IVR - Understanding the Full Service Hosted Managed Approach

Interactive Voice Response is one of the mostThis communication method allows you to
widely used technologies in business today. Utilizedcapitalize on your existing web technology
by organizations to deliver a wide range ofinvestment, and skills.
services over the telephone, IVR provides aBatch Transfer: As an alternative to Web
broad spectrum of uses for B2B and B2CServices, your IVR service provider should be
applications, including surveys, account inquiryable to offer you a batch process, which utilizes
systems, lead generation, product order andFTP to transfer data between databases on a
fulfillment, credit card transactions and fieldscheduled basis. Although this is a relatively
employee reporting, as well as many othermature technology, and does not provide the
business applications.real-time capabilities of web services, it may be a
Well-designed IVR systems can significantlygood alternative if you are retrieving/storing data
reduce operating costs, and help organizations infrom a legacy system, or your organization has
supporting both their customers and employees.strict guidelines regarding communicating data
Outsourcing is a cost effective way forover HTTP protocols with outside vendors.
organizations to add IVR to their customerData Hosting: If your application does not require
employee communication mix, while avoiding highreal-time access to your in-house database, or
start-up costs, limited scalability plus maintenanceyou wish to keep the IVR data completely
or obsolescence worries.isolated from your IT infrastructure your IVR
IVR - Understanding the Full Service Hostedservice provider will be able to offer you, a Data
Managed Approachhosting plan, including utilities to extract your data
When choosing a full service IVR service provider,24/7. This approach is very common with
you can expect the following:short-term IVR applications such as surveys.
To manage all aspects of the IVR projectVoice Talent -- Selecting Voice Talent for your
including planning, development, testing, andIVR application is a key consideration, as she/he
deployment of the application.will be representing your company; she/he is your
To work with your business and IT team, tospokesperson. As well, she/he should have
achieve the desired data integration objectives.experience in recording prompts for IVR, as the
To take care of vendor relationships, maintain andpace, pronunciation, and intonation are important
update telecom infrastructure, software andto keep the caller engaged. Before you select
hardware as required.Voice Talent, ask to listen to a sample, and
To act as a single point of contact for IVRremember, just because she/he may have
implementation and maintenance, that can bringbroadcast experience, or a good voice, that
the necessary resources and experts to you indoesn't necessarily mean they will know how to
time to meet your objectives.engage a caller in an IVR environment. Listen to a
To provide you with dedicated support, and havesample recording, first and foremost, you want
an in-depth understanding of your application.someone who makes the application flow, and is
Since IVR providers are industry experts andeasy to understand.
have developed 1000's of applications, they areReporting -- Your IVR service provider will provide
well prepared to get an IVR solution up andyou with standard IVR traffic reporting, allowing
running in a relatively short period of time.you to monitor the activity of your application 24
Key Application Design & Implementation7 in real-time. In addition to standard reporting,
Elements:you might want to review with your IVR service
Once you choose your IVR service provider, theyprovider how to create application specific
will work with you though the key designreporting, allowing you to audit the process, and
implementation elements to achieve your specificimplement a continuous improvement process.
business objectives. These include:Application Support:
Review of your program objectives andIn the Hosted Managed Service, Client Applications
specifications - a good understanding of yourare monitored, maintained, and supported on a
business and business objectives will provide yourdaily basis to ensure the best performance.
IVR service provider with key information toApplications are monitored to ensure high
make recommendations throughout the process.availability, performance, and ensure clients
Script /VUI (Voice User Interface) - Your IVRbusiness objectives are being met.
service provider will consult with you, on how toFrom an IVR Hosted Managed Service you can
design a Call Flow & Script to meet your businessexpect:
objectives, while optimizing caller experience. After- Custom support based on customer specific
all, increasing your customer satisfaction shouldapplication.
always be your priority to maximize your- 24/7 support of the IVR applications and
investment.component technology
Data Connectivity, Communication and Storage -- 24/7Network Operations Center (NOC)
Your IVR application will most likely be required tomonitoring
retrieve or/and store information from a- Telephone, e-mail and web support
database. Your IVR service provider will be able* Consult your service provider as to the
to offer you a wide range of data communicationapplication support options available.
options, to meet your specific businessThis article can be freely published in a web site
objectives, in line with your technologicalAs long as its not modified in any way including
capabilities. Allow your IVR service provider toauthors bylines,
discuss these in detail, as there are severalPlus the hyperlink must be active just as like
options, and one will best meet yourbellow.
requirements.Barnard L. Crespi, is CEO and head of professional
Web Services: Web services allows for theservices at
real-time exchange of information with your webDatatel Communications Inc, an IVR (Interactive
enabled database - this industry standard allowsVoice Response) Hosted Managed Service
you to communicate with your IVR serviceprovider. And a publisher of many white papers
provider in real-time, utilizing standardand case studies on IVR.
communication protocols such as XML over HTTP.