Definition of IVR.
The term IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is used to describe a computer system which interacts with people using a combination of telephone keypad inputs (DTMF) and voice inputs. The system uses either prerecorded or dynamically generated prompts to communicate with the user. The interface created using IVR systems is often called a VUI (Voice User Interface).
IVR flavors and Speech - enabled IVR.
Traditional IVR supported user input only by DTMF. Thus, the user would be presented with some options through a prerecorded prompt, and would select one of them by pushing the appropriate key in his phone-pad. New technological breakthroughs in Speech Recognition have altered this to include speech as an input method. In the beginning, using predefined vocabularies was the only way to provide accurate inputs. Today natural language recognition technologies have been developed to allow for more intuitive inputs.
In a similar manner, the IVR system would traditionally use a combination of prerecorded prompts to "talk" to the user. Today this can also be accomplished by speech synthesis which is achieved through a technology called TTS (Text-to-Speech).
At this point it should be noted that the quality of the voice - oriented technologies such as Speech Recognition and TTS is heavily dependent upon the language used. For languages such as English, which apply to a very large segment of the market, voice technologies are extremely well refined, to the point that a synthesized speech segment may be indistinguishable to a prerecorded message. Naturally, for more "exotic" languages with smaller market significance, things develop somewhat slower though not very far behind.
The role of IVR in the contact center and the benefits.
IVR systems are typically used as the reception point in any inbound call center. Their typical role is to engage with the user and extract some information about what he wants to do. If the user/customer simply wants some information, then the system is capable of retrieving it from appropriate databases and proceed to inform the caller. IVR systems can also perform predefined procedures, without any human intervention. For this reason, they are often called as self-service systems. If what the user requests cannot be provided by the automatic system, s(he) is typically transferred to a human agent.
The benefits an IVR provides to the contact center are twofold. First, they are capable of handling large volumes of inbound calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And second, in a large amount of cases some actions are performed without human intervention (for example when the user/customer requires simple information or wants to perform simple/repetitive tasks). Furthermore, using the initial information gathered within the IVR, the call can be routed to an appropriate agent with the skills to quickly server the caller (this is called caller segmentation). The information gathered within the system is typically propagated to the live agent using CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) technology, so there is no need for repetition. Thus, IVR contributes significantly to the reduction of the amount of costly human resources needed to operate the contact center.
With the introduction of the SIP protocol as the backbone of most contact centers today, the IVR functionality has been altered further to include complementary methods of communication in addition to DTMF and voice. Video and Instant Messaging are two of the most hot additions.As bandwidth availability increases and smartphones grow, a lot of industry experts expect video to become predominant in the self-service part of the contact center.
The term IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is used to describe a computer system which interacts with people using a combination of telephone keypad inputs (DTMF) and voice inputs. The system uses either prerecorded or dynamically generated prompts to communicate with the user. The interface created using IVR systems is often called a VUI (Voice User Interface).
IVR flavors and Speech - enabled IVR.
Traditional IVR supported user input only by DTMF. Thus, the user would be presented with some options through a prerecorded prompt, and would select one of them by pushing the appropriate key in his phone-pad. New technological breakthroughs in Speech Recognition have altered this to include speech as an input method. In the beginning, using predefined vocabularies was the only way to provide accurate inputs. Today natural language recognition technologies have been developed to allow for more intuitive inputs.
In a similar manner, the IVR system would traditionally use a combination of prerecorded prompts to "talk" to the user. Today this can also be accomplished by speech synthesis which is achieved through a technology called TTS (Text-to-Speech).
At this point it should be noted that the quality of the voice - oriented technologies such as Speech Recognition and TTS is heavily dependent upon the language used. For languages such as English, which apply to a very large segment of the market, voice technologies are extremely well refined, to the point that a synthesized speech segment may be indistinguishable to a prerecorded message. Naturally, for more "exotic" languages with smaller market significance, things develop somewhat slower though not very far behind.
The role of IVR in the contact center and the benefits.
IVR systems are typically used as the reception point in any inbound call center. Their typical role is to engage with the user and extract some information about what he wants to do. If the user/customer simply wants some information, then the system is capable of retrieving it from appropriate databases and proceed to inform the caller. IVR systems can also perform predefined procedures, without any human intervention. For this reason, they are often called as self-service systems. If what the user requests cannot be provided by the automatic system, s(he) is typically transferred to a human agent.
The benefits an IVR provides to the contact center are twofold. First, they are capable of handling large volumes of inbound calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And second, in a large amount of cases some actions are performed without human intervention (for example when the user/customer requires simple information or wants to perform simple/repetitive tasks). Furthermore, using the initial information gathered within the IVR, the call can be routed to an appropriate agent with the skills to quickly server the caller (this is called caller segmentation). The information gathered within the system is typically propagated to the live agent using CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) technology, so there is no need for repetition. Thus, IVR contributes significantly to the reduction of the amount of costly human resources needed to operate the contact center.
With the introduction of the SIP protocol as the backbone of most contact centers today, the IVR functionality has been altered further to include complementary methods of communication in addition to DTMF and voice. Video and Instant Messaging are two of the most hot additions.As bandwidth availability increases and smartphones grow, a lot of industry experts expect video to become predominant in the self-service part of the contact center.
For what I do know, ivr systems could answer customer's inquiry by using recorded materials or the agents could say out the solution for them. So basically, it is what call center company uses in their operation.
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