Angel.com's IVR System Simplifies Registration for the Notify NYC Program

The Notify NYC program is a citizen warning system that was created to enhance New York City's public communication channels by distributing critical text and voice messages directly to residents’ computers, mobile devices and cell phones.


Through this system, which is managed by the New York City Office of Emergency Management, residents can get emergency alerts about natural disasters, acts of terrorism, AMBER alerts, public health notifications, public school closings/delays, and updates about parking rules suspensions. The system sends alerts via the Web, e-mail and SMS text messages.

Citizens can register for the service by dialing 3-1-1 inside of New York City. What’s more, registrants can add, change or remove additional phone numbers, zip codes and notification types at any time.

The system’s effectiveness is predicated in part by how reliable the registration process is. Obviously there needs to be assurance that the people who register for the service actually receive the alerts. As such, the city has selected Angel.com’s reliable on-demand interactive voice response system to automate the registration process.

Using this speech-enabled, self-serve solution, citizens can register for the service and define which phones, computers and mobile devices they want to receive the alerts on, and which alerts they wish to receive. This will streamline the registration process significantly. With this highly scalable system, dozens or even hundreds of citizens can register for the service simultaneously, without having to wait on hold to speak with a live agent. This is something that the city could not achieve cost effectively using a traditional call center. With Angel.com’s IVR system, the city will save on the labor costs associated with processing each registration “manually” using live agents.

According to a company release, the IVR system, which will be managed by Angel.com, will also facilitate internal communications amongst city employees and work groups.

“We are excited to be a part of such an important program for the City of New York,” said Dave Rennyson, president and COO of Angel.com, in a release. “Notify NYC gives people a chance to prepare for emergencies before they actually happen. By using Angel.com's IVR technology, callers can easily become a part of this program so they can be automatically informed of any critical event.”

Angel.com’s IVR system is completely configurable and manageable by way of a centralized Web-based point of administration. The system comes with the Site Builder toolkit -- a Web-based “point-and-click” application that makes it easy for any user to design, deploy and manage a customized IVR system. This powerful, yet simple-to-use tool kit, which comes free with the hosted IVR service, enables companies to build their own fully-customized speech-enabled- self-serve systems from scratch. This gives companies the ability to differentiate themselves by creating their own unique caller experiences.

Angel.com's on-demand voice technology is currently being used by more than 1,600 customers for phone surveys, virtual call centers, lead generation, CRM integration, and a wide variety of other uses.

In May the company, which sponsors the IVR channel on TMCnet, introduced the latest version of its Spring Forward solution. The new version sports features that “put the caller first” and improve the customer experience. The company claims these new features help organizations reduce costs and boost productivity, thereby freeing-up scarce resources.