Press one for customer service "puh-leeze" - we prefer email

Numero is updating the lexicon within its software - SmartAgént, used in the contact centres of some of the UK's largest retailers when interpreting, understanding and responding to customers in response to demand created by language commonly used in customer emails.

"We see a lot of 'respelling' which people use in their email to give emphasis or accent to words - they're the kind of things that are easily distinguished in speech but difficult to express in written form, said Tim Easton, director, Numero.

"The respelling of 'please' to indicate emphatic or sarcastic pronunciation has become common place and well established enough to warrant inclusion in SmartAgent's lexicon as 'puh-leeze' - and other variations of that spelling.

"Consumers are also increasingly turning to email to communicate with customer services rather than picking up the phone, and in turn this has meant that their expectations on speed of response to emails has also increased - most wanting a same-day response. Getting the language correct helps speed things up."

Although decoding the emails can be done manually, the email management software increases efficiency, continuity and accuracy of customer contact and speeds up the process enormously. The SmartAgént software can be 'taught' via a lexicon to understand text language, pigeon English and regional dialects and phrases - but by far the most challenging of these is the new language of the 21st Century - 'text speak'.