Twitter is the fastest growing social (and messaging) network and ranks #3 behind Facebook and MySpace. It has received much more attention these days because of stories like this and this. Its simplicity is also an attractive factor: users answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less, each answer called a “tweet.” The visibility of Twitter was raised to a new level when just a few days ago Google Search decided to add more weight to Twitter topics.

So it’s evident that Twitter can be used as a business tool, whether for sales and marketing or for customer service. Is there a place for it as a contact center interaction?

Definitely. Just as the telephone, cell phone, SMS, and IM have changed the way individuals communicate with each other and with businesses, Twitter and its social networking peers are now finding footing as the preferred interaction among people. If a contact center solution can tap into that source, it’s bound to have tremendous potential.

And luckily Twitter has a set of API for developers to play with. However, one also has to keep in mind that because of its popularity, Twitter has ran into problems with scale and continues to tackle service interruption problems. Still, whichever contact center vendor is first to incorporate this social networking technology into its product will have a notable advantage.

Eugene

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Six months ago, I was hired for my skills as a programmer by OpenMethods which has a solid reputation in the voice industry. Very quickly I realized that my skills as a programmer (a fact) needed to adapt to a whole new knowledgebase (a context). Beginning by knowing nothing about telephony applications, I have now been immersed in CTI for six months, and although I have learned a lot, I expect it will be another year before I will feel competent.

This is the best way to learn; little rhetoric, much hard experience. I am continually amazed at how intricate telephony really is. In theory very simple, but in practice, there are dozens of exceptions for every rule, and there are quite a few rules. Even though Open Source and the convergence of telephony-everywhere has brought standards-based design to the forefront for at least a decade, it feels to me like CTI is still ‘young’ and therefore all over the map, or all over several maps.

For example, we get weird things happening in our application which seemed to me at first to be bugs, but in fact are codec-related problems happening further up the “call chain.” It’s strange to fix a bug by tweaking a setting on a remote server, rather than tweaking code. Often before when there was a certain kind of problem in my code, it was because I made a logic or protocol mistake. Now it turns out that in addition to coding skills, to be competent in my field, I have to learn dozens of possible configuration options that are enabled or disabled on a remote server which is sending telephony interactions to me. Only after I have eliminated these configuration possibilities can I begin to look at my code.

When do I know what is a bug and what is a configuration setting? That’s the part I’m learning now. So you see, in some cases, facts are dependent upon context.

Ever so slowly, I learn the hard, the right way, how to manage a telephony platform, which seems to be out of scope for a programmer, but in fact is necessary for analytical and troubleshooting skills. This is not easy. No formal training, just lots of help from my colleagues here at OpenMethods, who indeed have earned that solid reputation mentioned earlier.

I’m excited by this challenge. I love this job because I love to learn, and I love being intellectually intimidated. There are few things so sweet as having overcome a complex intellectual challenge, and made a living doing so. Really, that’s the easy part. The hard part is remaining humble once having done so. That’s next year’s work. The facts will remain the same, but the context will change again. As always.

Jared

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Researchers at IBM India have developed HSTP, or Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol, which works similarly to HTTP.

How will it work? Think of the Web with voice navigation enabled applications. Dial a number on your mobile phone, get connected to a store’s voice app. You can use voice commands to search for products and services, and place orders. When you’re ready to check out, you get transferred to another voice app which handles credit card payment transactions. And of course, if you wish to speak to a customer service rep, speak a command and get transferred to the in-store clerk.

You can read the research paper here.

Eugene

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Hope to see you on LinkedIn’s OpenVXML Users group!!!

Eugene

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Those nine words would start a communications revolution which transformed our lives. From copper wires to fiber optics; from wired to wireless; from carrying voice to carrying data. Without Bell, we would never see contact center technologies like CTI, VUI, IVR, and all those confusing TLAs (three-letter acronyms).

Can you imagine his reaction if he were alive today? Telephones the size of a palm! Telephones without wires! Telephones that are… computers (or computers that are telephones?)! Clear, digital voice! Voicemail! Oh, and buildings full of people answering calls from strangers!

And knowing that he’s the one who started it all… Thanks, Mr. Bell.

Eugene

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I’m waiting for the day when my fridge will talk to me about what foods it has inside or my pantry telling me what snacks I still have. That day will come soon, I think… soon.

Eugene

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It was interesting because it wasn’t just an engineering class, but also touched upon biology, psychology, ergonomics, and human-computer interaction (HCI). We learned about Pavlov’s experiments and research into conditioned reflexes, how the brain and nervous system work, how to best design devices for the physical human, and what things to consider when designing a computer interface for humans.

For instance, do you realize that 7 to 10 percent of the male population is red-green color blind? That statistic ought to be taken into consideration when one is designing a Website or advertisement for men. It was little things like that which I’d thought was very refreshing compared to the other courses I was taking.

Ever since then, I’ve had a new appreciation for human-centric design. I’m also grateful that working in the CTI industry allows me to think about engineering psychology issues surrounding the application of contact center technologies.

What’s the best way to order the IVR menus? What type of callers will the system primarily service? Can there be improvements upon the screen-pop display? Is the softphone user interface friendly to the users? etc.

These are just some of the questions I’ve heard from other developers. User interface experts (be it GUI, VUI, WUI, or OOIU) surely deserve much applause for their work in putting the human touch onto the systems they’re designing.

Eugene

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It just occurred to me, that a few years ago, I would have no idea what any of them were.
But, now, thanks to all the brilliant minds we have at OpenMethods, and their willingness to enlighten me, the picture is somewhat clearer. I am tackling these scary acronyms, one Blog at a time. I will start with VUI because, at least I have finally realized that VUI is neither Very Ugly Individual nor anything vaguely related to buoy or gooey as it sounded when I first heard the term bandied about the office. VUI or voice user interface is how a human can interact or operate with a computer through a voice type of platform. Being able to control a machine by talking to it was only found in science fiction just a short time ago and was considered to be artificial intelligence. However, with advances in technology, including the advances at OpenMethods these VUIs have become more common. And we are finding places to utilize these hands-free, eyes-free interfaces in many fascinating places.

While I of course think it is the neatest little gizmo out there, it still struggles in its quest for popularity. People have very little patience in general for dealing with a “stupid machine that just doesn’t understand” what they need. Therefore, I, with all my new gained wisdom have decided that: VUIs need to be perfect or they will be rejected and often ridiculed by their users. By masters we have in our employee, I have found that designing a good VUI requires interdisciplinary talents of computer science, linguistics and human-factors psychology, skills that are expensive and hard to come by and lots of white boards and COFFEE. These guys sure drink a lot of coffee. But even with advanced development tools, such as those, it seems to me that constructing an effective VUI requires an in-depth understanding of both the tasks to be performed, as well as the target audience who will use the final system. The closer the VUI matches the user’s mental model of the task, and the easier it will be to use with little or no training, the better it is and most importantly, the easier it is to sell.

The needs and characteristics of the target audience are very important. For example, a system designed for the general public should emphasize ease of use and provide a lot of help and guidance for first time callers. On the other hand, a system designed for a small group of power users, or maybe field service workers, should focus more on productivity and less on help and guidance. Such applications should streamline the call flows, minimize prompts, eliminate unnecessary iterations and allow elaborate “mixed initiative dialogs”, which enable callers to enter several pieces of information in a single utterance and in any order or combination. In short, speech applications have to be carefully crafted for the specific business process that is being automated.

Now in order to pick perfect target customers for our handy dandy Acronym, we have found, in general, that the more complex the inquiries and transactions are the more challenging they are to automate and the more likely they are to fail on the general market. Some issues just need to be resolved by a real person. But, on the flip side, automated speech is perfect for handling quick and routine transactions, like changing the status of a work order, completing a time or expense entry, or transferring funds between accounts. Well guys, aren’t you amazed at how much I have absorbed from you by just picking your brains and listening to you talking at lunch.

Becky
Neither a Developer nor a Coder Be
Just The Lowly Accountant is She

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