The Beginners Guide to IVR - Interactive Voice Response

The term IVR is short for Interactive Voicebusiness areas.
Response, whichis a telephony technology that2. IVR systems can benefit callers by either
allows interaction betweencallers and a phoneallowingaccess to personalised information or,
system to acquire or enter informationinto adirecting them tothe right department or, by a
database. More and more companies are turningcombination of multipleinput types and selections
to IVRto help reduce the cost of common sales,via menu choices involvingtelephone keypad input
service,collections, inquiry and support calls to andand speech recognition.
from theircompany.3. IVR systems allow callers to retrieve or
Interactive Voice Response or IVR is one of theaccessinformation quickly with or without additional
most commontelephone functions in use acrosshumanassistance.
the business community andis capable of bringing4. Integrated Voice Response systems allow
remarkable benefits to your company.companies toeasily expand their hours of
IVR systems allow 24 hour access to a companybusiness, without the needfor live operators to be
from itscustomers via its phone system. Inon hand. This allows callers tocall at their
today's busy modernworld, most callers expectconvenience and still be able to carry outa
on first contact with a company,to be handled viamultitude of tasks automatically.
some kind of Auto Attendant or Interactive5. Call queuing times to departments within a
Voice Response (IVR) system. This method ofcompanycan be drastically reduced. With IVR
call handling isgenerally accepted as long as thesystems, calls canbe transferred to appropriate
caller is given ampleopportunity to opt out of thedepartments through themenu selection process.
IVR system and be able tospeak to a live agent.6. IVR systems allow company representatives
IVR systems offer a cost effective and moneytoexperience lower call volumes thorough the
saving way ofhandling customer calls twenty fourautomation ofrepetitive tasks. This allows these
hours a day, seven daysa week. The handling ofrepresentatives tomanage their calls more
routine phone requests forinformation canefficiently and lets them toconcentrate on more
consume a substantial amount ofimportant issues.
companyresources and ultimately money.7. Through the implementation of a good
Interactive Voice Responsesystems, tailored to aIntegrated
company's requirements can providemuch theVoice Response System, companies may actually
same information as a live operator at abe able toexpand their call capacity and respond
fractionof the cost both financially andto larger callvolumes through the correct
resourcefully. To putthings in their most simplemanagement and routing of allinbound calls,
form IVR systems let callersinteract with yourreducing the handling cost per call ratio.
company via its telephone system.8. For companies who accept payments via the
IVR systems hugely reduce customer call handlingtelephone
costs, andcan be introduced into your companyIVR systems can fully automate this task,
environment in a numberof ways. The most basicallowing themto process transactions anytime of
IVR systems simply allow you torecord athe day, any day ofthe week.
message that is played when a customer presses9. For when call volumes are high, IVR systems
theappropriate number on the phone keypad. Theallowcompanies to highlight new products, updates
more advancedor productinformation etc while a caller is on hold.
Interactive Voice Response systems allow callers10.Companies are able to monitor call progress
to interactwith a company on a much greaterandtransactions through the use of daily call
scale. For example youcould set up an IVR toactivity reports.
retrieve specific account informationthat is relayedCustomer Premise Equipment (CPE) IVR or
to the caller through the implementationHosted IVR The
oftext-to-speech recognition technology. ThisChoice Is Yours
technologyallows IVR systems to read specificCPE - This is equipment that is purchased or
information from adatabase and then relate thatleased by acustomer and is then located, hosted
information back to thecustomer in spokenand maintained at thecustomers site. For most
format.companies this is an expensive wayof harnessing
Typical IVR - Interactive Voice Response Systemthe power a good IVR system can bring to
Applicationsanybusiness due to the initial cost of the hardware
The potential applications of IVR systems areandinstallation work that would be required. For
virtuallyendless. IVR systems can be used tothosecompanies that have the necessary funding
automate a wide range ofservices and requestsfor CPE there areof course benefits as well as
for information. By combining theinput of a callerdrawbacks. CPE allows you totake full control of
with tailor made scripts, IVR systemsallow callersyour IVR system and will also allow forfuture
to call into a company or IVR hostingcompany expansion, though many hosted IVR
companyusing a touch-tone telephone, and thensolutionsdo allow for this also. The main drawback
to interact with thesystem in real time. Below is ato CPE IVRsystems is that you would need
list of example IVRapplications:continuing technical supportand maintenance either
1. Automated account payment systemsfrom your own internal staff oroutsourced to the
2. Customer account informationIVR system provider.
3 Banking service for account balanceIVR Hosting - If a customer prefers not to host
transferinformationan IVRsystem on their premises, is restricted by
4 Customer market surveyslocation, lacks
5 Emergency notificationsIT support or quite simply cannot withstand the
6 Virtual receptionistsinitialfinancial outlay required for outright purchase
7 Call centre automationthen aremote IVR hosting solution that can be
8 Order status and trackingtailored to acompany's requirements could be the
9 Package trackinganswer. This option isparticularly attractive for
10 Virtual PBX'ssmall to medium sized businesseswho wish to
11 Voicemail servicestake advantage of a fully featured Interactive
12 Voice instant messagingVoice Response system, with a vastly reduced
13 Bill reminderinitial capitaloutlay, as well as eradicating the need
14 Bill collectionfor system ITmaintenance, and support.
15 TelesalesWhichever form of IVR system you decide to
16 Virtual agentsimplement, it isbetter to ask the advice of
17 Auto attendantsexperts before you go ahead andpurchase any
18 Call routinghardware or sign any form of lease agreement.
19 Call recording solutionsA good IVR systems provider or IVR hosting
20 Plus many, many morecompany will takethe time to sit down with you
Benefits of IVR Systemsand discuss your requirementsin detail before
1. Integrated Voice Response systems can behelping you make a decision on what type
extremelybeneficial to companies by cutting downofsystem you should opt for.
on live callhandling time, thus saving money andThanks for reading.
enabling staff to befree to concentrate on other