The Beginners Guide to IVR - Interactive Voice Response

By Jason Morris

The term IVR is short for Interactive Voice Response, which
is a telephony technology that allows interaction between
callers and a phone system to acquire or enter information
into a database. More and more companies are turning to IVR
to help reduce the cost of common sales, service,
collections, inquiry and support calls to and from their
company.

Interactive Voice Response or IVR is one of the most common
telephone functions in use across the business community and
is capable of bringing remarkable benefits to your company.
IVR systems allow 24 hour access to a company from its
customers via its phone system. In today’s busy modern
world, most callers expect on first contact with a company,
to be handled via some kind of Auto Attendant or Interactive
Voice Response (IVR) system. This method of call handling is
generally accepted as long as the caller is given ample
opportunity to opt out of the IVR system and be able to
speak to a live agent.

IVR systems offer a cost effective and money saving way of
handling customer calls twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week. The handling of routine phone requests for
information can consume a substantial amount of company
resources and ultimately money. Interactive Voice Response
systems, tailored to a company’s requirements can provide
much the same information as a live operator at a fraction
of the cost both financially and resourcefully. To put
things in their most simple form IVR systems let callers
interact with your company via its telephone system.

IVR systems hugely reduce customer call handling costs, and
can be introduced into your company environment in a number
of ways. The most basic IVR systems simply allow you to
record a message that is played when a customer presses the
appropriate number on the phone keypad. The more advanced
Interactive Voice Response systems allow callers to interact
with a company on a much greater scale. For example you
could set up an IVR to retrieve specific account information
that is relayed to the caller through the implementation of
text-to-speech recognition technology. This technology
allows IVR systems to read specific information from a
database and then relate that information back to the
customer in spoken format.


Typical IVR - Interactive Voice Response System Applications

The potential applications of IVR systems are virtually
endless. IVR systems can be used to automate a wide range of
services and requests for information. By combining the
input of a caller with tailor made scripts, IVR systems
allow callers to call into a company or IVR hosting company
using a touch-tone telephone, and then to interact with the
system in real time. Below is a list of example IVR
applications:

1. Automated account payment systems
2. Customer account information
3 Banking service for account balance transfer
information
4 Customer market surveys
5 Emergency notifications
6 Virtual receptionists
7 Call centre automation
8 Order status and tracking
9 Package tracking
10 Virtual PBX’s
11 Voicemail services
12 Voice instant messaging
13 Bill reminder
14 Bill collection
15 Telesales
16 Virtual agents
17 Auto attendants
18 Call routing
19 Call recording solutions
20 Plus many, many more

Benefits of IVR Systems

1. Integrated Voice Response systems can be extremely
beneficial to companies by cutting down on live call
handling time, thus saving money and enabling staff to be
free to concentrate on other business areas.

2. IVR systems can benefit callers by either allowing
access to personalised information or, directing them to
the right department or, by a combination of multiple
input types and selections via menu choices involving
telephone keypad input and speech recognition.

3. IVR systems allow callers to retrieve or access
information quickly with or without additional human
assistance.

4. Integrated Voice Response systems allow companies to
easily expand their hours of business, without the need
for live operators to be on hand. This allows callers to
call at their convenience and still be able to carry out
a multitude of tasks automatically.

5. Call queuing times to departments within a company
can be drastically reduced. With IVR systems, calls can
be transferred to appropriate departments through the
menu selection process.

6. IVR systems allow company representatives to
experience lower call volumes thorough the automation of
repetitive tasks. This allows these representatives to
manage their calls more efficiently and lets them to
concentrate on more important issues.

7. Through the implementation of a good Integrated
Voice Response System, companies may actually be able to
expand their call capacity and respond to larger call
volumes through the correct management and routing of all
inbound calls, reducing the handling cost per call ratio.

8. For companies who accept payments via the telephone
IVR systems can fully automate this task, allowing them
to process transactions anytime of the day, any day of
the week.

9. For when call volumes are high, IVR systems allow
companies to highlight new products, updates or product
information etc while a caller is on hold.

10.Companies are able to monitor call progress and
transactions through the use of daily call activity reports.

Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) IVR or Hosted IVR The
Choice Is Yours

CPE - This is equipment that is purchased or leased by a
customer and is then located, hosted and maintained at the
customers site. For most companies this is an expensive way
of harnessing the power a good IVR system can bring to any
business due to the initial cost of the hardware and
installation work that would be required. For those
companies that have the necessary funding for CPE there are
of course benefits as well as drawbacks. CPE allows you to
take full control of your IVR system and will also allow for
future company expansion, though many hosted IVR solutions
do allow for this also. The main drawback to CPE IVR
systems is that you would need continuing technical support
and maintenance either from your own internal staff or
outsourced to the IVR system provider.

IVR Hosting - If a customer prefers not to host an IVR
system on their premises, is restricted by location, lacks
IT support or quite simply cannot withstand the initial
financial outlay required for outright purchase then a
remote IVR hosting solution that can be tailored to a
company’s requirements could be the answer. This option is
particularly attractive for small to medium sized businesses
who wish to take advantage of a fully featured Interactive
Voice Response system, with a vastly reduced initial capital
outlay, as well as eradicating the need for system IT
maintenance, and support.

Whichever form of IVR system you decide to implement, it is
better to ask the advice of experts before you go ahead and
purchase any hardware or sign any form of lease agreement.
A good IVR systems provider or IVR hosting company will take
the time to sit down with you and discuss your requirements
in detail before helping you make a decision on what type of
system you should opt for.

Thanks for reading.







About the author:
Jason Morris has been with http://www.businessphonesystemsdirect.co.uksince the start of their ecommerce directive in September 2004. He has continued to provide help, guidance and support to customers all over the world ever since. For free help and advice regarding IVR, Hosted IVR or Virtual PBX systems please visit http://www.businessphonesystemsdirect.co.uk/ivrfor more information.


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