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Interactive Voice Response & You

Guest post by: John Campbell

Article Overview: “IVR has become so authentic people don’t even realize they are talking to a computer.”

Interactive Voice Response & You

When I need to order a prescription refill I call the pharmacy and give my order. They tell me when it will be ready for pickup and ask me if that time is okay. If I want it before that time I tell them. I do this but I don't talk to a person. I talk to a computer that asks me questions such as: "Will there be anything else?"

This system, known as Interactive Voice Response or IVR has become an everyday occurrence in the telecom world. Think of IVR as a voice computer. Where a computer has a keyboard for entering information, an IVR uses remote touchtone telephones. Where a computer has a screen for showing the results, an IVR uses snippets of recordings of human voice or a synthesized voice (computerized voice). Recordings are used for repetitive messages, "Thanks for calling ABC Company. Push one for our sales department. Push two for our service department." Synthesized voice (also called Text-To-Speech) is used for reading information from files which contain information that can't be put into neat "sound bites," like numbers and dates, e.g. reading my incoming email. Whatever a computer can do, an IVR can too - from looking up airline schedules to moving calls around an automatic call distributor (ACD). The only limitation on an IVR is that you can't present as many alternatives on a phone as you can on a screen. The caller's brain simply won't remember more than a few. With IVR, you have to present the menus in smaller, cascading chunks.

The benefits of Interactive Voice Response are obvious. By automating the retrieval and processing of information by phone, you can "give data a voice" and "add intelligence to the phone call." By doing that, you can put information to work. The classic IVR "killer app" takes an existing database (e.g., a magazine's article archives, a freight company's package-tracking system) and makes it available by phone (or other media, such as fax, e-mail, or DSVD - Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data). You can automate telephone-based tasks. From "bank by phone" to "find my package" to "sell me an airline ticket," to "validate my new credit card," IVR gives access to and takes in information; performs record-keeping, and makes sales, 24 hours a day - supplementing or standing in for human personnel. This results in cost reductions for personnel and allows customers to access information 24 hours a day - 7 days a week.

Businesses are currently using speech-enabled IVRs in the following ways: stock quotes and trading, package training, insurance claims, travel booking, pharmacy prescription refills, restaurant reservation information, banking, directory assistance, social services administration and delivery by government agencies. IVR has become so authentic people don't even realize they are talking to a computer.

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Article Tags: computer, interactive voice response, services, telecom, telecommunications
Referred by: http://www.schooleymitchell.com/



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Voice SMS! - Ashish, I enjoy sending txt messages and it seems faster to send a Voice one than txt. How do you plan on informing the user that there is a limitation to the amount of voice you can record in a Voice SMS? I believe txt has about 168 character limit.
Voice SMS - Ashish, Is this a Voice message that will be converted to Text and then sent via sms so that the recipient is reading text?
Re: What newsletter program to use? - Like GT and David I use Get Response and have not had any problems with them other than when they were converting to their upgrade. So as long as they continue to give me the service I will stick with them. I know that most people recommend Aweber. MichelleJ
Re: Keep going! - Years ago, while in the military, I started to faint in the operating room with one of my sons, the Dr suggested I leave. I was glad to get going, got to the door, opened looking for the toilet (some called it water closets, we called it the head) Outside the faint continued when a desk clerk came running, sir, Can I help you Sir? Response something like "Just help get me to that damn (head) door" Thanks" Sometimes a little will help get you going again
Re: What are your May Goals? - Thanks Evan! I just changed one of my business goals from setting up a video site on Traffic-Geyser to: "Set up a newsletter email series (let's say 10 messages) on Get Response..." I reviewed Traffic Geyser in the latest episode of "David's Den" on my blog (see sig file), included an excellent video review of Traffic Geyser by John Detlif and decided against taking that particular project any further. Still lots to get done!


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