Telecom company in Romania launches automatic speech recognition for customer service clients

Vodafone Romania recently launched the Automatic Speech Recognition service for subscribers calling Customer Service at 222, according to a statement of the company. “With this innovative technology, our users benefit from faster interactions and direct responses when using Customer Service, through voice, without the need to navigate between different options,” said Ana Alexe, manager customer operations Vodafone Romania. When using this service, clients can briefly express their request and the system will instantly recognize the user’s message, will analyze the request and will either provide an answer or direct the call to the right team for a solution. In the following period, Vodafone will work on improving the rate of recognition and thus increase the number of clients that can use this service. The Automatic Speech Recognition service will be expanded gradually, both in terms of functionality, and of accessibility, according to the company. Vodafone saw its revenues in Romania declining to GBP 129 million (some EUR 160 million) in the first quarter of the 2014-2015 fiscal year (April to June 2014), which is 14 percent lower, in nominal terms, than in the same period of the previous year, according to the group’s quarterly report. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com*