But what does it actually *do*?
A few years ago, Nuance (then ScanSoft) was very clearly a technology-focused company. Mind you, that's a very loaded statement that comes with some implicit baggage. What sort of judgment does one make when reading that? Let me put it in this perspective -- the way we approached customers in the sales cycle was very clearly along the lines of, "You need speech. Hey! We have speech. We got lots of speech. Whaddya want, you need speech recognition? Text-to-speech? Speaker verification? We got TONS of that stuff. We're the best at it, ya know. Look at all these features! Look at our staff! You tell me whatcha need, we'll build you whatever you want. When we're done, you won't even be able to *spell* the word 'touchtone.' " I'm oversimplifying and exaggerating for comic effect, of course, but the message is clear -- like many hi-tech companies, the selling strategy was to wield the product like a hammer looking for nails.
As you can imagine, there are lots of inherent problems with that approach -- or else why would I be mocking it so much? Sure, from a marketing perspective, it violates the principles of emphasizing benefits, not features. From a relationship perspective, you'd like to think that we are looking out for your interests (how can we help this client?) instead of ours (how can we sell this stuff we've got?) But the major disadvantage is the fact that most organizations don't necessarily know what they want, let alone what they need, to improve their customer service experience. It'd be like me asking you to pick out the parts for a rocket ship, or giving you an orchestra of instruments and telling you that you had everything you needed to compose a symphony. Unless you're already an expert in speech technology, you're not going to know the value of these components, let alone the best away to fit them together to solve your problems.
This year at Conversations, the Business Solutions track is an attempt to provide a clearer view as to the kinds of solutions that work well in conjunction with the building blocks of speech technology -- what fits together with what? Some sessions are based on effective applications of speech, such as practical examples of speaker verification, call steering, and auto attendants in action. Some are examples of how complementary technologies can enhance a customer experience, such as sessions on multimodal care, outbound messaging, and guided self-service. And we've even got one session focused on one way to help agents be more productive -- after all, the customer experience doesn't end when the automation does.
Over the years, I've seen Nuance change its approach such that our first meetings with potential customers are less about "here are all the things that we sell" and more about "let's take a look at what your problems are, and see if we have any suggestions for how to fix them." We're not interested in ramming technology down a client's throat if it's not a fit for their needs. In other words, press 1 for yes and 2 for no is sometimes the right answer. As an engineer-turned-marketer, it gives me warm fuzzies to have seen the company change direction like this. And, without sounding too rah-rah-corporate, I'd like to think our approach benefits both our old and new customers even more.
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