14th November 2005

EDF Energy, incorporating London Energy, Seeboard Energy and SWEB Energy, which supplies energy services to over 5 million customer accounts in the UK has launched a speech recognition service for customers wanting to provide meter readings and pay their energy bills.

Developed by Fluency Voice Technology, the leading provider of speech recognition applications for use in call centres, the service has proven a success with gas and water companies and has handled over 9 million calls in the UK to date.

Mike Belton of EDF Energy, says: “As a major energy supplier we have the ongoing challenge of continually improving our levels of customer service and satisfaction, whilst improving operational efficiency. We wanted to offer our customers additional choice and convenience when dealing with us and were looking for an automated self-service system that was user-friendly, highly proficient and that gave a personalised service to our customers.”

“Our chosen speech recognition system, developed by Fluency, went live in July and provides an excellent service for people wanting to provide a meter reading, pay their bills or find out their account balance. Our customers have been very welcoming of the virtual agents and we are seeing an increase in the number of people completing transactions compared to the old touch-tone system”.

Paul Barnes, Sales & Marketing Director at Fluency, says: “Each day, collections are lost or delayed because customers cannot find a convenient way to make a payment. ‘Live’ agent-based collection services are typically only available during working hours, while touch-tone applications are perceived as difficult to navigate, unpopular and cause caller frustration. As a result, utilities organisations are suffering the cost of extra administration for bill collection or bad debts. We are delighted that we have been able to offer EDF Energy a speech recognition system that offers a cost effective user friendly alternative.”

The speech recognition system is powered by two of Fluency’s most popular speech recognition applications: PaymentCapture; and IDVS (Identification and Verification with status); both of which form part of the Virtual Speech Agent (VSA) Suite™.

The applications within the VSA Suite have been designed to be ‘off-the-shelf’ so utility companies can realise the benefits of reduced time to deploy, cost of ownership and of low risk immediately. PaymentCapture enables fast payment for straightforward transactions, such as paying a balance. IDVS allows accurate validation of customers before providing access to personal account information such outstanding bill payment. 

Mike Belton, added: “The Fluency speech system was the obvious choice for EDF Energy due to their experience in the utilities sector. The ‘off-the-shelf- nature of the application meant that we didn’t have the cost and risk of a bespoke development.”

Virtual agent software is revolutionising bill payment processes, making it more cost effective by allowing huge numbers of customer calls to be taken with no queuing or engaged tones.  According to a recent survey by Fluency the main advantage of speech recognition technology is that it saves time (64%), it is easy to use (57%) and means that there is no waiting time (50%) and as a consequence callers can talk with a virtual agent immediately.  

Speech recognition is becoming mainstream as organisations throughout the UK increasingly introduce speech recognition technologies to deal with incoming customer call enquiries.

Try PaymentCapture for yourself by calling:

+44 (0) 870 190 8030

You will need to use the sample account details below:

Reference number:          29330-2

Name:                                Richmond

Postcode:                          TD1 9JW

Credit Card No:                 5301 2552 2880 6753 (or use your own)

Expiry Date:                      02/06

About Fluency

Fluency Voice Technology is a leading provider of packaged speech recognition applications for use in call centers. Solutions enable enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service by automating much of the high volume call center activities. Key sectors which Fluency has developed applications are Financial Services, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Telecoms and Retail. http://www.fluencyvoice.com

About EDF Energy

EDF Energy is one of the largest energy companies in the UK generating around 7% of the UK’s electricity and employing 11,300 people across the country. Over a quarter of the UK population depend on EDF Energy for their electricity supplies. EDF Energy supplies energy services to over 5 million customer accounts in the UK through its brands; London Energy, Seeboard Energy, SWEB Energy and EDF Energy. http://www.edfenergy.com