Electronic engineering solutions company “Fima” started adapting self-service programs made by American company “Avaya” for the Lithuanian market. They will be used for interactive communication. First automatic systems that will be able to understand and speak Lithuanian are expected to be introduced for customer service in 2-3 years.

“At present our company can offer the clients telephone service solutions that enable the customers to choose a particular alternative by responding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the suggested commands instead of pressing the telephone button. The expansion of interactive voice communication programs may bring about a new client service revolution,” says Eugenijus Kurtinaitis, Head of “Fima” Department of Telecommunication Solutions.

The first program for communication in English was created by “Avaya” and introduced in the American market 5 years ago. The technology is based on speech-text-speech editors. They are able to write down the uttered words and vice versa – to read the written text aloud. The program understands what the person wants from separate words.

Different tests have shown that voice management programs that are able to recognize the English language operate with 95-98 percent accuracy. With such reliability they can be widely applied in situations where people use machines controlled by various input devices (e.g. computer, information terminal etc) or substitute for a part of client service staff.

“Such technologies are just starting to become marketable in Lithuania, as workforce is getting more expensive and there is lack of it in the field of client service. Previously, there was no demand in the market for programs able to recognize Lithuanian, as the Lithuanian language is not common abroad, thus the investments would not pay off,” claims Kurtinaitis.

He also says that emigration of workforce and increase in salaries caused a significant rise in service costs, which motivates the Lithuanian enterprises to invest in technologies. It was estimated that with the introduction of self-service solution the number of agents in servicing the same flow of clients by telephone would be decreased by 10 percent.

“Fima” expert assumes that automatic systems could replace people in many client service fields in Lithuania. We would communicate with talking machines to order a pizza or hamburgers at “McDrive”, register with car service, buy goods by phone or ask the GPS device in your car where the nearest gas station is. “The application scope in client service is almost unlimited,” says Kurtinaitis.