Tuesday, January 20, 2009

What is an intelligent IVR?

IVRs, even though have been around for over 30 years, do not have the kind of maturity that we expect of a technology that old. Here are some of the ideas that would greatly improve performance and uptake of IVRs. VEry few IVRs exhibit these characteristics, and it would be great if more designers adopted these features. 

Memory Memory to  remember caller choices both  within the call and from  earlier calls.

Adaptability / User FriendlinessAdaptability to change parameters and menu choices per various input factors such as area of caller.

Human ResemblanceGive the caller a generic feel that he is interacting with a human. This can be achieved by randomizing certain play prompt messages to reflect human variations in speech.

Seasonal Variations in IVR choicesCallers have specific patterns in performing operations. The IVR can change itself on a periodic basis to reflect majority caller choices. For example, the IVR for the TV channel can automatically push feature addition to the top during cricket season.

Interactive Follow-up of actionThe IVR can follow up through another channel to complete the operation / provide confirmation instead of making caller spend extra time on the IVR waiting for databases to be updated. 

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