IVR Solutions

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to IVR Solutions and custom IVR software and products. Business phone systems and toll free answering systems (generally 800 numbers and their equivalent) are very popular for service and sales organizations, allowing customers and prospects to call your organization anywhere in the country. The PACER and WIZARD IVR System is just one of many DSC call center phone system features..

Contact DSC today. to learn more about our IVR services and IVR application development software.

BY DENNIS KYLE, NEXTLINK INTERACTIVE

Self-service" technology has created a new way for us to live. Today's world surrounds us with high levels of information, technology and purchasing power. Consumers use multiple venues to connect with businesses and purchase products. They want to make those connections on their own time, not just during business hours, and they do not want to spend their valuable time on hold or waiting for assistance. Self-service enhances the relationship with your customers because it allows customers to be in control; to use the media they want, to gain quick access to the information they want, when they want it.

Consumers' expectations from service providers continue to escalate as multifunction, multichannel customer service moves forward. Toll-free numbers and live operators used to be sufficient for all customer service tasks; now customers are asking for more answers, more choices, more hours of business, more speed and more satisfaction. In short, they are demanding more self-service capabilities. Satisfying these escalating demands can be expensive and inefficient, impacting the ability to stay competitive and build relationships with customers. Business owners and managers find themselves looking for better ways to deliver more while spending less.

Why Use IVR?

The Benefits Of Using IVR And IWR

Key Technology

• Speech recognition (including the latest technology, natural language processing),
• Fax-on-demand,
• Name and address capture,
• Telephone surveys,
• Dealer locators,
• Market surveys,
• E-commerce, and
• Push-to-talk ("reach me" buttons that transfer Web users to an IVR application or to a live operator call center).

Do-It-Yourself Or Outsource?

Once the decision to develop an IVR/IWR application has been made, the next step is to decide whether you will build it in-house or outsource it.

There are, of course, several factors involved in making this decision. Rapidly advancing technologies, such as speech recognition, the Internet, e-commerce, database functionality and fax-on-demand, can be expensive to develop and maintain. Purchasing, maintaining and managing vendors for some of the necessary equipment, such as VRUs (voice response units), Internet servers, database servers, call routing and telco services, and data transfer services, can become a heavy addition to your budget when brought in-house. It also requires knowledge of the latest technology.

When outsourcing an IVR/IWR application, the outsourced service provider manages the vendor relationships, maintains and updates software and equipment, acts as a single point of contact, offers expert resources in the industry and owns the responsibility of keeping current with the latest technology. This can be beneficial if your company does not have the necessary resources or expertise. When you outsource, you pay for what you need and share the cost of the latest technology with the outsourcer's other customers. When you bring the system in-house, you pay up front, incurring the one-time development cost, then you pay the continuous cost of maintaining the platforms and keeping current with product, software and industry developments.

Items to consider are call volume, application complexity and size, required transcription, fulfillment, data and reporting needs, frequency of script and data changes and level of customer service your company keeps as a standard.

If your application is small, does not expect a large call volume and will not require complex programming, an in-house solution might be the best choice. If your application does not require a large quantity of transcribed records or product fulfillment, an in-house product will accommodate your needs. Otherwise, using an outsource service provider can offer more cost-effective and efficient customer service solutions.

Another consideration is your company's needs and the level of customer service your company strives to attain. If your customer service is on the top of the list and you want to stay competitive, you might consider a high-end solution, which many times can lead to outsourcing.

The global economy is growing with tremendous speed, placing an enormous amount of pressure on companies that want to stay in the race. Consumers' demands and expectations are significant and require companies to participate in the exploitation of today's technology. To meet these growing demands for 24/7 self-service options with efficiency and without absorbing an expensive increase in staffing, many businesses have opted to use interactive voice and Web response applications.