‘Talking’ to a Computerised Help Desk: Technology Looking for a Purpose

I was on the phone this morning to my ISP trying to find out why the cable modem wasn’t responding (turned out there was a major outage).

I was able to reflect, once again, how much I hate speech recognition Interactive Voice Response compared to button pushing.

Comparison

Standard ‘button pushing’ IVR	Voice recognition IVR
Welcome to…	Welcome to… I can help you… It’s a computer. It’s not that smart. Let’s not try to pretend it is.
Press 1 for technical assistance, … A quick button press. Can already be pressing the button while further options are being read out.	Would you like ‘technical assistance’, … Forced to parrot back the required phrase. Have to wait until all options have been read out.
n/a — a button press can’t be mistaken	I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that. Please state if you would like ‘technical assistance’, … Again, wait until all the options have been read out. Took three goes for the system to recognise this simple phrase.

Disadvantages

• Slower having to wait for all the options to be announced, slower to speak than hit a button, slower for the computer to inteprept speech than a button press.
• Significantly more prone to input being un-interpretable
• I don’t like having to parrot back phrases
• It feels like an unnatural interaction. You push buttons on machines and talk to humans.
• Can’t use automatic dialling to go through options
• Can’t use while SO is still asleep!

Advantages? None!