Scottish City Cabs talks technology to beat telephone queue blues


Edinburgh Taxi firm City Cabs (Edinburgh) has found a high-tech way to ensure that customers can book taxis quickly however busy the phone lines. City Cabs managers had noticed that it was next to impossible to predict when the phone lines were going to be at their busiest and arrange extra staff cover for those peaks, resulting in frustration for callers eager to book a taxi but unable to get through and loss of business for the company.

They called in voice solutions experts Gold Europe, who set up an automated system to handle overflow calls at busy periods using technology from VoiceGenie and Edinburgh Text-to-Speech specialists Rhetorical. At times where all agents are busy answering calls, incoming calls are diverted into the overflow system and greeted by an automated message.

The system identifies the number and address from which the caller is dialling, and offers the caller the opportunity to book a cab to that address. If they accept this option, the booking is taken and the cab dispatched immediately. If they require another service, they are returned to the telephone queue.

Two Scottish voices were selected from Rhetorical's range, and the male and female voices answer alternate calls. Callers are welcomed by a simple 'good morning/afternoon/evening . . .welcome to City Cabs fully automated booking service, please wait while I check your address records' The voices sound local, clear and natural, and lead the caller through the few simple steps to book a cab or wait for help from a human agent.

2004-04-08

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