Where's My Repairman?

THE CHALLENGE

You're getting ready for a typical homeowner's weekend: fix the basement door, change the oil in the car, and finish stripping an old table. You need to finish by noon, when the kick-off is scheduled for the biggest football game of the year. As you fiddle at your workbench in the basement, you feel water dripping from one of the floor joists, the one directly under the washing machine upstairs. When you inspect the area, it becomes apparent the washing machine is leaking and will require the attention of a professional repairman.

You find an number to call on the inside cover of the washing machine lid. You are greeted by an interactive voice response system that first asks you to enter your zip code, then press 'one' for ovens, 'two' for small appliances, 'three' for power tools, four' for refrigerators, 'five' for dryers, and, finally, 'six' for washing machines. Next you're asked for the brand name of the washer, requiring you to press 'one' for Kenmore, 'two' for Whirlpool, and so on. Now the model number, then the serial number, and so on.

You panic. You'll never get to watch the ball game if you're wandering through an IVR system all afternoon. Minutes spent on the phone pressing buttons seem like hours. After an arduous battle, you finally obtain the number of the nearest repair shop.

THE SOLUTION

The call could have been shortened, both for you and for the call center paying the bill, using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. ASR lets you speak your zip code, the kind of appliance ("washing machine"), and the brand name ("Frigidaire"), saving both time and money.

The technology required to voice automate this popular application is here today, on the CT platform, leading ASR partners such as PureSpeech a leading supplier of ASR.