The global Telecommunications sector is a particularly significant industry in relation to Lattice Voice applications, because not only is the system highly relevant to the companies themselves, but it also represents an opportunity for them to take an innovative product and service offering to their corporate and consumer customers. This is true of both fixed-line and mobile operators.

In relation to the companies’ own operations, like any national or global utility, telecoms companies face the challenge of engaging with local markets of increasingly diverse customers. The staff and engineers of these companies meet their customers in a wide variety of circumstances, including:

• On the telephone at their call centres,
• In their retail locations, and
• In the street - in relation to engineering works.

In all of these situations, Lattice Voice applications can assist staff to communicate with customers, each in their own language. For example, a customer calling the telecoms company’s call centre to report a fault, query or pay a bill or to discuss additional services, can be engaged in their own language, via Lattice “On the Phone”, through scripted dialogues which have been designed and agreed for the purpose with the company’s senior management. In addition to enabling a wide range of bilingual dialogues, pertaining to a large number of circumstances, these applications also enable the telecoms company to propagate best practice through these innovative initiatives. Similarly, with Lattice “In the Office”, using pairs of touch-screen monitors, customers and staff can engage in bilingual dialogues across the counter of a retail location or at a local administration office. Telecoms engineers can likewise communicate with customers in local ethnic communities on important issues, using Lattice “In the Street”, so that local residents can be kept fully informed about maintenance or emergency work that is being carried out in their neighbourhood. The scripted dialogues to address any of these situations can be used in any of hundreds of languages at the touch of a button.

In addition to deploying Lattice Voice applications to gain the benefits of increased revenues and improved customer satisfaction from their diverse customer base, telecoms companies can also use the applications to sell these same services to their corporate and consumer customers. For example, a fixed-line provider can offer these innovative multilingual services to its corporate clients in government and in financial services, bringing the benefits of increased revenues and improved customer satisfaction to those sectors too. Additionally, in relation to mobile providers, innovative data services can be offered to millions of consumers, such as bilingual facilities for international business travellers and for consumers on vacation in foreign countries. In all these contexts, Lattice Voice applications can be used by telecoms providers to create innovative business development programmes that will be a key part of any strategy for engaging with their increasingly diverse customers.