NetByTel Application Talks Customers Through Phone Orders

NetByTel, a provider of hosted voice commerce technology linking Web self-service, contact centers and telephones, today announced a new voice commerce module that lets customers order products over the phone by catalog number without involving the cost of a live call center agent. Aimed at retail businesses that handle more than 15,000 calls per month, NetByTel's Order By Number Module Version 3.0 lets callers order products by interacting with a polite, friendly "virtual agent" from any phone. In contrast to cumbersome and impersonal touchtone systems, the NetByTel-hosted application listens to and understands the caller's instructions, and talks the customer through a purchase transaction using voice responses that mimic live caller interaction. Linked to the same back-end e-commerce systems that drive Web sites, the Order By Number Module conducts and records the ordering transaction without the need for live agent intervention, the company says. The Order By Number Module is designed to enable multi-channel and catalog retailers to offer their customers fast self-service transactions using advanced speech technology without requiring the retailer to invest in large upfront costs or months of development effort, according to Stephen Avalone, vice-president of marketing for NetByTel. "NetByTel's modular approach in delivering hosted speech recognition applications is unique in our industry," Avalone says. "Many retailers recognize the value of an advanced speech recognition technology over touchtone systems for customer self-service, but they have the mistaken notion that offering such a service to their customers is too expensive. NetByTel removes these cost barriers by offering a hosted service that has only minimal upfront costs and can be up and running in a call center within a few weeks." The solution also enables retailers to take customer orders when stores are closed or call center agents are busy, according to Avalone. "NetByTel voice commerce ordering can increase repeat sales by eliminating hold times through customer self-service, especially during call volume spikes," he says. "Freeing customer service representatives from fulfilling order requests allows them to focus on more complex business and drastically reduces expenses. Taking more customer orders quickly and consistently through advanced speech self-service applications significantly lowers call center costs." The Order By Number voice commerce module from NetByTel has already proved itself with major retailers such as Office Depot, Avalone says, and will soon manage self-service sales for consumer catalog retailers such as Harbor Freight, Tafford Manufacturing, Specialty Catalog, and others. Says Ken Jackowitz, vice president of business systems at Office Depot, "Order By Number is an intuitive speech recognition based application that makes voice commerce easy for customers to use and offers a more cost effective alternative than trying to develop and deploy a speech self-service application in-house." Companies have reported saving between $3 and $5 per call when NetByTel voice commerce systems handle calls rather than a call center agent, Avalone says. He estimated NetByTel's Order By Number could typically slash these costs to less than a dollar per call. The voice commerce module is currently available through a service provider model that allows rapid deployment in approximately 30 days. Retailers that can take advantage of the new speech recognition technology include consumer electronics, apparel and accessories, auto parts, office supplies, books and movies, music and games, sporting goods, department stores, discount, furniture, gifts and novelties, health and beauty, home improvement, house wares, jewelry, pet supplies, toys and hobbies. NetByTel's suite of voice commerce modules run on NetByTel's innovative Voice Commerce Platform which utilizes speech technology from SpeechWorks International and telephony hardware from Intel.