You’re phone is ringing again…should you pick it up?
“I dunno…” you say to yourself, “could be telemarketers bugging me again.”
As the phone continues to ring, you decide to finally pick up the phone and answer it.
Sure enough, you’re worst fears come to fruition: it’s an automated voice message…but something about it catches your attention right away.
This isn’t like other AVM’s you’ve gotten in the past. Right off the bat you know that something is different.
The message specifically asked for you by name, and when you heard that the phone call was from Capital One about some potential suspicious activity on your card, your ears definitely perked up.
After a few seconds, the message asks you to verify your identity with a question only you would know the answer to before proceeding with the rest of the message.
After verifying who you were, details about the suspicious transaction are presented to you.
After thinking about it for a second, you don’t at first recognize the charge, and as an option, ask to speak to a customer service representative.
In less time than it takes you to say “customer service”, someone is on the line with your full details ready to explain more about the potential fraudulent activity on your account.
You are impressed by not only the speed of the transfer to an agent, but also with the depth and responsiveness of the entire call and how seamless it was.
This time at least, you are certainly glad you picked up the phone!
So who’s behind this nifty technology? How can we invest in the growing trend of automating customer contact, bill payment, debt collection and customer service?
I’ve discovered a small company that just came public operating in this niche with nice growth prospects in an emerging and expanding field: SoundBite Communications (Nasdaq: SDBT) Read the rest of this entry »