Latest / The Tech Matchmaker / Voice AI That Translates, Clarifies & Connects | Robert Schoenfeld (Krisp) on The Tech Matchmaker
Transcript
- Gina Gibson: Welcome to the Tech Matchmaker, the show where contact center challenges meet their perfect tech match. I'm your host, Gina Gibson, and in just 15 minutes, we serve up the smartest, coolest innovation shaking up the contact center industry. Whether you're searching for your next solution or just love staying ahead of the curve, we've got the insights to keep you in the know. Let's dive in and discover what's next. I promise you it's going to be fun. Good morning, everyone. Today we are chatting with Robert Schoenfeld, EVP of Licensing and Partnerships from Crisp. Robert, welcome to the show. We're thrilled to have you here today. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Tech Matchmaker. I hope today's spotlight sparked some fresh ideas and real solutions for your contact center. Want to dive deeper into the tech we featured? Hit up the show notes for all the links and extras and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if there's a challenge you want us to tackle, don't be shy, reach out. I'll catch you soon with more innovation, more use cases and more ways to keep your business moving forward. Robert Schoenfield: Good morning, Gina, and it's a pleasure for me to be here and for me to be bringing our team to join us here today as well. Gina Gibson: I was just gonna say, I see you brought some great members of your team along. Would you like to kick things off by introducing them to our audience as well? Robert Schoenfield: Absolutely. So backing up a little bit at Crisp, you do three things really, really well. We do noise cancellation and background voice cancellation. ⁓ do accent conversion and we do voice translation, doing language And I brought three of our members of our team from different parts of the world to do live demonstrations of that. Ishika, originally from India, Hannah from the Philippines and Carlos from Cuba. Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next. Robert Schoenfield: And we have Agnes from our team heading up this demo Gina Gibson: Welcome everybody, thank you so much for joining us today. Robert, just a couple of quick questions to get out the way before we see your live kind of elevator pitch. Let's start with the basics. Tell me a little bit about yourself ⁓ ⁓ always like to ask something, what's on, one thing not on LinkedIn that maybe our viewers would like to know about you. Robert Schoenfield: Oh, that's an interesting one. There are a few that I can speak to and there are a few that I probably can't speak to, a brief background. I was our founding COO. The company started back in 2017 and has grown quite a bit. And I moved away from that role to focus on our licensing and partnerships. But the business is in very high growth mode, serving both enterprise customers directly for their in-house call operations. and then working very closely with their BPO partners to ensure that all of their agents have access to what Chris provides, which is voice clarity, accent conversion, and being able to support customers with multiple language requirements. In terms of something that's not on LinkedIn about me, I am what's called an amateur winemaker. I've been doing that for about 30 years. Today we make Pinot Noir out of Anderson Valley. not a lot, but we do about 1,500 bottles a year and we get access to very, very good grapes. So we make good wine. There's no reason to make a lot of bad wine because then you have a lot of bad wine. That's what Trader Joe. Gina Gibson: That's fantastic. What a great hobby. And as I said, at this point, I normally say, give me your elevator pitch, but we have something even better with a live demo today. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Agnes or to you, Robert, and show your toys. ⁓ Robert Schoenfield: Terrific. I'll hand it off to Agnes momentarily, but I mentioned on the front end, have a ⁓ application that is what's, it's a companion application. ⁓ sits on the agent's desktop. Out of the box, it works with every C-Cast, UCast calling platform and does three things really, really well. It provides voice clarity by removing background noise and competing voices from the agent, whether they're working at home ⁓ they're working in the center. And we also remove noise from the customer when they're calling into the agent. So that customers at the airport in their car and the agent doesn't hear anything. Just that translates to improved average handle time first call resolution. Our over the last few years have been asking us to do more. So in the last couple of years, we've added accent conversion where we remove the difficult parts of the accent when agents sitting in India, Philippines. Latin America serving North American customers today. expanding to Pakistan and South Africa ⁓ this year. So lot of interesting geographical expansions for us technically. And then ⁓ newest technology is adding voice translation where it allows our customers to multilingual without bringing in LSPs or language service providers. So with that, we're going to simulate some call center calls. Agnes and each of our agents going ⁓ all different technologies that I just shared with you. So with that, Agnes, I'll hand it off to you. Agnes: Thank you, Robert. Hello everyone. Excited to be here and to demo Crisp. We'll start off by the Indian accent conversion and the noise and background voice cancellation with Ishika. So Ishika, please unmute yourself, share your screen to show the app. once ready, start it. Ishika: Hello. Agnes: Your audio is ⁓ Ishika: Okay. Hello, this is Ishika from FiberLink customer support. How may I assist you today? Agnes: Hi Ishika, I'm having issues with my internet connection. It's been cutting down sporadically. Can you help me fix it? Ishika: I will walk you through the steps to reset your router which should help resolve the issue. Agnes: I'm sorry, could you please repeat that? I hear a lot of noise and someone else is talking right next to you. Ishika: Sorry about that. Thanks for your pleasure. I just turned on crisp noise cancellation to remove the distraction in the background. Is this better? Agnes: ⁓ yes, that's much better. I can hear you clearly now. But honestly, I'm still having a bit of trouble understanding you. Could you please speak a little more slowly or clearly? Ishika: Yeah, sure. Let me adjust my voice setting. I turned on crisp accent conversion. Let me know if you can understand me more clearly now. Agnes: Wow, yes, that's so much clearer. Thank you for that. Now, ⁓ what about my internet issue? Ishika: Great, for the internet rooping issue, let's go through some troubleshooting steps together. For the start, can you check the moral of your router for me? It should be written right under the device. Agnes: Great. Thank you, Ishikawa. So now I will ask you a question. ⁓ First, turn off accent conversion and answer the question for me without accent being gone. And then answer the same question with accent conversion being gone. So tell me, where are you from and what's something interesting about your hometown? Ishika: Okay. So I am from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. And the interesting fact about my city, it's one of the oldest city. And it is situated among the, ⁓ like, it is situated near Holy River Ganga. And it is famous for its vibrant culture, music, and different types of foods that make my city interesting as compared to other cities. I'm from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Edna. And Varanasi is the oldest cities among the world. It is situated on the bank of our holy river Ganga. And it is famous for its ancient temples, tradition, vibrant culture, and different type of music. And it is also famous for its silk clothes. That makes my city more interesting as compared to other cities. Agnes: Thank you so much, Ishika. Now, stop sharing your screen and let's go to the Filipino accent conversion with Hannah. Please, Hannah, share your screen, unmute yourself, let's start. Hannah: Hello, thanks for the G2Shop support. This is Hana. I see you're checking on an order. Can you give me the order number so I can pull up the details? Agnes: Hello? Yeah, sure, it's 7-8-9-0-4-5-6. ⁓ Robert Schoenfield: I'm Hannah: Let me take a look. It shows that your package was shipped 3 days ago with Fast Track Courier. Did you by any chance check the tracking on their website? Agnes: I'm having a bit of trouble understanding you. Could you please repeat that? Hannah: Please give me a moment. I just adjusted my voice settings. It should be clearer now. Your order was shipped three days ago with Fast Track Career. Agnes: ⁓ that's great. Do you have the tracking number? Hannah: Yes, your tracking number is FT9827. Have you tried entering it on FastTrack's website? Agnes: Not yet, I didn't know where to check. Hannah: No problem. I'll send you the link to the tracking page. If there are no updates within two days, just give us a call back and I'll contact the carrier for you. Agnes: That would be really, really helpful. Thank you so much. Hannah: You're most welcome. Agnes: Thank you, Hannah. So similar to what we did with Ishika, I'm going to ask you a question. First answer it with accent conversion off and then answer the same question with accent conversion being gone. So tell me what differences between Philippines and Armenia stand out the most to you. Hannah: As for me, there is no much big difference between Armenia and Philippines. The most difference or the difference that stand out to me the most is the weather itself. So in Philippines, I can experience only two seasons and that's the rainy and summer season. While in Armenia, I can experience four season and it's winter, spring, summer and fall. So as for me, there is no much difference between the two countries, Philippines and Armenia. The only difference that I can see or that stand out to me the most is the weather itself. So in Philippines, I can experience the rainy or summer season or what we call the wet and dry season. While in Armenia, I can experience the four beautiful seasons like the winter, spring, summer and fall. Agnes: Thank you so much, Anna. Now, ⁓ let's go to the Latin American accent conversion demo with Carlos. Please unmute yourself, share your screen, and let's do it. Carlos: Thanks for calling Quick Care. This is Carlos, how can I help you today? Agnes: Hi, I'm trying to schedule an appointment but I got stuck on your website it keeps giving me an error. Carlos: I see. I'm sorry you're facing that. Let me just check a few things. Agnes: ⁓ I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I'm having a little bit trouble understanding you. Carlos: Of course, just a moment. I haven't adjust as much by settings, it should sum clearly now. You mentioned the website shows on it real-world booking, Agnes: Yeah, that's right. After I choose the time, it just stops loading. Carlos: Got it. Thanks for explaining that. This sounds like an unknown issue that we have in some browsers. No worries. I help you to schedule the appointment on my end instead. Agnes: That would be awesome. Thank you. Carlos: So I see you were trying to book for Wednesday, 3 p.m. Is that right? Agnes: That's correct. Carlos: Great. So I scheduled the form and for you. So now once it's confirmed, I would send you the email with the details and it's anything changes and you just please say, let me know. I will help you and anything you need. Agnes: Thank you so much, Carlos. Okay, I have a question for you. So I know there are calls where the customer doesn't speak the same language as you do. How do you handle those calls? Carlos: That's a very great question. For this cases, I use Chris voice translation. It intensely support customers around the world in more than 80 languages. So it joins call right away with zero time connection and or the delay. So it's super easy to use and it empowers me to have multilingual conversation. Otherwise I'd need a human interpreter. So let me show you how it works. So here I can select the customer language. And here I can select my own language. So in this case, I can select Spanish. I can also select the interpreter voice, female or male. Agnes: Mm-hmm. Carlos: So once I turn it on, ⁓ Chris West translation will interpret the conversation synchronously and in real time. So let's give it a try. Agnes: Okay. Carlos: AI interpreter will assist with translating conversation between us. Please speak clearly and wait a moment between sentences until you hear the translation. Thank you. Hello, good afternoon. My name is Carlos. Agnes: Carlos, tell me where you are from and tell me a bit about your hometown. Carlos: Carlos, tell me where you're And tell me a little bit about your hometown. Of course. Of course, with great pleasure. I am from Cuba, from Havana. Well, actually, I grew up on the outskirts of the city, in a natural environment. And then I moved to the city, in Havana, where there is a lot of activity. And always a lot of activity, parties, beaches. And a lot of interesting things to do. Agnes: That's cool, Cardas. ⁓ Can you share a favorite childhood memory with us? Carlos: Of course. For example, something I always remember was the first time I tried to learn how to ride a bicycle. was something. That took a lot of time because it was a big bicycle and I fell several times until I learned. Agnes: ⁓ That's cool, Carlos. So tell me about your culture a little bit and what you love sharing ⁓ with others about your culture. Carlos: That's fine, Carlos. So tell me about your little contribution and cultural, what you like to share with others, about your culture. ⁓ Well, something that many people know is that Cubans, we like to always be cheerful. At parties, to share our, our culture with others. And preferably if you are in the country, if you are in Cuba, to show you the whole country. We have nature, beach, stories, a bit of everything. to show. Agnes: And ⁓ the last question for you, can you tell us about your hobbies? What do you like to do during your free time? Carlos: Of course. I like to dance. Also, go on trips. Leave the city. I also like to fish. I have given up a bit. and leaving the city, something very important. Agnes: Thank you, Carlos. ⁓ Turn off the voice translation and let's pass it back to Robert. Gina Gibson: Perfect. Thank you guys so much. That was a super impressive walkthrough. Thank you for showing us how Crisp works. Really, really impressive tech. We'll take a pause here and let you guys drop from the call. Thank you so much for joining us today. Bye-bye. Agnes: Thank you, Gina. Bye. Carlos: Bye bye. Gina Gibson: so Robert, what would you say sets your product apart from your competitors in the market? Robert Schoenfield: Couple things, and it's really ⁓ by what our customers are demanding of us. One is they expect very high quality voice quality. So they expect voices to be clear. They expect when they apply accents that it sound natural. I think that's what you just heard. And what sets us apart, there are two things. One is the quality of our technology and how we integrate it into our application. And then the fact that a single application can do all these things that you just saw on the agent's desktop, independent of which calling platform they're using. So the agent will have voice clarity, accent conversion, voice translation all available in a single application controlled by their administrator. So not every seed or every agent needs to have voice translation. So that'll be turned off. And then based on the accent, we're able to assign the right for ⁓ location of that agent. But that's a big differentiator that it's in essence an all-in-one plug and play application. Gina Gibson: Excellent. Thanks for clarifying that. you share with us, a study of a time and you don't to give names, of course, but how one of your clients benefited from implementing CRISP and kind of what the problem was and how you solved it for them and what the change in the metrics or change in their outcomes was? ⁓ Robert Schoenfield: Sure, sure. And what's really fun about technology like CRISP is it's experiential. We can hear it, we can see it, we can feel it. Okay, and that gets translated to KPIs. So the hearing, feeling, the CSAT, the customer satisfaction and ESAT, the employee satisfaction goes way up. Both of them get more comfortable on the call, the call becomes more efficient. That's great. And where it translates to real KPIs and real ROI is either a reduction in average handle time, so the calls are shorter, more efficient, their first call resolution improves, or if it's an outbound sales opportunity, their conversions increase. So I'll give you a case study of a customer of ours. We actually, it's public, Areva. They do outbound for travel, for the travel industry. They applied our accent conversion technology. Their conversion rates improved 26 % from one week to the next. So applying voice AI to human agents who are doing the work today in the industry from one week to the next improves their KPIs by double digits across all those KPIs. average handle time, conversion rates, first call resolution, CSAT, ESAT. the of the technology is at a place now where it's getting deployed broadly by tier one enterprise today. It's fascinating how it's changed just in the last couple of quarters. Gina Gibson: me what with the changes and as you said you've been modifying your product based on your customer feedback what's next for your product with Robert Schoenfield: So on the accent side, have a lot of demand from our friends in South Africa. So we have an early version of our model that's rolling out this year. We see an extension ⁓ of markets that we serve in Latin America. So one thing that makes us a little bit unique is ⁓ we a general model for Latin America. So we are able to incorporate Mexico, Panama, Colombia. Dominican Republic, which is different. And you just heard from who's from Cuba. So the ability to extend the geographic reach within a single model. And then, you know, I don't want to get too far out in front of us, but one of the things we're working on, you if you think about our noise cancellation, it's bidirectional. If you think about our voice translation, it's bidirectional. Right now, our accent is on the outbound from the agent out only. Gina Gibson: Yeah. Robert Schoenfield: we will have this available so that folks can it on the inbound side so that they can hear better. So it's not up to the speaker to say, ⁓ I need to change how I'm speaking, but us as a listener or a consumer of that voice to be able to click, say, I want to hear it this way. It will help me comprehend better. And that's good for both consumers and the agents. So we're pretty excited about where this technology is going. It's moving. very, very fast. The accent technology is moving very fast in that naturalness, the to speak and acronyms come through clearly. And then the same thing for voice translation with language translation. Six months ago, latency between speakers may have been two to three seconds. And now you see it's gotten down where it's a much more natural conversation. So we're about all. language support and all the accent support that we're able to provide. Gina Gibson: 100 % and it's really like it's it's changing the world, right? Like it's changing how the world does business this type of technology really. Robert Schoenfield: It really does. it allows folks to be their authentic self, but apply voice AI technology to help them to better communicate, either be heard better or to understand better, ⁓ to be able to speak to people in professional settings and who don't speak the same language. We've seen we've seen both take off both again enterprise. ⁓ The BPO's, it's clear for BPO's in India and Philippines and Latam why this is important for them. But what's really ⁓ the needle right now are the enterprises demanding So enterprise customers are doing their own evaluations and then back to the BPO's and saying, this is what I want and this is how I want it. again probably six months ago it was the classic early adopters who had such a big problem it was good enough fast forward today it's really good and now it's becoming adopted pretty broadly in the market. Gina Gibson: And a differentiator too, right, between the different companies the ease of working with the company if you can get your issue right away and your first call resolution and all that kind of thing. Are there any other emerging trends in the industry, Robert, that you're particularly excited about or preparing for? Robert Schoenfield: Well, here at Chris broadly, mean, you we're really focused on our CX applications. We also ⁓ have that's right in the middle of voice AI agents. So our technology is supporting the humans doing the work. And it's also supporting a voice AI agents by providing voice isolation when customers call into a voice AI agent. removing the television, the music, all those things that are getting the voice AI agent to be confused, it's called turn-taking, we fix that. So we have a that goes into the voice AI audio path, removes all background noise and voices, so provides voice isolation. And then we have what's called a turn-taking model that improves the performance to know when the customer is done speaking so that the voice AI agent knows when to speak. So. ⁓ What's really great and fascinating for us as a business is we've got all this technology in an application sitting on the agent's desktop. And when our customer also wants to use voice AI, we have technology that's playing there as well. You know, our voice business for human is doing about 80 billion minutes a month today. The voice AI, ⁓ surpassed a billion minutes a month recently after just launching it in February. So. We're seeing both sides of this, humans and voice AI agents, and it's a fascinating time to be in the space. You know, it wasn't that long ago that the contact center space was kind of, where are they from a technology standpoint? And now it's moving, and I'm seeing the industry adopt technology faster than they have in the past. Gina Gibson: Yeah, absolutely. To wrap things up, Robert, I've always been a fan of James Lipton. And so to end the podcast, we do a little bit of rapid fire. So what is your favorite word? Robert Schoenfield: My favorite word right now, so my favorite words change over time, but right now it is speed. Be careful. Gina Gibson: What is your least favorite word? Robert Schoenfield: My least favorite word is stagnation. Gina Gibson: and what excites you. Robert Schoenfield: Growth. Business growth drives ⁓ everybody to have personal growth. Our company a couple hundred with diverse backgrounds, diverse age groups, and every single one of them in a high growth business is learning more about themselves they ever would have. For me, that is a really exciting thing to see. Gina Gibson: Absolutely. If somebody wants more information on crisp and in using crisp, Robert, who should they reach out to? Robert Schoenfield: I think a couple of folks, mean, first and foremost, they can come directly to you. And we welcome that as a partner. They can come reach out to me and certainly ⁓ to our websites. There's lots of availability to not only see live demos, but schedule demos and interact with customer engagement team. Gina Gibson: thank you so much for your time today and for organizing the team and getting everybody here and for that great demonstration of the capabilities of CRISP. I really appreciate your time. Robert Schoenfield: Thanks, Gina. Thanks for all that you do in the industry. It's really appreciated.