Kenwood adds speech recognition to customer service mix

Household appliance giant Kenwood/DeLonghi is using speech recognition technology in its call centre so that callers don't always have to wait in a queue to speak to a customer service agent.

The company is hoping that the self service solution, from Telephonetics VIP, will enhance customer service and enable staff to handle more in-depth or value added customer queries.

In addition, the automated system is expected to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

"We were well aware of the benefits speech self-service can offer but wanted to ensure that any implementation would not cause disruption to the level of service we provide to our customers," said Jeff Turner, a spokesman for Kenwood/DeLonghi.

The decision to implement Telephonetics VIP's Virtual Contact Centre Agent product was based on an existing relationship with the supplier that has already proved fruitful for Kenwood/DeLonghi, according to Turner.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.