The Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice

The "Race Condition"

One possible problem with the "large header, small body" technique I've just described deals with a potential lack of synchronicity between the system and the caller ”called a race condition. If a caller isn't quick to say "Describe it" before the system finishes saying an item, the system might incorrectly assume that the caller wants to hear more about the item that follows it. This can be avoided by programming the system to pause between each item or by writing the prompts so that they provide ample time for callers to barge in and hear more about an item. Here's an example of the latter approach.

By beginning each item with the phrase "The next transaction was," we give callers enough time to interrupt and say "Describe it" to get more information about the previous item ”in this case, the deposit on January 29th.