While the interactive voice response, or IVR, is familiar to all of us (“press or say one for English”), in the twenty-first century, the technology is getting a bit of a facelift. While standard telephone IVR solutions are increasingly offering natural language processing so callers can “speak” to the system, other IVR solutions built for mobile phones are going beyond audio cues into the realm of visual interactions.
Today, about two-thirds of Americans carry smartphones, according to Nielsen’s recent Digital Consumer Report. This represents a huge jump from 2011, when the figure stood at about 44 percent. What it means is that consumers today are more likely to be contacting companies and other organizations from their smartphones. Because smart organizations are trying to offer callers a better mobile interaction experience, the IVR is being turned on its ear.
Visual IVR offers mobile and PC-based callers a graphical user interface with which to interact and place calls. It’s essentially a menu driven interface to an organization’s IVR system that allows callers to choose the best place to route their calls, not via audio cues but through the screen. It means that callers no longer need to struggle awkwardly, listening to an audio message and then pulling the phone away from their ear to make their selections on the screen.
The technology has become particularly popular with colleges and universities (whose student bodies are even more likely to carry smartphones than the general public). Jacada (News - Alert), Inc. and Vocantas, whose technologies together create Vocantas’ Scaller solution, have revealed that many of their customers are educational institutions.
“A Visual IVR solution, when paired with Vocantas’s (News - Alert) Scaller, is a great way for universities to stand out in terms of servicing their students as it enables students to connect with the university on the go,” said Guy Yair, Jacada’s co-CEO, in a statement.
“Visual menus on their smartphones that are easy to navigate, anytime, anywhere, enrich the popularity of the Scaller student outreach solution. Students today use their smartphones for just about everything,” he noted, adding that a visual interaction with an IVR makes perfect sense to students.
A visual IVR solution can also work on an outbound basis in addition to inbound. Many universities use the solution to reach out to students and find ones who may be struggling. The solution calls students and uses a human voice to ask a series of interactive questions that reveal areas where a student might be experiencing problems. Based on this information, the campus administration are able to follow up individually with students and direct them to support services that address their needs.
From a commercial standpoint, the appeal of a visual IVR solution is obvious. Customers who are pleased with the ease of the interaction will gravitate to it, skipping over companies still using twenty-first century IVR technology that is difficult, if not impossible, to interact with on a smartphone. It’s another way companies can gain a competitive customer excellence edge in a crowded marketplace.
Edited by Blaise McNamee