IVR Design and Development

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to IVR design and custom IVR software and products. Toll free answering systems are very popular for service and sales organizations, allowing customers and prospects to call your organization anywhere in the country. Our call center phone systems add another dimension to our Wizard and PACER phone solutions.

What Is IVR?. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) processes inbound phone calls, plays recorded messages including information extracted from databases and the internet, and potentially routes calls to either inhouse service agents or transfers the caller to an outside extension.

Contact DSC today. to learn more about our IVR services and IVR application development software.

BY BOB VILSOET, AMERITECH

APPLICATION DESIGN CONCERNS

Some items to consider when designing an IVR application include:

• Always let the caller press zero to talk to somebody.
• Find a way for more experienced users of the system to skip past longwinded explanations of the VRU.
• Be consistent on your use of commands:
• “For this, press 1,” or “Press 2 for this.”
• Never disconnect a caller — especially after the caller has been in queue for an extended period of time.
• Don’t ever transfer a caller into a queue that ends up in a busy signal.
• Transfer the call and the associated data to an agent. Do not make the caller repeat the information that was just entered on the IVR to the agent.
• Read the management reports to look for routing improvements, where most callers drop, and misdirected calls. For example, if transferring money from savings to checking is the most common activity, you may wish to put it on the main menu.
• Whether the transaction is email, Internet, or voice (telephone), the logic should be the same.
• Tell the caller how to get back up the IVR tree.

CONCLUSION

Engineers and developers of all types should listen to the comments from the users of a system. Software development, systems integration, or data communications should be done with the user in lockstep. One methodology to use for software development is prototyping. A system or application is mocked up so that the user has an idea of what the technology is going to look and feel like. Then, one-by-one, additional features are added, and the user tests and verifies them as they are completed. This eliminates surprises, assists the programmer during testing, obtains buy-in from users, and makes a usable working system available at all times.

Bob Vilsoet is director of systems integration for Ameritech’s Call Center Solutions. Ameritech serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services, including local and long-distance telephone, cellular, paging, security, monitoring, cable TV, electronic commerce, online services, and more. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.ameritech.com.

IVR Design Features

IVR Management Reports

• Programming Wizard for Fast IVR Development
• IVRS Client/Server Architecture
• 800 number systems and Toll Free systems
• DNIS Controlled
• Multiple IVR Scripts
• Record IVR Caller Message and Store
• User Navigation and Selection
• IVR Voice Mail
• Route Caller to Selected IVR Agent Groups
• C or C++ IVR library
• IVR Visual Basic interface
• IVR Play Message and Prompt
• Interactive Voice Response Phone Key Input
• Play Music On Hold
• Call Outside Line and Transfer IVR Call
• Call Outside Line and Prompt for Input
• Connect Caller to Outside party
• IVR EZTRAN Flow Control
• Database Access and Update
• IVR Text To Speech Software (TTS)
• Mix IVR Messages and Text
• IVR Response Logging and Reports