LVRTC and Tilde have created the world’s first telephony bot that communicates in Latvian

To provide efficient customer support that corresponds to demand, in the spring of 2020 VAS Latvijas Valsts radio un televīzijas centrs (hereinafter – LVRTC) introduced the conversation bot Signe in the portal eParaksts.lv. During the past three years, Signe has become an invaluable member of the customer service team, and during the past year, has provided support in 26% of cases in which a customer has sought assistance. This month the conversation bot has obtained a voice, becoming the world’s telephony bot to communicate in Latvian.

“A conversation bot is no fashion item, but rather an objective and invaluable aide, which can provide a business with vital assistance in improving the efficiency, speed and amount of customer service. Businesses in Latvia, the Baltics and globally are encountering a personnel resource problem. However, a human being is not always required in client service. The eSignature team has observed that most people have simple questions of the same nature such as: – “What should I do if I have changed my smart device?”, “What should I do if I can’t remember my PIN information?”, and “How can I obtain an eSignature?” Our Signe can answer these and another 7,740 questions, allowing the rest of her colleagues to spend time providing support in more challenging situations. Signe continues to improve and learn, therefore we are delighted to announce that, in collaboration with Tilde, we have created the first telephony bot that communicates in Latvian, and what’s more, she will talk in the voice to the well-known radio broadcaster Sandra Glāzupa.”

Agnese Brūvere
Head of the eService Department

The telephony bot is an artificial intelligence solutions that facilitates a dialogue between a human being and a virtual assistant via phone call. Compared to a chatbot, which is now familiar within the public and private sector – the telephony bot is a much more complication solution that listens, understands speech and answers vocally. To develop it, the Tilde team has integrated several technologies – speech recognition, comprehension of natural language, voice synthesis and a dialogue management solution.

The phone bot is a pilot project. Development and upgrading of the solution is ongoing, in order to ensure automated communication during a conversation. Although Signe is well-trained, during the pilot stage, there may be situations in which users’ expectations are not satisfied. Since this is the first telephony bot in Latvian, the LVRTC kindly asks Signe’s conversation partners to be respectful, because each conversation facilitates the development of the technology and its improvement in the near future. 

We encourage eSignature clients to try out a conversation with Signe. When choosing a conversation with Signe, eSignature users will not have to spend time waiting for a connection to an operator. Traditionally, the start of the year, as well as June and July are periods when call waiting times can be unacceptably long for customers, as a result of which demand for consultations and the app eSignature mobile is greater during these months. Signe will be able to help customers at any time of the day or night, with no need to wait in a call queue to talk to a customer service operator. 

“The courage of LVRTC in being the first to introduce a telephony bot is more than commendable. From the customer’s perspective, a phone call is still the most popular way to contact traders and service providers. Therefore, it is vital to provide this communication channel, while at the same time introducing automation and increasing organisational efficiency. Naturally, it is only to be expected that this unique technology will entail challenges, e.g., in the bot’s ability to recognise questions, conduct a conversation and keep it as natural as possible. However, in its own way technology is a living organism, which we will develop and upgrade. Therefore, regular training and customer consultations with Signe are vital to ongoing improvements”

Kaspars Kauliņš
Tildes business development manager

Currently, the telephony bot Signe’s knowledge base is comprised of frequently asked questions that concern the installation and use of eSignature mobile. 
At present, the telephony bot Signe provides answers to eight questions. Parallel to this, Signe’s training is ongoing. If Signe is not yet able to answer a question she is asked, the customer will be connected to a person – consultant. The next step is to teach the telephony bot to provide combined answers that will help to solve more complicated customer problems.