Originally appeared in the July 2010 issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions

The big challenge with IVR has been to get people to use and stay in the automated self-service systems. Even speech rec can be frustrating sometimes. Therefore automated voice solutions require fine-tuning to maximize their ROI.

Microsoft Tellme has now taken automated voice to that end with Tellme (News - Alert) Platform Central, the latest enhancement to its platform.  It now allows businesses to understand whether their customers completed their requested tasks in the system, thereby enabling companies to invest efficiently in changes that directly improve caller success, while also providing quantifiable visibility of progress toward business objectives.

In a nutshell that means higher completion rates, fewer zero outs, greater customer satisfaction (always a challenge with automated voice), lower costs and hopefully greater profits.

Tellme Platform Central’s features include customizable reporting, which enables tracking performance by tasks and user segments unique to each application and improved application analytics that permits gaining a deeper understanding of customer behavior. It has sophisticated access control: A simple intuitive interface for project-level and resource-level access control. There is also self-services telephony provisioning that permits provisioning and managing the telephony settings for your applications running on Tellme. Firms have quick access to technical documentation via an online library that aggregates documentation and support in single area.

“While automation and call containment rates give a glimpse into IVR performance, these measurements only tell one side of the story,” says Microsoft (News - Alert) Tellme.

“Understanding the experience at the other end of the line enables you to provide the best possible self-service for your callers.”