Among the many applications available with IVR Hosting providers, which could be leveraged by any start-up companies or smaller companies, Virtual Receptionist is one of the most useful whose benefit is measurable and very evident.

While many traditional PBX systems too offer facility of virtual receptionist, concept of virtual receptionist is nothing new in telecom domain, when a ‘Virtual Receptionist’ is implemented using IVR system at the background integrated with SMS (Short Messaging Service), E-mail, Call Whisper etc. apart from intelligent call routing, the whole concept becomes very interesting an useful!

So, how IVR based hosted Virtual Receptionist is different from traditonal virtual receptionist available in PBX systems ?

First of all, choosing an hosted IVR has its own advantages like very small or no initial investment in hardware as well as time to set up the system! PBX based virtual receptionist has limitations in terms of configuring complex and intelligent routing, integration with third party business logic etc.

Being majorly software driven, hosted IVR based virtual receptionist can have any type of computation capability, easy integration with third party systems like SMS, CRM etc.

Few smart features which makes IVR based Hosted Virtual Receptionist interesting and a must have for many companies :-

1. Hosted virtual Receptionist would work 24 hours a day, play different greetings at different time. It can even use multiple languages depending on the caller ID. For example, it will greet ‘Good Morning’ in morning, ‘Good Afternoon’ in the afternoon. If it detects caller ID from Spain, it can greet in Spanish, like “Buenos días, bienvenidos a nuestra empresa” ( Good Morning, welcome to our company ) even if your company is in China!

2. Virtual receptionist can send you immediate alert for any incoming call either by SMS or E-email. This SMS or Email can information like Caller ID, time of call. And if the caller has recorded a voice mail, the recorded audio file can also be attached in the email as WAV file. WAV file can be played back on BlackBerry, IPhone or Android phones. So, one never has to miss any important update!

3. Call whisper is one important feature where hosted virtual receptionist can speak out the caller ID and ask for an key press option either to receive the call or transfer to someone else or to voice mail! This kind of call screening is specially useful for calls from irritating tele-callers or banks asking for loan returns. (Ok, the later part was a joke.)

4. Hosted IVR service providers would have record of each and every call, their status ( either forwarded, voice mail, or out office hour, holidays etc.). This is very useful for marketing and sales lead generation point of view as it provides real time, online report using which one can measure lead captures, converted etc.

Few practical and pressing reason why you should opt for hosted Virtual Receptionist ?

If you are small company and have to travel out of office during office hour or out-station, hosted virtual receptionist is the service for you!

Hosted virtual receptionist provider like Niche Tech Services Private Limited can provide you with 10 digit mobile number owned by you! So even if you change IVR service provider, the number remains with you!

With online and accurate MIS, accessible from net anywhere, your office people can no longer avoid or lie about any inquiries on phones to the office! One can fix responsibility if any one does not attend a call during office hour!

So, with hosted virtual receptionist, you no longer need to be afraid of high initial and recurring investment to have your own smart receptionist!

Hosted IVR services are in still nascent state as such, except Bulk Voice Calling, which has grown on the back of SMS ( Short Messaging Service) mass messaging after Mobile Phone revolution in India! But still, hosted IVR Service providers face many problems, majorly from telecom service providers.

Hosted IVR Service : Handicapped by Telcos

Lately, many companies have understood benefit of Hosted IVR services, but still they find the cost high. Though the cost seems much lower compared to IVR hosting Services in other countries like United States of America, United Kingdom etc.

Here are few problems which are faced by Hosted IVR Service providers in India :-

1. High Outbound Call cost

Though the mobile phone call rate in India is very cheap compared to other countries, but the story is not that simple for enterprise PRI line call costs. First, India is divided into 23 circles and there is differential charging for inter circle and intra-circle calls. Intra-circle cost is cheaper than Inter Circle ( known as STD or NLD ) cost. Then again, the cost for mobile phones does not apply to PRI lines. The cost for all circles uniform cost which is a requirement for Hosted IVR Service, starts with one rupee depending on the call volume committed!
But a normal customer is used to hearing about cost something like 1paise per 10 seconds which are available for Mobile Phone subscriber! So, it is really difficult to convince customers about high cost of outbound calls.

2. High Inter-operator Connectivity cost

There is a cost which customer has to pay is for inter operator connectivity cost! While mobile operators charge and collect payment from their subscribers for inter-operator connectivity, operators often go into dispute among themselves resulting in suspension of routing calls between them. Recently, both Reliance infocomm and stat run telecom company BSNL ( Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) had suspended connectivity between each other!

And it was only for enterprise solutions, not for normal Mobile of Telephone users. So it resulted many inconvenience to Hosted IVR service providers, Toll free number owners etc.

3. Frequent Downtime

Though India boasts of fastest growing telecom market, the quality of service is relatively poor! Though many telecom operators claim to have up-time more than 99.8%, in reality, it is much lower at 94-95% only! Since Hosted IVR service providers depend on Telephony infrastructure, they also suffer downtime accordingly which reduces customer trust on Hosted IVR services.

4. Problem in quick capacity enhancement

Many telecom providers provide PRI links from their BTS or switch using RF link. This has limitation of increasing capacity when required. So if some one wants to increase capacity, it takes some two months time to get new PRI connections. So, hosted IVR service provider has to either invest heavily and carry the burden of unused PRI lines, or wait 2 months period for capacity enhancements.

5. Lack of IP telephony

Lack of IP telephony in India is one hindrance, I think, which is hampering growth of IVR service, specially in call centre field. IP Telephony can not be bridged to any land-line or mobile phone network due to security reasons. With high outbound calls and lack of IP Telephony is hampering many hosted IVR applications being provided by IVR hosting companies.

VoIP or IP Telephony can lower high outbound cost in India.

6. Tier 2 & 3 cities do not have many Operators

Smaller cities, apart from metros, not many telecom companies have built up infrastructure to provide PRI lines. Presently, only BSNL and Reliance seems to be capable of provide PRI connectivity in all cities in India. This has also resulted in lack of competition and monopoly as well as poor service and own time.

So, till the telecom infrastructure and quality of service by telecom service providers, Hosted IVR service in India will always be handicapped!

*With feedback from Ankit Bhargava, Director – Marketing, Niche Tech Services (P) Ltd.

In India, not many courier companies have tracking system on IVR ( Interactive Voice Response) system, though almost everyone has web-based online tracking system. Majority of the courier companies have their offices or franchisees in many smaller cities for larger coverage as well as networks in India. Most websites of the courier companies list the phone numbers of these offices for local tracking of the shipments.

Recently, I have observed that, few employees are almost busy all the time answering telephone calls in these offices and tracking the shipment according to the consignment number. On top of that, these employees majorly check the status manually on their computer and inform status of the shipment to the caller.

All these processed could be automated completely using IVR hosting service at any location in India. It is possible since the tracking system is already cumputerised as well as accessible online. Courier tracking on IVR is being widely used in western countries like United States of America, Europe etc.

In any shipment, it has few finite status, for example, it will have the following statuses :-

1. Shipment in transit : This will state that, the shipment is on transit but it has not reached the destination. It can also announce the current city where the shipment has reached apart from expected delivery date.

2. Shipment at Destination : Shipment has reached the destination town or city, could be collected in person, but delivery will be made next day only.

3. Shipment out for delivery : Shipment is in destination city/town, and shipment is taken out for delivery. Most probably, many people would enquire during this status!

4. Shipment Delivered : Shipment has been delivered on time and date.

In hosted IVR enthronement, it should be quite easy to retrieve the status of any shipment by its consignment number. Courier

Since online tracking is already available on web, courier companies can easily provide an HTTP based API ( Application Programming Interface) to retrieve the shipment status to hosted IVR system.

Here is tentative steps, how hosted IVR service for shipment tracking can work :-

1. Caller calls the IVR number and IVR greets him in his local language as per caller id.
2. Caller dials the consignment number.
3. Hosted IVR uses Web service API to retrieve the current status and announce that.

So, hosted IVR can easily provide telephone based shipment tracking system in easy and simple ways using the local languages. Hosted IVR for shipment tracking system can be very useful as it is quick to go live and does not require any big initial investment.

While web based shipment tracking is very useful, but it can be used by many illiterate people as well as those people who do not have internet access. But now a days, majority people have access to mobile phone or public telephone booth, using which one can track shipment status on IVR. Another main advantage of IVR is use of local language which is not possible in case of websites.

Hosted IVR based tracking system can reduce burden of employees of courier companies, provide useful and time tracking system to its clients.

With more than 690million telephone users ( both land line and mobile), India is one of the fastest growing growing telecom market. Very quickly advertisers thought this an opportunity to market products and they started bombarding mobile phone users with various promotional messages which led to creation of Do Not Call Registry (NDNC Registry) by TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).

BULK VOICE MESSAGE IN GROWING

Though many opine that people are using NDNC Registry as database of mobile numbers which are active, still the growth of SMS ( Short Messaging Service) advertising as well as SMS as tool of alert is slowing down while bulk voice calling is growing more and more. SMS is still widely used in India for, but Bulk Voice SMS or outbound Voice calls are also catching up.

I have also been getting many questions/enquiries from our readers about outbound IVR to make bulk voice calls and such questions/enquiries are growing over the time. Here are few reasons why, I think, IVR bulk voice call is growing and is set to grow more:-

1. Voice can be of any language
While information and messages in SMS are written in English language or Roman script only, IVR Voice call does not have such limitation. Though India has fairly large number of English speaking population, but when they are greeted with their own mother tongue or vernacular language, it instantly attracts and connect with them. Also, there are millions of mobile users who do not simply read SMS or do not know how to read! How voices in different languages is important in India, one may be able to gauge by the fact that India has more that 22 official languages each spoken by at least 10million population. This is apart from more than 250 dialects.

2. Message Delivery and Delivery Report

Another problem with SMS have been it delivery and delivery reporting to advertisers. While it may be condonable in case of product promotion, but delivery report is a must for any utility service using SMS. IVR outbound calling maintains complete delivery report whether call was picked up by the called party or not, if the destination number was answering machine, FAX or voice mail. Also after picking up the phone, did the destination number hear whole voice message or not, all these information are available with bulk voice calling.

3. Land Line numbers do not have SMS facility

India also has large number of land line numbers and only voice message is the only option to alert them. With easy availability of bulk voice calling service now a days, many people have started reaching out to these land-line users too, either for promotional activities or telemarketing. Also, many have realised that land line numbers already has a proven address which is required for many services like credit card, online shopping etc.

4. Instant Feedback and Interactive

While using SMS also one can expect some interactivity as well as feedback, but using voice call by an outbound IVR is much easier and faster. It is more convenient for the called person who can respond to any call just by speaking a word or pressing a key. While in case of SMS, one needs to type few words and send SMS! More ever, while sending out SMS, user is charged for sending SMS and in case of voice message call, it is completely free. So this encourages people to respond to surveys conducted by voice call than SMS.

Recently, there have been many outbound bulk voice service providers in India with competitive pricing. So, if one has been using SMS for alert and promotional activities, it is time to use bulk voice message!

What is Bulk Voice Call ?

Bulk Voice Calling is broadcasting of pre-recorded voice message to many telephone numbers simultaneously or sequentially. It is voice or IVR version of SMS ( Short Message Service) broadcasting which is now a days widely used for various purposes. Bulk voice calling is also known as call blast, voice broadcasting, Automated Voice Campaigns, Voice SMS etc.

Bulk Voice Calling is picking up

Bulk voice broadcasting is normally a hosted IVR solution or part of any IVR system.

How does it work ?

Bulk Voice calling is essentially an outbound IVR ( Interactive Voice Response) System with one specific function, that is to dial telephone numbers from database or a list, and play a pre-defined programmed recorded audio file and play it when the called party picks the call. It also has to keep record of all success calls ( outbound calls which were picked by the called party and heard the recorded voice message) or abandoned calls which were not picked by the called party.

It is easy to develop a bulk voice calling system. One can use either modem or analog CTI cards or digital CTI boards. The CTI board must be capable of CPA ( Call Progress Analysis) to detect call pick up, detect answering machine, voice mail or human.

To provide professional bulk voice service, one needs to have lot of telecm infrastructure :-

1. In order to make simultaneous calls, many PRI/E1 lines are required. Correspondingly, one will need digital CTI boards.

2. One must have web-based control panel to allow users access the reports, trigger bulk message etc. API ( Application Programming Interface) is also desirable to give white label solutions.

3. Finally, intelligent outbound IVR software.

Few essential points one should look for in a Bulk Voice Call providers:-

1. How many simultaneous calls possible at one point of time.

2. Since audio needs to be played real time, so duration of the recorded audio file is the duration of each calls. So, one should know how one call is counted, in 30 seconds pulse of 60 seconds pulse.

3. Online and live reporting of calls and reason for any call failure.

4. Refund policy for failed outbound calls, call attended by answering machine, voice mail etc.

5. Caller ID for making outbound call whether it is dynamic or fixed caller id.

Usage of Bulk Voice Calling

Now a days, bulk voice calling or call bast is being used in many ways.

1. Alert System/Reminder system
2. Pill remainder System
3. Electioneering
4. Automatic registration welcome and verification of phone number
5. Payment remainder
6. Promotion and advertising
7. Appointment remainder

and many more!

Bulk Voice calling can be used just like SMS is being used! Using Bulk voice calling has few advantages over SMS blasting like live monitoring, delivery report and instant monitoring!

IVR Hosting is growing world-wide and many people are increasingly opting for Hosted IVR solutions. Though hosted IVR Solution may not be able to replace On-Preimse IVR solutions in some cases, but here are top five reasons why one should opt for IVR hosting :-

IVR Hosting ay be your ideal IVR solution!

1. Future Proof

With increasing number of CTI vendors as well as available CTI boards, it has not only become difficult to choose a CTI board, but it has also created a new risk, that is obsolescence! Many people may remember buying good old D/4PCI without any fear or consideration of going obsolete, but not anymore!
With recent advancement in speech recognition technologies, as well as complex IVR systems which may require data exchange between servers located at many places, one can safely say that, today’s IVR technology is going to be obsolete a lot quicker than before.

In hosted IVR solution, this is never going to be a problem for user! One can expect, the hosted IVR service provider will always be updated with latest technologies, features available in IVR technology.

2. No maintenance and no support nightmare

IVR System consists of more than one components. For example, it has telecom components which connects you to the PSTN ( Public Switch Network). Then there is a computer Server and power as well as power back up. Apart from this, there is one CTI vendor as well as IVR Software vendor!

Most of the times, you do not find one single vendor providing you all above components. So, one needs to contact all these vendors for support. One may even encounter a problem like, CTI vendor blaming the Telecom connectivity for the IVR system malfunctioning, while the computer hardware guy blaming the IVR software.

In hosted IVR solution, you have only one problem, only one support, either your IVR is working or it is not. And contact only one support for this. It will save time and resources for any company.

3. Real-time monitoring of expenses and exit route

With IVR hosting service, one can actually measure ROI ( return on Investment) quickly and in real time. From the monthly payment to the Hosted IVR service provider, one can measure exact number of calls, call abandonment, successful calls and any saving in human intervention. But one may argue, these data are available on On-Premise solution too. Yes, but when you know use of IVR is not reducing burden of human resources, you have had already invested on the IVR systems as capital expenditure!

But with Hosted IVR solution, you have quick exit route or try out different type of call flow, different features. On premise IVR, one can not expect these benefits!

4. Focus your core business, no allocate resources for IVR a business tool for you

IVR system is a business automation system to automate customer care, reduce human intervention, increase accuracy of information as well as collecting measurable information about callers and customers. Maintaining or developing IVR system may not be your core competence. So, one should devote resources in their core competence rather than devoting resources in IVR upkeep.

Hosted IVR is the perfect solution which offers complete IVR solution without having to know anything about IVR yourself.

5. Quick upgrade and expansion

Hosted IVR offers facility to upgrade capacity of calls, or any other required feature quickly. One can also opt for using different technology for different kind of calls. For example, one may opt for VOIP for outbound calls while using TDM network for incoming calls by the customers. The best part is, one can change this kind for arrangement frequently as per requirement. With On-Premise IVR, one is stuck with the CTI board purchased as well as initial SRS ( System Requirement Specification) of IVR.
These kind of flexible features are available with IVR hosting and if one requires these facility, he might have invest a lot in different hardware alone!

So, it may be time for you to think about IVR hosting seriously!

VXML(Voice XML) is widely used by IVR users who prefer to host their voice applications with hosted IVR provider. Mostly, companies or organizations who want to have their complete control on the voice application and do not want to invest in CTI hardware and infrastructure of running a data center along with telephone lines.

In simple and plain language, VXML based applications remain at IVR user premise and hosted IVR system downloads VXML codes to its server and executes the codes. By this arrangement, VXML based voice applications remain at the control of the IVR user while users of that voice application call up hosted IVR number and avail the IVR service.

Payment gateway, CRM ( Customer Resource Management) are few IVR applications which are widely configured to work in the above architecture.

Though VXML is preferred tool for writing such voice applications, as it works seamlessly with any web services as well as its similarity in coding with HTML. Now a days, many hosted IVR service providers provide visual tools for developing voice applications which are faster and simpler to learn and develop any kind of voice applications.

Main advantages of use of VXML for voice application to be hosted are :-

1. VXML is standard adopted by W3C and now supported by all hosted IVR providers. It provides flexibility to change its call flow locally without having to depend on hosted IVR provider.

2. Many high end PABX systems supports VXML now a days. There are large community who are actively developing VXML based voice applications.

3. VXML offers very high flexibility in terms of distributed computing as VXML codes may reside in many web servers which would be fetched by hosted IVR server. New VXML voice applications could be stored in different server anytime without any changes in hosted IVR platform.

4. Adopting new technologies like automatic speech recognition (ASR), text to speech conversion ( TTS) and other CTI technologies are easy for VXML based voice applications.

Though VXML provides many advantages, it has some disadvantages too:-

1. VXML interpreter introduces new cost of total IVR system which may increase cost of the IVR system.

2. It is not that easy to write voice applications using VXML and to maintain it, trained VXML coders are required full time.

3. There are many hosted IVR service providers who do not support VXML due to cost component. Other alternatives to VXML, visual tools like INVOX come with free for hosted IVR subscriber and much easier to develop voice applications.

So, for voice applications which need to be tightly integrated with other web services, VXML seems to a good choice while quick changes in call flow, visual tool for designing call flow seems better choice.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system itself is new in India even after decade of high telecom growth and penetration. And hosted IVR was almost unknown in India till recently. But now, few companies have come up with hosted IVR solutions to cater to few specific IVR applications.

Till now, IVR systems were thought to be standalone, on premise CTI systems for answering customer calls and transfer calls to some department, record a complaint, announce train/flight status and schedule. But with increasing telecom density, both users and telecom providers have been pushing IVR companies to provide many utility services using telephone or mobiles. For example, making payment using IVR system, listening to music on voice portal etc.

Indian IVR market seems to be now rapidly waking up to hosted IVR concept. Till few years back, not many people bothered much about VXML, CCXML. But now a days even normal IVR users are aware about these ‘jargon’. Also many US-based companies who have been using IVR for many customer service related applications, CRM applications on a hosted platform, have recently been actively looking for hosted IVR service providers in India.

There are few IVR services which are available or being implemented in India are :-

1. Voice Blast or Bulk Voice Message

After success of SMS marketing, voice SMS or bulk voice messaging was a natural graduation. In voice Message service, hosted IVR calls up telephone numbers and play a recorded message. This was widely used during election campaigns. There are few IVR companies which provide this service.

Automated dialer is another variant of outbound IVR application which is available in India as hosted IVR service.

2. Click To Call Service

Click To Call service has been in Indian market as hosted IVR service for few years now. It is widely used in trading, directory websites. Recently, travel portals, job portals and real estate websites have woken up to the usefulness of click to call service.

3. Complaint Management System

This is another application which is being used by some companies as Hosted IVR service. With reducing bandwidth cost, and increasing internet penetration, IVR based complaint management system has potential to become preferred complaint management for smaller organisations.

4. IVR Survey

There has been few instances where IVR based survey had been used in India. It is still in nascent stage, but this is one potential area. IVR survey offer many benefits over other traditional form of surveys like mailer, email, face to face, SMS etc.

So, Indian market is also moving towards hosted IVR services slowly. Though biggest IVR users in India, government sectors like Indian railways, BSNL etc. may still be using on-premise IVR systems, but smaller private sector industries like private telecom service providers, ISPs, payment gateway providers, hospitality industry may opt for hosted IVR service quickly.

Few of the hosted IVR service providers are, Niche Tech Services Private Ltd., Simmortel Voice, Phonon, etc.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) System is solution that perform specific tasks related to presenting, sharing gathering information of a company with its customers or any one over phone. With fast development of internet, IVR systems too have moved from on-premise system to hosted service.

How it evolved
Like any other computer software, IVR has evolved from standalone application to highly networked application with many intelligence as per industry where it is being used. For example, a typical voice portal application fetches data from many different servers located at various geographical locations. The main CTI server is normally located at telecom service provider while all contents, MIS etc are contactly updated, monitored from office of the voice portal operators, all using internet as backbone.
Similarly, other IVR applications like complaint management, company information, IVR survey, hotel information etc. could be hosted at remote sites and its activities, reports could be viewed, analyzed live using internet connection or on website. So, IVR as a hosted service has evolved and is growing.

How it works

Hosted IVR service providers offers the following services to its customer:-

1. Dedicated Telephone number which will receive calls from/make calls to its customers.
2. DIY ( Do it yourself) visual tools for designing their IVR call flow
3. Third party database integration or integration with existing CRM ( Customer Resource Management) software.
4. Any customised call flow implementation
5. Maintenance, upgrade of the IVR system.

A hosted IVR service provider has infrastructure which is already connected to telecom operators for managing telephone call related activities as well as integration of CTI boards with telephone switch, call routing. It also has CDR MIS available online for any customers for their allotted telephone numbers or channel(s). It can allocate more channels to handle more calls simultaneously.

A hosted IVR customer only need to worry about their application part, their call flow, IVR prompts, script etc.

Advantages

• People who are not convinced about success of IVR implementation or its usefulness for his business process, using hosted IVR service is the best option. As hosted IVR service offers him quickest time for go live with an IVR system.
• Initial cost of CTI board, time spent on integration with telephone switch etc. are avoided while using a hosted IVR service.

Available tools
There are many tools which can be used for hosted IVR services. Invox, Apexvoice, Pronexus VBVoice, CT ADE etc. are few tools which are widely used for hosted IVR service.

Hosted IVR has started in India in the form of Bulk outbound voice messages recently which is being increasingly used for political campaign, awareness campaign, e-governance as well as voice advertising. “Click to Call” is another hosted IVR service which is growing in India recently.

What is hosted outbound IVR service ?
Hosted outbound IVR service can be defined as a service provided by a IVR Service provider using which one can make outgoing calls to large telephone numbers and play a recorded voice as soon as the called party picks up the call. Calls could be scheduled by the client who is availing the outbound IVR service through either an web-based interface, or API ( Application Programming Interface) or URL link.

Recently, there has been few companies in India, which have started providing hosted outbound IVR services. It has become a good tools for marketing along with SMS(Short Messaging Services), Email alerts.

Usage of Outbound IVR Service:

There are many usage of outbound IVR services. It can be used to for the following :-

1. Promotional Campaigns
Any marketing agencies build up large number of telephone numbers of their clients over a period of time. So, when they want to launch or announce a new product in short period of time, automated outbound call is one option. Outbound IVR will dial out the numbers and play the audio clip announcing the new service, product and discount/sale.
This type of promotional campaign can be conducted along with SMS, email campaigns.

2. Public awareness campaign
Various public awareness campaigns like AIDS, Road Safety Week etc. could be organised using hosted auto dialer application. Now a days, during election campaign, most of the political parties use outbound IVR services to send out voice messages from the candidates to the masses in short span of time.

3. E-Governance
Recently, e-governance has been a buzz word in India where many public utility services have been made available in internet as well as in electronic format making access to many government schemes easier. Hosted outbound IVR service can be used for alerting a person with the status of their applications by various government departments.

4. Medical Services
Outbound IVR services can be used as reminder services for visiting hospital for patient check ups. Hospitals can use outbound IVR service for discounted health checkups, free medical checkups etc.

5. Polls
Various telephonic polls could be conducted using a hosted IVR service. People could be asked some questions and their reply could be recorded either in voice or DTMF digits. This would be cast effective and it could be conducted in a short span of time. Various TV channels could use this for any recent events, news to get public opinion.

Enhancements
Hosted IVR service can be enhanced with some advanced features which will increase utility of hosted outbound services.

1. Option to transfer the promotional call to a live agent
For example, while making promotional voice call to a person, option should be given to the called party to speak to a live agent if she is interested in the product/service and wants to learn more about it. This may convert to sales immediately.

2. Option to record voice
Hosted IVR service could give called party an option to record their message as feedback.

3. Option to finalise an appointment
Any remainder or alert voice call by hosted IVR service should have option to confirm an appointment by pressing a key or by voice. For example, in a medical check up, car servicing alert etc.

So, hosted auto dialer application can become a very useful marketing tool in line with SMS, e-mailers.