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