A service that uses
biometrics to verify the identity of people calling contact
centres
by identifying their voice aims to reduce the time that call
centre staff take to process requests.
Credit agency Experian has introduced the service, known as
VoiceCheck, in partnership with biometric identity firm
VoiceVault.
The technology was originally developed by the US military, and
was later used to track criminals by US authorities.
John Colgan, head of business development at VoiceVault, said
the supplier took over the technology about four years ago and
built applications around it such as caller authentication.
The company is targeting the hosted service, which is paid for
per use, at companies that are highly dependent on contact centres.
It is in talks with firms in financial services and retail about
integrating the technology.
"By replacing the time-consuming manual verification process
with a fully automated system, contact centre agents will be
presented with a validated identity at the start of a call, and can
dedicate a greater proportion of their time to assisting callers,"
said Experian.
When a new customer registers, the system records their voice
and stores a voice print on Experian's databases. The system aims
to avoid the need for time-consuming verification such as asking
numerous questions to confirm a caller's identity.
"Contact centre agent talk time can be reduced by about 30
seconds per call, resulting in a reduction in the costs associated
with verifying the identity of callers by up to 75%," said Jim
Lound, director of trust services at Experian.
The technology measures more than 130 characteristics of an
individual's voice and is able to detect the use of a voice
recording.