Analysts estimate that the voice biometrics market will grow from 1.1 billion in 2020 to USD 3.9 billion by 2026. Such a surge underlines the rising perceptions of the technology, which helps to strengthen customer authentication across the inbound voice channel. Read on to discover how.
What Is Voice Biometrics, and How Does it Work?
Voice biometrics is a technology that uses unique characteristics of someone's voice to identify them by matching real-time audio with their unique voice profile.
By digitizing a person's speech profile, this technique develops a stored model voiceprint or template. Each spoken word is deconstructed into hundreds of base characteristics to detect the speaker's particular voice pattern. Companies store this voiceprint within a database like fingerprints and other biometric data.
Customers usually recite a text, spoken phrase, or series of numbers to ensure a high-quality voice sample. They repeat this several times before the sample is complete as a database template.
When the same user attempts to access the system, their passphrase is compared to the saved voice model.
Thanks to this process, voice biometrics can prevent fraud and protect sensitive information when utilized for security and authentication purposes.
For example, suppose a fraudster pretended to be a customer to obtain access to their account by calling a contact center. In that case, voice biometrics can confirm their identity and prevent them from gaining access to the data.
Like other biometric modalities, voice biometrics offers significant security advantages over authentication methods that rely on something the user knows, such as passwords or security questions.
Voice biometrics also improves the user experience by eliminating the annoyance of time-consuming login processes and password resets.
How Can It Improve CX?
There are many ways that voice biometrics can safeguard the contact center. Here are three excellent examples.
1. Preventing Contact Center Fraud
Preventing unauthorized access to systems or data allows voice biometrics to safeguard the contact center and combat fraud.
By requiring all callers to verify their identity using their voice, organizations can ensure that only authorized individuals access their systems.
If an unauthorized person were to call and request sensitive information (such as a credit card number), the voice biometrics system would check their identity and prevent them from obtaining the requested information.
2. Removing Lengthy Authentication Processes
Voice biometrics helps improve the overall customer experience by eliminating the need for lengthy login processes or remembering passwords. The result is a much more seamless customer experience.