AAA of Minnesota/Iowa Transforms Contact Center Operations with Avaya Speech Self-Service

- Speech-enabled solution helps auto club speed access to key emergency roadside applications, improve customer satisfaction and save money

- Avaya and DeveloperConnection partners provide customized voice-recognition applications to serve company's unique needs

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. and MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 22 -- When AAA of Minnesota/Iowa sought to enhance customer service, it required a self-service solution that could support a range of customer needs -- including key roadside assistance requests and trip itinerary creation -- all while driving new cost-efficiencies throughout its business. To achieve this goal, the organization chose a speech self-service application from Avaya Inc. , a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services, which transformed AAA of Minnesota/Iowa's contact center operations through voice automation.

AAA of Minnesota/Iowa incorporated Avaya speech self-service applications to help traveling motorists in need, vacationers planning holiday trips and other callers requiring fast service and accurate information. Using natural, spoken commands, members are able to call AAA of Minnesota/Iowa and use their phone or cell phone to renew and upgrade memberships, request travel materials, get account balances or reach departments such as travel or insurance services. The company also counts on voice automation to let members calling roadside assistance update their status, find out estimated time for help to arrive or cancel calls.

Members can even use speech to order AAA's sophisticated TripTik(R) maps and travel guides for a cross-country drive by speaking a beginning and ending address, as well as the dates they are traveling. At the end of this automated process, AAA will prepare and mail the appropriate TripTik maps, tour books, a trip itinerary and directions, and other related travel material.

With more of the club's routine member services and transactions now automated using speech, AAA's top-tier agents are free to handle a greater number of more complex requests and critical calls, including those for travel planning services and roadside assistance. This speeds service to AAA members, while boosting employee satisfaction among agents who are trained to handle more detailed interactions and help members in need.

"After incorporating Avaya's speech self-service into our business, we are seeing more members using automated self-service -- and using it to completion," said Joe Alessi, vice president of marketing and information technology for AAA of Minnesota/Iowa. "We have seen a measurable improvement in customer satisfaction by using automated speech, compared to the previous touchtone system. Avaya's solution speeds service for our busy members and frees up our highly-skilled agents to handle more of the priority roadside assistance calls they are trained for."

According to Alessi, Avaya speech self-service solutions also enable AAA of Minnesota/Iowa to secure significant new cost-savings. Each call handled by Avaya speech self-service saves the organization approximately $2 compared to those fielded by a live agent.

"Avaya works with organizations like AAA of Minnesota/Iowa to integrate speech communications into the heart of their business," said Eileen Rudden, Avaya vice president, enterprise communications applications division. "This helps companies turn their communications into a competitive advantage, enhancing customer satisfaction and workplace mobility, while introducing new avenues to cost-savings. AAA of Minnesota/Iowa is a prime example of how today's companies are transforming through communications to make people more productive, processes more intelligent and customers more satisfied."

Details on the AAA of Minnesota/Iowa Implementation

The speech self-service solution Avaya delivered to AAA of Minnesota/Iowa is powered by Avaya Interactive Response, the company's award-winning software platform for voice and speech applications and a key component of Avaya's suite of MultiVantage(TM) Communications Applications. This implementation also features voice recognition applications custom-designed for the auto club by Nuance and Gold Systems, both members of the Avaya DeveloperConnection program which promotes the development, compliance testing and co-marketing of innovative third-party products compatible with standards-based Avaya technologies.

Consultants from Avaya Global Services helped AAA of Minnesota/Iowa integrate speech into its existing Avaya contact center operations, which includes an Internet protocol-enabled Avaya network linking agents at the organization's Twin Cities regional headquarters with branch offices in Des Moines and Battendorft, Iowa. This creates a single virtual contact center operation that is centrally managed to support Avaya MultiVantage applications, including the industry-leading Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony software.

For more information on Avaya's speech-enabled solutions, please visit: http://www.avaya.com/speech.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable IP telephony systems and communications software applications and services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com/.