Author:  Roger Sumner

The other day, a friend of mine commented on how frustrating security has become. He maintains a folder containing all of his passwords and PIN numbers so that he can conduct financial transactions, retail transactions, healthcare transactions – you name it – obviously this is a security risk in and of itself to have all of the PINs located in one spot.

Some of our customers are now using speaker verification technology to simplify the verification process for their customers and to beef up their security efforts.  There are no passwords or PINs to remember, and no one but the authorized user can gain access. 

Does this sound too good to be true?  It’s not.  Here’s how it works.  Speaker verification uses a digitized voiceprint to accept or reject the identity claim of a speaker.  A customer must simply provide a good quality voice sample in an initial call by engaging in normal conversation with an agent, or repeating some sort of text or pass phrase.  The system then stores the sample in its database and automatically compares it to the customer’s voice during subsequent interactions.

Speaker verification is inexpensive to deploy and, after your customers set up their initial voiceprint, it requires little to no effort on their part.  In fact, Health Net, one of our health care customers, is using speaker verification to automate access to claims status and other information for its members, and to provide a level of privacy that complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  When members call the contact center for the first time, they’re asked to record a voiceprint, usually their first and last name.  After that, anytime they call, they can identify themselves positively simply by speaking their names.  Health Net’s customers have indicated that they are extremely satisfied.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 8:07 am and is filed under Contact Center Technology, Customer Service/Consumer Demands, Performance Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.