Yes, you have seen the title of this post right!, No typo mistake or any other mistake! I was wondering if IVR industry can be compared with any other industry and for some reason fashion industry came to my mind, pretty quickly before any other industry!

Here are few reasons why I felt IVR industry can be compared with Fashion Industry:-

1. As in Fashion industry, IVR industry too has designers who design call flow! Fashion designers design some clothes, accessories, apparels which has wide application ind ay to day life! Similarly, IVR VUI designers design various IVR systems which have wide applications in a practical life!

2. Designing any apparel requires not only technical expertise, but also artistic creativity! Same almost goes for IVR designing which involves in script writing to recording voice prompts by voice over artist in a studio!

3. Like in fashion industry, lot of design improvements in IVR are done after users feedback! And users of the both products do not care about the hard work put in by designers, developers and only care about the end product and how people are reacting to it!

4. Designers in a fashion industry design clothes for masses as well as classes! IVR designers too have to design their IVR for all, some smart users as well as not-so smart users! Many of the times fashion designers target their designs for high income groups. Some IVRs are also used in banking and some minimum knowledge like English language, Knowledge of Telephony jargon etc are expected from their users!

5. The way fashion industry uses raw materials to produce a product, in IVR industry too, raw materials like CTI boards, PCs or Servers and Software required to produce the complete IVR system!

These are the reasons why some time I feel like comparing IVR industry to Fashion industry! What Industry comes to your mind when you feel like comparing IVR industry to ?

Interactions Corporation announced results of a study on consumer perceptions of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems on 23rd June 2011. Interactions Corporation commissioned Liel Leibovitz, New York University Assistant Professor of Communications, who conducted the study on consumer satisfaction on IVR.

The consumer research was completed in two parts. In the first part, 408 respondents completed an 11-question survey about general attitudes towards IVRs and other service options. In the second part, an additional 21 respondents were interviewed in person and in depth to provide greater insight regarding these customer service options.

“The study concluded that there is continued overwhelming dissatisfaction with Interactive Voice Response Systems, despite the increased investment in, and recent growth of, the IVR industry. Consumers still view them as difficult to use and less desirable than any other service option.

According to consumers, a key shortcoming of IVR systems is that they are difficult to use. On an ease-of-use scale, IVR systems scored lower than any of the other service options and was the only option perceived as difficult to use. In addition, IVR was the least preferred service option with only 15% of consumers choosing IVR as their preferred option. ” Press Release by Interactions, Inc

So, according to the study, they main shortcoming in any IVR system is, it is difficult to use! So, in order to make IVR easier to use by callers, one has to make the IVR very, very simple!

Over the years, I have seen that majority of the IVR systems uses one number to call and then it tries to solve multiple problems, offer multiple services or tries to do multiple tasks. This result in lengthy and boring menus or instructions!

So, the solutions for making IVR very easy to use for callers may be using “One Phone Number One Task IVR” policy! In this policy, an IVR would provide only one service. For example, in a mobile service provider, 1110 will provide prepaid balance of the caller, 1111 will lodge a complaint of the caller for X reason, 1112 will lodge a complaint of the caller for Y reason etc.

Now this will require the IVR user to remember many numbers for his services required! So he can either remember IVR numbers for corresponding services or he may choose to listen to menus!

So, I think the complaint of IVR being difficult to use will keep coming and IVR service providers will have to continuously monitor call abandon and keep trying to make it easier for callers to use!

Yes, it is true. Many people do not like using IVRS! But it is nothing to with IVR as a technology, but poorly designed IVRS. There are few websites who list top 100 worst IVRS! Also website about  IVR cheat code to speak to human agent in shortest way possible.

These sites have been real eye opener to me and I think they clearly make IVRS developers, consultant work harder to make use of IVR more user friendly. IVRS usability is as important as the IVRS itself!

That is the irony! Many people look for just the technological aspects of an IVRS, specially the developers like me! I too get excited about the jargon, SS7, ISDN, Call Handling, CDR etc. while enough importance is not given designing of menus, call flow and day to day monitoring of successful IVR usage.

No doubt, the technological aspect is important to keep the IVRS running 24 hours a day, at the end of the day, if the caller does not find the IVRS to use and get his desired information, the very purpose of installing an IVRS is defeated!

Here is the link to a youtube video about IVRS.

The website to visit to know 100 worst IVR : http://www.touchtonehell.com/

One of the best usage of IVRS is Complaint Management. Using IVRS in complaint management is a real value addition in customer care operation. Any organization which has reasonably large number of customers should go for IVRS. Here is how one can use IVRS in complaint management:-

1. Caller call up complaint number of the company and lodges his complaint, he gets a complaint number generated automatically by IVRS. Also IVRS will announce expected date of rectification or call back by the company.
2. Customer calls again. This time he checks for his status of previous complaint. IVRS retrieves the complaint status and announces accordingly.
3. Customer has option to transfer the call to human agent or transfer the call to other departments.

So with the above example, it is pretty explanatory that IVRS can be used for complaint management in any industry. Attached is a small call flow diagram for Faulty Telephone Number Complaint.

Call Flow Diagram for complaint Management

The above call flow is pretty simple! Here is some detailed call flow of complaint management.

1. Customer calls Complaint Number of the company. IVRS prompts the client to enter customer identification number of serial number of the product.
2. If customer ID is entered by Caller, it will check if any previous/recent complaints are there. If yes, it will announce the status, elese IVRS speaks out list of equipments purchased by the customer and asks to enter the faulty one. And continue with #4 below. Else continue #3.
3. If customer enters serial number of a product
4. IVRS will announce list of commonly known problems, faults of the product and asks for choosing one among them. Also this will have option to record the complaint in voice.

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4. IVRS records the choice by the customer, record the voice if any, and then store the above information in a database, generated a complaint number along with tentative rectification date and announces them to the customer.
5. As soon as customer hangs up, IVRS will create a complete database record and send out an email to the concerned person.
6. Another great enhancement is SMS. Once a customer lodges a complaint, an automatic SMS would go to his Mobile Number along with Complaint Number and expected rectification date.
7. IVRS will have record of all call activities as well as complaint MIS. This will help management of the company in improving customer care as well as monitor employee performance.
8. The IVRS can also be integrated with existing CRM or web based complaint management system.

There are many IVRS companies who can deliver such a solution as above. But integrating SMS and existing CRM is not that easy. Niche Tech Services (P) Ltd is one such company which specializes in customise IVRS as well as SMS and existing CRM integration.

The above two examples can be extended to any industry.

What is call flow ?

Call flow is the options offered to caller by the IVR Application. When a caller calls to a IVR number, he is given various choices. After he chooses one option, he may be required to enter few more choices before he finally gets his required information.  This complete call flow, right from the Welcome Prompt to the retrival of information and presentation can be presented in Flow Diagram in same as FlowChart for algorithm.

Importance of Call Flow

In my opinion, one should not even attempt to design IVR Application without finalising the call flow with the client. Changing Call flow may not only require changes in code, but also voice prompts! It may take time to record voice prompts, edit and test again. Many people do not like TTS ( Text-To-Speech) converter. So call flow finalisation is a must.

Customisation of IVR Application

Customisation of IVR Application is the design and finalisation of above call flow! The other technical integration like configuring CTI card, integrating with EPABX etc. are normally standard and same in all over the world. Also CTI vendors are quite prompt now a days in helping integrating their cards with different kind of exchanges. So, effectivily customisation comes down to only the customisation of call flow.

There may not be any fixed call flow for any industrial segment! Most probably Indian Railways have a fixed call flow for their IVR Application which they install at major Railway stations for train information announcement. Also they use different voice prompts and different languages.

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Most probably, this kind of customization requirement has resulted in coming out of Visual Tools to write scripts for implementing call flow by various companies! VoiceGuide, VBVoice, ExtendIVR  etc. have such tools for rapid develeopment of IVR Application! These tools have become so flexible and advanced, they can even integrate with existing database.

So, practically as a user, you may not have encountered IVR with same call flow at different places except few large organisations like Railways, Telecom Companies. This make using IVR difficult to use as well as this make IVR Application development challanging.