IVR

IVR

IVR : Interactive Voice Response

What is IVR ?

IVR or Interactive Voice Response is a system used to partially or fully automate your incoming calls. Many call centres are using interactive voice response technology as an Auto Attendant to guide their callers through to the relevant department. It replaces the job of the receptionist and the caller can get straight through to their desired department quicker and more efficiently. No more busy or engaged signals and absolutely ZERO missed calls!

IVR can however offer much more than just an Auto Attendant service; clients can integrate their Databases into an application to enable callers to fully automate the contact process.

IVR can fully link into CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) to allow for full cross platform integration, so before your agent answers the phone they are prompted with the callers specific details.

An IVR system often contains hardware and server software that can analyse both tone inputs and voice recognition:

A) Touch Tone response;
The caller enters information via their touch tone phone keypad, often taking the form of numerical information but can also merge with keypad data (characters on keypad)

B) Voice Recognition;
Another product of IVR is voice recognition, which allows for responsive actions from the caller

IVR Information:

Can route calls to the appropriate person within a department based on touch tone or voice

Using voice recognition coupled with touch tone a caller can use self service features such as listening to their account details (like telephone banking)

IVR is considered the second most used telephony technology after ACD (automatic call distribution)

Global CCS IVR

The Global CCS IVR provides network-based, interactive voice response services, providing complete customised programming of call handling applications. NIVR speeds the caller to fastest point for information through sophisticated multilingual voice recognition and response technology. The service enables agents to redirect calls to other agents, or conferencing in, anywhere to solve the caller's problem quickly, without tying up valuable IVR capacity.

Call Centres:

If you already have an IVR which is not scalable and comparable with CTI then give us a call or fill in our online quote form. Get a NO-OBLIGATION free quote and let us show you the benefits of our professional expertise in the telecoms industry.

We are not tied down to a particular phone operator or systems manufacturer, which means our products and services are fully tailor made to your call centre needs.

An IVR will streamline large call volumes and direct the user to the specific department or relevant 1st line support.

We have been established and providing IVR services to large blue chip companies for over 10 years!

GET A FREE NO OBLIGATION QUOTE TODAY

IVR Features:

Routes calls to appropriate department or person based on tones entered through the callers telephone keyword (touch tone) or via speech input.

Identification and authentication of the caller prior to access to an agent (brings up automatic records and account information of the caller ready for the agent).

Segmentation and differentiation of callers depending on the relationship of the caller with your business allowing premium call handling. There are many benefits of this, e.g. if you have a user who is on a gold SLA, then the IVR will recognize this and apply premium queuing.

Studies indicate that due to recent advancements in IVR businesses with an IVR present can actually increase customer loyalty, satisfaction, customer retention and call speeds.

You can link in IVR to our wide range of non-geographic phone numbers;

Elite IVR

All your calls will be answered in a professional manner and will give the caller options allowing their call to be managed effectively. Callers are handled immediately and efficiently, getting to the nature of their enquiry.

Elite Bespoke IVR

As with Elite IVR but with additional innovative products dependent on your needs. These include Professional Voicing & Scripting, Network Queuing, Time of Day call plans, Divert on busy – no answer, Call Ratio Plans. The message is absolutely bespoke, maybe carrying a professional voice that suits your brand. Your customer feels special.

Elite Professional Voicing & Scripting

We develop your scripts and all aspects of your messages are selected: Voice, Words, Accent, Gender – all perfectly selected and created so that it coincides with the way you like to do business.

IVR Voice Reponse Detailed Information

IVR or Interactive Voice Response is a telephony technology where someone uses a touch-tone telephone to interact with a database to acquire information from or enter data into the database. Most people are familiar with IVR applications as these include commonplace IVR applications that allow users to retrieve information such as bank balances, flight schedules, and movie show times from any telephone.

The benefits of using IVR are that IVR technology does not require human interaction over the telephone as the user's interaction with the relevant database is predetermined by what the IVR system will allow the user access to. As such, IVR systems can greatly reduce the amount of time and resources required to provide customers with often simple information. IVR technology enables a wide variety of services to be provided and using IVR results in significant savings of both time and money.

From a customer's point of view, IVR technology means that up-to-date information can be obtained or provided instantly and easily via IVR without having to speak directly to a person. IVR may not be to everyone's tastes - particularly those who still feel the need for some human interaction even for the simplest of tasks, but the fact that the use of IVR technology has become so widespread indicates that the benefits of IVR far outweigh any potential benefits of those organisations where the use of IVR is not commonplace.

IVR technology today is also used by companies gathering information with IVR ensuring telephone surveys can be carried out with a minimum of fuss and also, by using IVR, relevant user information can be provide via the IVR system without the need for lengthy delays before a call is answered.

As technology improves, IVR systems are becoming ever more apparent and with most people living busier and more stressful lives, the time and frustration that IVR can save is undisputable.

Related Links: Internationale Vereinigung für Rechts (International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy)

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UK Telecoms News | Phone System News | 08 Number News » IVR

The Death Of Auto Attendant
Many people can become confused about the difference between IVR and auto-attendant. IVR actually stands for Interactive Voice Response and it is a lot more sophisticated than an auto-attendant.

Auto-attendants are those annoying robotic voices on phone systems, the ones that say, press one for this and two for that. IVR on the other hand, is an intelligent system that uses speech recognition technology to interact with the customer. By interacting, an IVR system can find out what it is you need and send you off in the right direction. Some IVR systems can even help you to resolve whatever problem it is that you have, for example, simple technology questions.

As technology moves on, auto-attendant is becoming obsolete and IVR is swiftly taking its place as the best way to manage your calls.
July 2nd, 2010 | 12:00:20 PM |
The Future Is Speech Recognition
Speech recognition is going to change the way the world works as machines are taught how to understand and convert spoken words into text. There are different kinds of speech recognition systems – the basic ones that understand single words such as yes and no and then the more complex systems. The more complex speech recognition systems are often used in IVR solutions. They can understand full sentences of speech, including how people speak as well.

In the future speech recognition systems will be everywhere. We already use them in a lot of industries although you never realise it! Industries such as healthcare, commercial flights and even the military!
July 2nd, 2010 | 10:37:51 AM |
Last Call
13th Street in Germany, the action and suspense channel, has come up with an amazing new way to watch horror films. Have you ever shouted at the screen in frustration as the main character of a film goes down to the basement? Or goes to help the wounded person in the haunted house? Well with ‘Last Call’ the new horror film by 13^th street, you can now get the main character to do exactly what you say.

How it works is that the horror film Last Call is filmed with multiple scenes. Upon entrance to the film, the viewer is given a flyer with a number to call. Once the film begins, the viewer speaks into the phone at certain parts of the film, prompted by the actor on screen who may ask “where do I go?” to which the viewer can reply left or right. So the viewer ends up determining the outcome of the main character and the movie. This is all done with IVR – Interactive Voice Recognition – technology.
June 29th, 2010 | 03:32:45 PM |
Saving Money
So many companies are recovering from the recession at the minute and everyone is looking for ways to cut costs as the economy remains uncertain. After all, no one wants to splash out when recession could strike again.

When looking at ways to cut costs and avoid the expenses that business can incur, telecoms is often the way to go. For instance, having a hosted phone system can save a lot of your communications budget. If you buy a business phone system, it costs money to buy, install and maintain it, money that could be saved with a hosted phone system.

Another way to save money is to invest in an IVR solution. With an IVR system, the voice response can work with the customer to direct them to the correct department, saving you time and money. Once you know how to save money, it’s simple!
May 24th, 2010 | 04:34:24 PM |
BT Use Nuance System
BT Business is about to deploy a new IVR system from Nuance. The Nuance Call Steering system uses natural language speech recognition to route calls to the right department.

During the next nine months, the new Nuance system will be put into place by BT. BT receives around ten million calls per year from one million customers and with a new IVR speech recognition solution, BT hopes to save both customers and operators time and money. As we all know, waiting on the phone with an automated system isn’t something we want to do, so anything to get around that is fine by us!
May 20th, 2010 | 05:34:05 PM |
Man United Phone Hack
Funny it may be (if you’re a Chelsea fan) but it isn’t big and it isn’t clever. It could have been, but unfortunately, this was perpetrated by an amateur hacker. You might wonder what I’m talking about. If you’re a Manchester United fan and you constantly ring up the line for tickets, then you’ll already know what I’m talking about and chances are you’ll have a steadily growing twitch as you recall the embarrassment, the fury, the shame.

Man United’s phone system was apparently hacked over the weekend. So instead of a pre-recorded IVR message informing you that the club was closed for the weekend (or the lines were anyway) you received a message from Chelsea fans instead. Namely a score of Chelsea fans singing ‘We are the Champions’ at the tops of their voices. It seems that the hack must have been perpetrated by a jubilant Chelsea fan at the phone system IVR company used by Man United. Let’s hope the firm can see the funny side!
May 19th, 2010 | 06:35:34 PM |
Speech Recognition Problems
The University of Edinburgh has conducted a new study into speech recognition systems and how speech and computers interact. The study found that speech recognition systems have more difficulty understanding men than women, they have trouble understanding the first word of sentences and that certain things can cause speech recognition systems to error.

According to the University researchers, men use what is known as fillers such as ‘umm’ and ‘errr’ much more than women which is why men find it harder to be understood by computers. The researchers also found that not pronouncing words properly hindered understanding as did using similar sounding words in similar contexts such ‘I told him’ and ‘I told them.’ Let’s hope the researchers also found a way around these problems!
March 4th, 2010 | 05:02:36 PM |
The Acceptance Of IVR
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is finally on its way to being accepted and even welcomed after a long, hard few years. Once described as ‘inefficient’ and ‘awkward,’ IVR has come a long way in the past few years. New technologies such as speech recognition have enabled IVR systems to act as automated agents that are capable of engaging in fairly natural dialogue – to a certain extent. For short or basic transactions and services, IVR systems are actually now preferred in some cases and new functions such as sending proactive notifications to customers are ensuring that IVR becomes accepted.
January 25th, 2010 | 03:00:39 PM |