IVR services: multiple solutions for different needs

Written by Eric Fleming

When most people think of interactive voice response services (or IVR), the first thing that comes to mind is probably an electronic customer service representative. This type of solution allows the customer to their banking information, inquire about shipping status, and more. But that's not all the available IVR services out there.

What are common IVR services?

Along with the common auto attendant-style IVR services, here are some popular uses for interactive voice response technology:

• Telephone banking – Without ever talking to a human, bank customers can check their account balances, transfer money from one account to another, schedule a bill payment, and more.
• Caller ID and routing – This is more an auto attendant feature, but again – with no human contact – a person can request a particular phone extension, department, or voice mail account.
• Weather, movie time,  and more – Whether you're looking for an upcoming forecast, an upcoming movie time or when the next bus arrives in your area, IVR services meet all those needs.
• Ordering – Want to reserve a ticket to an upcoming sporting event or a seat on an airplane? Interactive voice response makes this possible at any time of day, even when most of the sales staff has gone home for the night.

How IVR services benefit business

As handy as using IVR services can be for a customer, it also benefits business. The main way is through the reduced cost.

With a bank of computers running 24x7x365, a business owner doesn't need to staff as many call center personnel during the middle of the night, which makes staying "open" to the public much cheaper. A company that takes advantage of IVR services presents not only a large presence to the world, but a professional one as well.

Rather than forcing would-be customers to remain on hold for long periods of time, those customers have their problems or concerns dealt with quickly, which also helps with customer satisfaction.

What to look for in an IVR vendor

In looking for an IVR vendor, a business will need to decide between a couple of different options.

The first is whether or not to go with IVR hosting or IVR management. In IVR hosting, the vendor will integrate a company's IVR services needs into its existing infrastructure. This often leads to lower costs (especially for computer hardware), but does lead to an inevitable loss of control, as the actual program is stored off-site, and the company will typically need to deal with the IVR vendor with questions. This can also be a benefit, however, as in many cases support staff is on-call and ready to help.

The other possibility is IVR management, in which the company develops and deploys the IVR services via on-site, with management and help from the IVR vendor. This choice often necessitates higher up-front hardware costs, but can be cheaper in the long run, although more technical expertise and programming ability are needed.

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