82% of consumers abandon a brand because of poor customer service, according to a study by Accom. And surely, at some time you too have despaired or lost your temper when calling a call center because of the eternal waiting times.
In line with the general demand of users, last June, the Council of Ministers of the Spanish Government approved the draft bill of the new law that will regulate customer services.
What does the new customer service law consist of?
The text, which is currently in parliamentary procedure, aims to establish the right of consumers to obtain efficient, personalized, and improved attention from telephone service companies.
The proposal presented by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, with Alberto Garzón at the helm, aims to improve communications and relations between companies and users, considering it necessary to adopt urgent measures, regulations, and even sanctions, in order to deal with the high number of complaints and claims filed in relation to this matter.
Who is going to be affected by the new law?
This customer service law will be applied to all public and private companies, with headquarters in Spain or in any other state, that carry out the effective execution of basic services of general interest, offered or rendered in Spanish territory.
This group of organizations includes mainly contact center companies, as well as financial services companies, postal services, passenger transport, telephone communications or water and energy supply companies.
How does customer service need to improve?
This draft bill focuses on different aspects related to the improvement of customer service. However, one of the most outstanding measures, and the one that has caused the most commotion, is the establishment and restriction to a maximum of 3 minutes, the maximum waiting time for telephone service.
In addition, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs warns that in the event of non-compliance with the provisions, penalties of up to 100,000 euros may be imposed.
How to comply with this new law?
The high demand for reduced waiting times on every call means that every second counts. One of the biggest delays in calls is due to the time it takes agents to identify customers. Methods based on questions or passwords are time-consuming and do not provide a real barrier to fraud, as they are easily circumvented by fraudsters.
Given these new regulations, reducing or even eliminating the time it takes to identify your customers is the first action you should take to ensure compliance with the new customer service law.
Improving customer service thanks to voice recognition
The identification of customers through voice biometrics can drastically reduce the Average Handling Time (AHT) of each call by an average of 30-45 seconds. The first step is to record the users’ voice, which simply involves recording their voice during a call for 5 seconds. Once the recording is complete, this audio is converted into a unique and irreversible biometric vector, which is associated with their customer information. From that moment on, every time that customer calls the company, he will be automatically recognized with only 3 seconds of voice to recognize a person, in any language and without the need to repeat any specific phrase.
In other words, voice biometrics makes it possible to identify a customer while he or she is speaking to the agent passively, without the need to dedicate time during the call exclusively to being identified.
Veridas speech recognition technology is evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is among the best in the world. It also has an anti-spoofing system that is capable of detecting prerecorded audio to prevent identity theft.
Voice authentication allows companies to serve a much larger number of users, optimizing average resolution times, increasing customer satisfaction levels and providing maximum value in the shortest possible time.
More than 100,000 Mexican pensioners already use it
This technology not only reduces costs for companies but also significantly improves people’s user experience. A great example is a joint project with BBVA Mexico that allows Mexican pensioners to give proof of life through a phone call where voice recognition technology verifies their identity in a matter of seconds.
This has enabled them to stop having to travel miles to a bank branch twice a year, which was a great effort and even a risk to their health on many occasions.
Veridas voice biometrics is also used by major companies in Spain and 25 other countries in the energy, insurance, and banking sectors.
A customer service law to improve user experience
Despite the difficulties that companies may encounter in complying with this new Customer Service Law, the primary objective of this regulation is to improve the service provided to users, which in the medium term will in turn have a positive impact on organizations that are able to adapt quickly.
Voice biometrics makes it possible to reduce call times and is the first step towards optimizing customer service processes.
A paradigm shift, supported by the best technology, that allows to improve the user experience, reduce costs and improve security: a magic triangle within reach of any company that wants to bet on the use of voice biometrics.
