Peter Chidiac

Peter Chidiac

Nuance Communications
Peter Chidiac, managing director, Nuance Communications, Australia and New Zealand, has worked in communications since 1984. His previous companies include ScanSoft and SpeechWorks. He has seen the evolution of communications systems from simple PABX, ACD, voice mail, paging and IVR systems to the adoption of sophisticated natural-language speech-recognition solutions.
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    Posted on 2008-05-19

    For businesses looking to give customers what they want, speech recognition has clearly become the self-service channel of choice. But new research shows that, when it comes to self-service, customers also prefer speech-recognition systems over other channels, including the traditional IVR system. And more than that, they're highly satisfied with the experience.

    The research was conducted in 2007 by independent Australian research firm callcentres.net and used data collected from 262 Australian end users of speech recognition technology. The participants were asked to comment on a specific speech recognition application they had recently used and evaluate their experience versus other modes of customer service.

    The results of the callcentres.net survey prove that sometimes there is a gulf between perception and reality when it comes to speech recognition. A common perception is that speech recognition technology can undermine customer satisfaction on some level...