Nuance Guides Contact Centers to Improve the Customer Experience

BURLINGTON, Mass., October 16, 2007 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that it will present a new standard for reviewing the quality of automated corporate answering systems at Conversations 2007, the company’s annual customer and partner conference. The new standard is centered around five guiding Customer Service principles that callers most often believe to be absent in automated systems. The Conversations 2007 event, focused on helping organizations support, communicate with and understand their customers, will take place October 21-24, 2007 at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton, Fla.

Consumers frequently say that they are dissatisfied with telephone-based customer service. In fact, 60 percent of respondents to a 2007 Harris Interactive survey said they were only “somewhat” or “not at all” satisfied with their interactions with customer service. These consumers are likely to report long hold times, the inability to speak with a live person while trapped in a frustrating, inefficient maze of menu options, and repeating an account number multiple times.

Since 80 percent of consumers find quality of service to be “extremely” or “very” influential,” and more than 90 percent of all customer interactions take place over the phone, a company’s brand – and therefore its bottom line – can be damaged by substandard phone service. Superior customer care is now considered the most effective way to stand out from the competition and win customer loyalty.

Incorporating years of experience gained through the delivery of more than 3,000 self-service solutions around the world, Nuance has developed a set of guiding principles that represent what callers so often feel is missing in their self-service experience. While corporations most often intend to follow these principles, Nuance is calling for a more in-depth review of how callers’ opinions can be factored into the design of customer service systems.

The Five Guiding Principles for Delivering Exceptional Phone Service are:

1. “Tell Me The Truth” – While messages such as “Our options have recently changed” are usually well-intentioned, callers frequently interpret them as euphemistic, intended to keep them at arm’s length.
2. “Speak My Language” – Callers often speak of a maze of options presented to them on the phone, in a way that seldom causes problems in visual media such as Web sites. This principle focuses on the unique challenge of clearly offering choices in just a few memorable words that callers can easily interpret.
3. “Don’t Box Me In” – Callers’ most frequent complaint is that self-service systems seem designed to keep them away from agents, a perhaps unsurprising result of a company’s need to stay competitive by providing a mix of self-service and live support. This principle emphasizes that while it’s fine to promote self-service, companies need to address requests to connect with a human being.



4. “Respect My Time” – Customers call customer service with the goal of resolving a problem or completing a transaction as quickly and efficiently as possible. In visual media, caveats such as “caution, this beverage is hot” and “monthly lease does not include taxes and fees” can be added as fine print that the consumer can gloss over or ignore if they choose. Today’s corporations have not yet evolved efficient ways to provide such information on the phone (e.g., “Lower prices may be available on our Web site”) without the caller feeling as if they’re being lectured or having their time wasted.



5. “Check Your Suggestion Box” – The rise of blogs, YouTube, and other social media have made it easier than ever before for disgruntled customers to share their experiences with an interested public. This has, in several instances, proven disastrous for a company’s image. This principle urges companies to substantially promote the role of consumer feedback into the design of phone systems.

Nuance points out that modern customer interaction technology – most especially, speech recognition that allows for shorter, more natural prompts and a more intuitive way for callers to respond -- makes creating a positive customer experience more attainable than ever. But technology alone is not a guarantee. The design of these services must be based on an understanding of what customers need and want.

“If organizations design their systems from the caller’s perspective, as reflected by these simple principles, we’re confident that the self-service system will enjoy increased automation rates, will elevate the perception of the company’s brand, and most importantly, will satisfy the customer,” said Steve Springer, senior director of User Interface Design, Nuance. “Every business is unique, so there is no exact prescription for how to design a self-service application. But these general guidelines address the most common frustrations customers encounter with automated phone calls.”

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for business and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications, and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share, and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visitwww.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.