What is IVR?

IVR - short for Interactive Voice Response - is a technology that automates interaction with telephone callers.  Enterprises are increasingly turning to IVR to reduce the cost of common sales, service, collections, inquiry and support calls to and from their company. Historically, IVR solutions have used pre-recorded voice prompts and menus to present information and options to callers, and touch-tone telephone keypad entry to gather responses.  Modern IVR solutions also enable input and responses to be gathered via spoken words with voice recognition. IVR solutions enable users to retrieve information including bank balances, flight schedules, product details, order status, movie show times, and more from any telephone.  Additionally, IVR solutions are increasingly used to place outbound calls to deliver or gather information for appointments, past due bills, and other time critical events and activities. To deliver or leverage IVR, an enterprise requires: IVR Platforms IVR Platforms are the "server and operating system" hardware and software platforms on which IVR solutions run. IVR platforms at a minimum provide the ability to play and record prompts and gather touch-tone input.  IVR platforms may also offer the ability to recognize spoken input from callers (voice recognition), translate text into spoken output for callers (text-to-speech), and transfer IVR calls to any telephone or call center agent. IVR Applications IVR Applications are programs that control and respond to calls on the IVR platform.  IVR programs can either be developed by an enterprise, by an IVR development shop, or from companies that offer canned IVR applications. IVR applications direct the IVR platform to prompt callers, gather input, and transfer callers to other phones.  IVR applications also call on existing back-end database and application servers to retrieve records and information required during the course of a call. Back-end servers Back-end servers are existing enterprise servers on which the required customer or corporate data can be found. Back-end servers can include databases, mainframes, Java or other application servers, and 3rd party information services and solutions. Telephony Infrastructure Telephony infrastructure includes telephone lines, call switching equipment, and call center Automatic Call Distributors (ACD's). Telephone lines for IVR can be standard analog lines, digital T1, or digital ISDN lines.  These lines are connected on one side to the IVR platform and, on the other, to call switching equipment including telco switches, Voice over IP gateways, and corporate PBX's; or in some cases, directly to call centers via an ACD. IVR Experts IVR Experts include employees and consultants who know IVR technology and challenges well. Ideally, IVR teams should include one or more members who have experience with IVR integration, configuration, reliability and redundancy, application development, and IVR solution deployment management. Ready to buy? Order the Help Desk Toolkit today    THE HELP DESK TOOLKIT - Fourteen extensive documents  Sample Pages Here One thing is for sure: The Help Desk Toolkit makes Help Desk Procurement and Management far more straight forward. No doubt about it: it de-mystifies Help Desk Management, and enables you to produce a Help Desk function with the minimum of fuss. There is absolutely no need to re-invent the wheel! It is supplied primarily in MS-Word format and comprises the following components: HELP DESK all you need now Ready to use documents: Help Desk Implementation Plan, Help Desk procedures, Proactive Stress Management, Problem management procedure Help desk implementation plan covering all the aspects of help desk implementations Help Desk Phone Communication Standards - Example Standards Monitoring Sheet Help Desk Stress Management - 30 slides  Proactive Strategies for Managing Stress and Change Help Desk Procedures - This procedure defines the steps involved in responding to customer calls through the Help Desk facility.  HELP DESK SLA GUIDE Let's face it: a comprehensive SLA is a daunting task. Now you'll have an extensive blueprint at your fingertips. This document explains every part of the service level agreement for a HELP DESK, clause by clause. You can populate and change directly, as required. 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This explains the key concepts of a HELP DESK.   36 pages on implementing and managing a help desk HELP DESK DESIGN TEMPLATE In today's uncertain economy you need clarity, fast. This is a complete template for establishing service descriptions. This is a complete template for a HELP DESK design.      Features of the all-new edition: Fourteen documents Hundreds of pages with easy-to-follow sections An extensive must-do checklist based on our experience implementing Help Desk in over 40 industries New practical advice on awareness, planning, implementation, and review New commentary on delivering upon business value All-new "tuneup" section tailored to improve the performance of existing initiatives Fully updated throughout to take account of current Best Practices and policies, and the state of their use