New Commercials Make Fun of IVRS: what do they mean for the future of speech technology?

So, post- Speech Tek 2010, I’m contemplating the future of speech. In particular, I’m mulling over the IVR, and I think I wouldn’t get an argument from anyone, speech-head or not, that the IVR suffers the worst reputation as far as speech technology goes. In her talk, “Your Call is (not that) important to us,” Emily Yellin called for more human-like IVRs. She also argues–and I agree–that companies should use language that is less technical and make them easier to use in a general sense. When I talked to designers and testers of IVRs for my upcoming feature, I found out that the reason so many of these systems are flawed (some more tragically than others) is because a lot of companies don’t do sufficient (or any) usability testing. The good news is that that this is apparently changing. More testing is being done, most likely because companies are seeing that when IVRs are bad, people just don’t use them.

But. I’m wondering about a new trend I’m seeing in some new commercials. First, there was the Chase Sapphire Commercial, called “the Bet.”In this particular commercial, we meet this couple, who are meant to embody luxury, style and attractiveness, as per usual since in credit card commercials the only people apparently who use credit cards are all rich and attractive, not former grad students trying to pay down credit card debt accrued while under-employed during a recession (EHEM). Oh, and full disclosure, I use Chase, but not sapphire, though I remain firmly ambivalent about which credit card might be better than another. They remain, at best, a necessary evil for me.

Anyhow, said couple, is on a ski lift, and the man is calling Chase to find out how many points they have. His wife (or partner or girlfriend or mistress) doesn’t believe that he’s going to get directly to a customer representative. He bets her a massage; she loses; silly puns ensue; blah, blah. Anyhow, what I’m getting at is the slogan: “You call. We answer. No waiting.” This commercial is clearly an IVR backlash. In a way, it’s interesting; the company seems to recognize that most customers want to talk to a person. In fact, as Emily Yellin mentioned in her talk this week, there are many websites that tell you how to opt out of an IVR. But Chase Sapphire is taking it to another level: it is saying, you won’t have to even worry about that.

What’s interesting to me especially, is that this is a luxury card. As Tara Siegel Bernard of the NY times points out in her review “Chase also promises cardholders direct access to real customer service representatives based in the United States, without getting lost in call center purgatory, which is truly a luxury nowadays.”

Now that is some bad news: if one company brands the lack of an IVR as a luxury, will other companies follow? Recently, esurance came out with a commercial introducing a slogan I haven’t heard from them yet: “People when you want them. Technology when you don’t.” Now that’s a hopeful, twist right? I’m not so sure. In the commercial one esurance worker (a youngish man) says he’s just made it easier for customers to access their accounts online. The older co-worker (“Babs”) an woman perhaps in her sixties, says that customers can also reach a representative 24/7. The response to Babs is that all the other workers in the office start imitating robots, and saying “does not compute.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5q0wqXMTJM

Despite making fun of robots in the commercial, and actually parodying an IVR, it’s what’s strange about this commercial is while it makes fun of technology, it identifies itself as being pro-technology. I’m guessing, however, that the technology cited in the slogan is referring to the internet which is a much more likable solution. The commercial itself seems to be appealing to younger users while also letting older people, who might not be as internet savvy (I’m looking at you, dad, even though you’ll never get online to read this) that they can use the phone if they want to. Taking this closer look then, it is still troubling for the speech world,  though I certainly wondered about esurance’s business model; I’m betting that it might be cheaper and easier for the company if more customers went online.

That being said, these commercials do seem to represent the growing ‘go human’ trend. This then is indeed a pivotal moment for speech technology. Considering all the talk at the conference about changing IVR for the better and how to fight for those changes if you’re a designer, I think the change is on the way. Here’s hoping.