Market Strategies, Inc. Publishes Innovative Benchmarking Study of IVR/ASR Menus and Systems for Energy Utilities

June 19, 2007—Market Strategies International (MSI) announced the publication of an innovative, comparative benchmarking study on Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) menus and systems for energy utilities. The study provides benchmark rankings and ratings for 56 energy utilities’ IVR and ASR menus and systems (gas, electric, combination) which are measured on functionality, usability and aesthetics. Also, for the first time, these ratings will be compared to MSI’s recently completed IVR benchmarking for banks, credit cards and auto finance companies.

“The uniqueness of this study is that it benchmarks utilities on how well they achieve a balance between having internally-focused functional efficiency and customer-focused user attributes,” says Mark Camack, Market Strategies’ Vice President and IVR-ASR Practice Lead. “The large majority of individual attributes rated in this study are based upon objective criteria established by MSI’s system evaluators, who are veterans of call centers and utilities, and as market researchers who have interacted with thousands of callers to multiple industries on this topic.”  He added, “A continued area of focus is speech recognition, which is a topic of great interest to energy utilities, and one fraught with implementation and usability design flaws. An energy company is not a bank when it comes to the need to serve…public safety is paramount, and speech recognition systems must always work.”

The study includes “best-in-class” system attributes and recommendations for system enhancements in areas such as Welcome Greetings, Language and Business/Residential Splits, Account Identification, Menu Structure and System Navigation, as well as solutions for reducing average call time and system bypass. The 2007 study will also discuss “call shedding” to the Internet – that is, prompting callers to self-service options on the Web – and first call resolution or “call containment” best practices, along with privacy trends. Companies not included in the original 56 benchmarked companies can be added by simply buying the report, as the evaluation process can be replicated.

The report is offered for $1,995. Subscription of the study will include several additional features. Purchasing companies will receive a free, proprietary teleconference and analysis tailored to that company’s IVR/ASR menu structure with MSI’s expert system evaluators. 

For more information, including a list of included companies in the benchmarking study, please visit the Recent Studies page or contact Mark Camack at mark_camack@marketstrategies.com or call 503.416.8507.

This expert study was conducted and written by MSI’s four senior IVR-ASR system evaluators and usability specialists. Evaluations were conducted on 56 energy utility phone systems from January through March, 2007. All systems were called and transcribed. MSI uses a proprietary rating system with equivalent maximum scores for functionality, usability and aesthetics for all companies, regardless of utility type, which makes all ratings directly comparative. Results are qualitative, as they represent the expert opinions of MSI’s trained IVR-ASR evaluation specialists. Objective evaluation criteria were used with the exception of aesthetics, which contributed a maximum of 50 points to a total maximum of 250 points (100 points maximum each for functionality and usability).