Almost everyone who's had to contact a customer service hotline knows the struggle of dealing with a robotic voice system. This system might offer menu options that are confusing, time consuming and insensitive in the face of a client's troubles. Recording these voice systems with actual hired voice actors can be a pricy, hard to scale and time-inefficient solution. Companies may face problems staying consistent in their vocal branding if voice actors are unavailable, fall ill, or decide to quit their jobs. This inconsistency can stand in the way of a company's desired brand image, slowing down efficient client communication. An exciting new solution to this problem has emerged in patent US11765269B2.
Genesys Cloud Services offers a very interesting solution to this problem through their newly granted patent titled 'Technologies for incorporating an augmented voice communication into a communication routing configuration.' This ingenious tool allows companies to create custom vocally-branded voices, referred to as 'vocal avatars,' to converse for them. With a few inputs and clicks, the tool can convert typed out messages into spoken words in the company's chosen avatar voice, saving significant resources.
Genesys Cloud's patent offer advantages such as the quick and efficient creation of these 'vocal avatars.' Companies are not just confined to preset avatar voices, a custom-made option is also available. This system has the capacity to create voices that resemble a certain human character or any fictional character, eliminating the need for hiring separate voice actors to record messages. Other than being time-efficient and cost-effective, the system can also produce these augmented voice communications in real time, adapting to pitch, tone, and conversational style inputs dynamically.
The application of this patent in real life would look like more efficient customer service hotlines. What used to be frustrating experiences wading through menu options might soon be an interactive conversation with a responsive automated service. The service can adapt to regional accents, respond with empathy, and provide simple solutions quickly, freeing up human customer service representatives to handle more complex cases.
These moves, once applied, are sure to bring about a significant change in how companies conduct their client interactions. However, it's important to note that while the patent has been granted, there’s no guarantee when or whether this technology will hit the market.
Important references to better understand how this invention works can be found in the Patent's figures provided, notably; FIG. 1 to provide an oversight on the technology, and FIGS. 9-17 to illustrate various states of the tool when being utilized.
So, in short, this seems like a promising step ahead towards a more streamlined contact center user experience. This vision of personalized automated customer service conversations might soon turn into a reality, thanks to the team at Genesys Cloud.
P.S. While the patent has been granted and the technology is indeed quite intriguing and groundbreaking in the field, remember that this is just a patent we are talking about. There is no surety that this tool will make its way to the market soon, or ever.