Just Tell Me What You Want -- Taking Humans Out of the Loop (Article by Michael Squires, Softscribe Inc.)

Call centers are large, open, quietly busy rooms filled with cubes. In the cubes agents with headsets are answering questions, verifying confirmation numbers, giving directions, eating Skittles and taking reservations. Reservation people are very helpful for recreational travelers and vacationing resort guests. For these tourists, having a live person on the phone is mandatory. There are so many options for room type, exposure, packages, dates, meal plans and activities that it's essential to understand the infinite possibilities. Moreover, if you are an infrequent traveler or taking a once-a-year vacation, confidence in your decision is something that only another person can give.

But there is another, more practiced kind of hotel guest: the business traveler. Business travelers don't care much about options or package plans. They are not shopping. They are buying a room, usually in a specific city, and often at a property they've stayed with before. They know the ropes and don't need the personal touch, in fact, they don't want it; it slows things down. For a person on the road the most valuable commodity is time, and the faster he or she can make their reservation in the next city the more highly they regard the flag and property.

We all understand the need for the personal touch in the hospitality industry, so don't stone me for forecasting the next new technology we will be adopting. It is called ASR, automatic speech recognition, and it does have a place in our call centers, not instead of them.

With ASR technology in use at a reservation center, someone calling to check availability or book a room is asked a brief series of logical questions about their destination, dates, desired hotel location, smoking and bedding preference, and rate. The system acts as a verbal interface between the caller and the live Central Reservation System (CRS) database, much like an input terminal. No keys are pressed on the phone. The caller tells the system what her preferences are and may complete the booking by reading in a credit card number to receive a confirmation. The process is fast, and if there's a problem the caller can always press "0" to get an agent.

Taking humans out of the loop is not as heretical as it sounds: the Internet is a growing source of bookings, and several chains are scaling back the number of seats in their call centers thanks to the success of the Net via corporate sites and reservation providers like Travelocity. Internet reservations cost just a few cents to complete, verses a few dollars for a call center reservation, so chains are happy about the direction things are taking. The only problem with Internet reservations is that you need a computer to make one. What about the business traveler with her tiny WAP phone or PDA with its postage-stamp keyboard and screen that requires a Lasik cornea procedure before it can be read? It is much easier for travelers with mobile phones to talk and hear without using fingers or eyes, and speech is faster than manual input. For business travelers, a streamlined ASR voice interface to the central reservation database is the most efficient way to make hotel reservations.

We already use this technology in other businesses, and sometimes it isn't pretty. Many people automatically hit zero the minute they get a company's automated answering system. But in the right circumstances, if there is a simple piece of business to transact, most of us would much rather use a well-designed speech interface with a confirmation number at the end of the process than struggle to make a newly-hired operator understand what we want. In truth, one of the most difficult aspects of life is working with poorly trained people who give the wrong information. ASR is the answer to this problem. The most persuasive argument for chains and call center companies, however, is the compelling ROI case for ASR. Even if ASR replaces only 20 percent of an average call center's seats, the savings is hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Call centers serving up-scale chains are generally not interested in ASR. Their clientele demands a good deal of attention, and for them the conventional call center has been a successful, although expensive, solution for years. But for mid-market and budget-flags where there are fewer options for callers, or for use in a rapid-service 'Traveler Booking Line,' ASR is perfect.

In the past few years central reservation providers have tested speech recognition, and found it lacked flexibility. ASR works fine for the airlines' flight information, but until recently there has been difficulty over the wider vocabulary required by the hospitality industry. This year new Voice XML coding technology is changing all that by making it possible to have a voice interface to the CRS database recognize many more city names at less cost. Additionally, flexible human speech patterns, called "natural language," are also recognizable to ASR thanks to VXML. Even "barge-in" caller interruptions are handled with the new technology making it more easy to use.

With all the speech recognition breakthroughs coming to bear on hospitality, and given the strong ROI case for implementing ASR, we can expect to see this technology in use very soon. So, if you hear an automated reservation agent the next time you book a room, give it a chance to make your reservation faster than you expected. You'll be surprised how easily it works, and ASR will probably save you time on the road.

Michael Squires is president of Softscribe Inc., a technology consulting corporation that specializes in marketing intelligence, public relations, and sales services to hospitality. Contact Michael at 404-256-5512, or at [email protected] .