Automated Phone Systems Gain Ground With Retailers

Businesses are showing more interest in speech-recognition software that lets consumers use an automated phone system to place orders or check order status. Startup NetByTel Inc., which makes the Voice Commerce speech-recognition system, last week signed a partnership with Ecometry Corp., which sells software for database integration, customer service, order processing, and other operations for multichannel catalog retailers.

Ecometry, which has more than 300 customers, including Brookstone, Nine West, Nordstrom, RedEnvelope.com, and Zales, has begun reselling NetByTel's voice-commerce modules as part of its suite of applications.

The chance to cut costs on customer service without having to invest in additional hardware led the Mark Group Inc. to NetByTel. The Boca Raton, Fla., catalog and Web retailer, which sells $130 million of women's clothing and home furnishings each year, started using Voice Commerce a month ago to let customers check the shipping status of orders. The company gets about 175,000 of these calls per year.

"The level of speech recognition has risen in the last year; it's not the robotic techno-language it used to be," says Scott Bryant, VP of operations at the Mark Group. He estimates that the average call using the automated speech-recognition system costs 80 cents to 85 cents, vs. $2 with a live operator. Forrester Research senior analyst Bob Zurek says call-center costs can reach $33 a call if infrastructure investments are included.

The Mark Group eventually will automate order taking as well, which is how Office Depot Inc. is using Voice Commerce. Customers who order products from an Office Depot catalog can speak to an automated system. The average order time is five minutes, says VP of business systems Ken Jackowitz, which is at the low end of the industry's call-center average.