| Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an | | | | * Office call routing |
| automated telephony system that interacts | | | | |
| with callers, gathers information and routes | | | | * Call center forwarding |
| calls to the appropriate recipient. An IVR | | | | |
| system (IVRS) accepts a combination of voice | | | | * Simple order entry transactions |
| telephone input and touch-tone keypad | | | | |
| selection and provides appropriate responses | | | | * Selective information lookup (movie |
| in the form of voice, fax, callback, e-mail | | | | schedules, etc.) |
| and perhaps other media. | | | | |
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| An IVR system consists of telephony | | | | |
| equipment, software applications, a database | | | | An IVR application provides pre-recorded |
| and a supporting infrastructure. Common IVR | | | | voice responses for appropriate situations, |
| applications include: | | | | keypad signal logic, access to relevant data |
| | | | and, potentially, the ability to record voice |
| * Bank and stock account balances and | | | | input for later handling. Using computer |
| transfers | | | | telephony integration (CTI), IVR applications |
| | | | can hand off a call to a human being who can |
| * Surveys and polls | | | | view data related to the caller at a display. |
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