Ticketmaster Terminates Reps

Forget the fury of repeatedly hitting redial when those Stones tickets go on sale in your city. Ticketmaster is joining the growing number of companies that are replacing customer service agents with automated agents.

Voxify provides retailers with a voice-activated response system that can fill orders, take applications, and track orders at one-fifth of the cost of hiring real people. The company's software eliminates the need for hitting the phone's keypad and plays back recorded human voices, according to Voxify directory of marketing Hollis Chin.

Retailer Hammacher Schlemmer used Voxify's technology to help customers track their holiday orders, 40 percent of which were placed online, Chin says. This saves companies from hiring seasonal phone reps and provides better customer service, she says.

By the end of the year Voxify will take over for all of Ticketmaster's agents, enabling the ticket agency to respond to an almost unlimited number of simultaneous calls, according to Chin. So concerts will probably sell out even faster as customers won't have to deal with jammed phone lines.

Voxify's technology could also help small online retailers who don't want to setup ecommerce platforms while also addressing consumers who are hesitant to type in their credit card numbers.