verification option to add into the mix, potentially reducing the number of KBA steps a caller has to complete. Again, this shortens call times dramatically while ensuring proper security.
Additionally, even if a voice ID verification doesn’t confirm a match, the caller can continue through a traditional KBA approach. Those calls can route through a lengthier process as needed, ensuring security is never compromised. Once the identity is properly confirmed, data for the voice ID verification can be updated, increasing the odds that the system will detect matches correctly moving forward.
Essentially, voice ID verification can streamline call experiences and shorten wait times. As a result, it can be a vital component for improving contact center CX, making it a valuable tool to add to your process.
