This blog post was co-authored by Genesys technology partner, LumenVox.

Contact centre managers across all verticals are feeling the strain of handling increased call volumes with a remote workforce. According to the Contact Center Pipeline annual survey of agents, the top priority of 2020 is “implementing/improving self-service for web, mobile and IVR channels.” Other priorities include redesigning, automating processes and addressing security, fraud and regulatory requirements.

Implementing automation, self-service and robust security practices take a significant burden off remote agents — especially for routine inquiries, transactions and interactions. So, in 2020, it’s a question of how exactly to leverage technology to increase self-service, enhance security and improve agent productivity.

Simplify and secure authentication for callers before they get to agents

Agents don’t enjoy authenticating callers. The process is repetitive, yet stressful. Doing it wrong puts agents at risk of corrective action and the business at risk of fraudulent activity.

Active voice biometrics replaces that stress and redundancy with ease and peace of mind. Technology uses the unique physical and behavioural characteristics of a caller’s voice to validate their claimed identity. The best part for an agent is that active voice biometric authentication is completed in the IVR before the caller is transferred. This decreases an agent’s handle time and increases containment, making an agent’s life easier, job faster and their customers happier. The best part for a business is the dramatic savings in expensive call time through the automation and movement of this process to a self-service action early in the call workflow.

Authentication and active voice biometrics

Active voice biometrics is different from other biometrics modalities, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, because it doesn’t require special hardware—expensive tokens, software downloads—or complex interactions. Instead, the voice passphrase is validated in mere seconds at the beginning of a call. The caller is authenticated with a high degree of accuracy, meaning less risk to the business and less anxiety from agent and customer.

Instead of a complex password that’s impossible to remember, customers speak a simple passphrase, such as “My voice is my password.” When the spoken passphrase is analysed, compared with the voiceprint on file and successfully matched, the caller is authenticated. No interrogation is required.

This voiceprint is also a strong first factor in any risk-based multifactor authentication strategy. Because sensitive user information is decoupled from the biometric voiceprint, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is never an issue.

Beyond the agent

This process doesn’t end with agent empowerment; these methodologies enhance the customer experience. With active voice biometrics, the technology does the heavy lifting for everyone.

Agents don’t need to ask a long series of questions. Customers don’t have to answer them. Instead of dreading the first few minutes of every call, the customer can get the help or information they need right away. Instead of stress and anxiety over fraud and data breaches, the customer gains confidence in a frictionless and secure authentication experience.

LumenVox offers Active Voice Authentication on the Genesys CloudTM platform as an AppFoundry Premium Application. This app provides the management, hosting and authentication service you need for a single, pre-packaged price.

For more information, attend the LumenVox webinar “Overcoming remote agent challenges with active voice biometrics,” on 8 December at 8 am Pacific Time. And visit the Genesys Cloud and Genesys Multicloud CXTM listings in the AppFoundry Marketplace.