| As the user's interaction with the database is | | | | many services such as telephone banking, order |
| predetermined by what the IVR system will allow | | | | placement, caller identification and routing, balance |
| the user access to, IVR technology does not | | | | inquiry, and airline ticket booking. Voicemail |
| require human interaction over the telephone. | | | | systems are different from IVR systems |
| Example, banks and credit card companies use | | | | because they are a one-way communication tool |
| IVR systems because their customers can | | | | (the caller leaves a message), but IVR systems |
| receive up-to-date account information instantly | | | | attempt two-way interaction with the caller. |
| and easily without necessarily speaking to a | | | | Automatic call distributor (ACD) systems are |
| person. IVR technology is also used to gather | | | | often the first point of contact when dealing with |
| information, such as telephone surveys in which | | | | any larger business, and can be used in place of |
| the user is prompted to answer questions by | | | | more expensive IVR systems. IVR systems are |
| pushing the numbers on a touch-tone telephone. | | | | mainly used at the front end of call centers to |
| Generally the system plays pre-recorded voice | | | | identify what type of service the caller wants and |
| prompts to which the person presses a number | | | | to extract numeric information such as account |
| on a telephone keypad to select the option | | | | numbers as well as provide answers to simple |
| chosen, or engage in simple answers such as | | | | questions like account balances or just to allow |
| "yes", "no", or numbers in answer to the voice | | | | pre-recorded information to be heard. |
| prompts. The latest systems use natural language | | | | IVR systems are often referred to as being |
| speech recognition to interpret the questions that | | | | unhelpful and difficult to use because of the poor |
| the person wants answered. One of the newest | | | | design and lack of appreciation of the callers' |
| trends, Guided Speech IVR, integrates live human | | | | needs. A fully functional IVR system should |
| agents into the design and workflow of the | | | | connect callers to their desired service promptly |
| application to enable speech recognition with | | | | and with minimal flaws. |
| human context. | | | | IVR call flows are created in a variety of ways. |
| Other innovations include the ability to speak | | | | Older systems, which depended upon proprietary |
| complex and dynamic information. Examples would | | | | programming or scripting languages, and modern |
| be an e-mail, news report or weather information | | | | systems, which are structured similar to WWW |
| using Text-To-Speech (TTS). TTS is a computer | | | | pages, using the VoiceXML or SALT languages. |
| generated synthesized speech and is no longer | | | | This allows any Web server to act as an |
| the robotic voice people associate with | | | | application server, enabling the developer to focus |
| computers. Real voices are used to create the | | | | on the call flow. Developers need not require |
| speech in tiny fragments that are glued together | | | | specialized programming skills, as any Web |
| before the caller hears it. | | | | developer already have the tools needed to |
| IVR systems can be used to create and manage | | | | create an IVR call flow. |