IVR at the Museum

This summer my dad and I both took some vacation time to go see my sister as a sort of mini family reunion. One of the things that we did on the trip was drive down from her place to Washington D.C. to see the sights. We went to about as much of the Smithsonian as you can fit in with only a few days of time, and while I was reading about all of the different exhibits, there was one thing I saw that stood out: cell phone audio tours.

Quite a few exhibits had signs or placards up with a phone number and "extension" that you could call from your cell phone to listen to more information about that particular display. We saw these signs everywhere from inside the different Smithsonian buildings to the National Botanic Garden. With my nerdy side shining through, I couldn't help but think, "What a wonderful application for an interactive voice response system!" Everyone these days carries a cell phone with them, and these call-in numbers give anyone who is interested the opportunity to hear more about the displays that interest them straight from the source, whether it is a recording made by the artist or the curator or gardener.

What IVR is and its Applications

Interactive voice response (IVR) has a way of sounding very complicated, and that is largely because it is such a powerful and dynamic technology that the possibilities alone can be a bit daunting. It is a little bit easier to grasp if we break it down to some of the unique applications that IVR can be used for. In this case, the museum is in essence putting together an information line. Visitors call the information line, input the number displayed for their current location, and the appropriate audio is played back to them. In other cases, it can be used as an answering attendant to direct incoming phone calls to different extensions, collecting data in an automated telephone survey, or a variety of other tasks.

So while part of me hates to admit that work followed me on my vacation in the form of IVM interactive voice response software, another part of me really got a kick out of seeing this great application for an IVR system at the museum. It's something to keep in mind if you are looking for a solution to help you share information or your expertise without having to always be available in person.

Speech Commands in IVR Telephone Systems

In the most recent version of IVM interactive voice response software, v5.03 added a new speech recognition feature that allows the automated system to accept speech commands in addition to key presses as responses. This gives callers added flexibility when navigating an IVR system.

IVM is a powerful interactive phone system perfect for a variety of tasks from setting up an information hotline to a voicemail system or automated attendant. We hope that users will find this new option a convenient feature in designing useful and user-friendly call flow patterns for their interactive telephone systems.

Read more about best practices in designing an interactive voice response system.

Auto Dial feature for Axon Virtual PBX in development

Axon virtual windows PBX is one of the keystone products of our telephony suite. The fact that Axon runs on a windows pc makes it much easier for small businesses to setup up a complete phone management system themselves, even without a dedicated IT person on staff.

A PBX is an important piece of a phone management for business or call centers, allowing you to create extensions for individuals, have internal dialing and other features like hold, transfer and voicemail, and soon we will be adding a new power dialing feature to Axon that will be another valuable addition for call centers and other small businesses that need to manage making outbound calls to a list of customers or potential clients.

Our development team has been working on adding an automatic dialer feature, similar to what you may think of as a predictive dialing system. This new power dialer will allow users in a call center type environment to share a list of contacts in a campaign by a list of agents (eg. sales staff or customer service personnel). When an agent is ready to make their next call, at the press of a button the auto dialer will automatically grab the next uncompleted person from the list and dial the number for them, which can save time.

This new feature will be similar to Express Dial which integrates with the Express Talk softphone for a single user, but by allowing multiple people to work off a campaign it helps expand the capabilities to better suit a small businesses or call center.

FTC bans robocalls and unsolicited automated telemarketing phone calls

Have you heard that starting today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put a ban on robocalls made by telemarketers? Telemarketers will now need written permission from the customer in order to practice this type of phone solicitation. Any telemarketer in violation of this new policy will face up to $16,000 in penalty charges per phone call.

NCH is excited at the thought of not having our day interrupted by robocalls. In fact, the chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, said, "American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year."

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Calls that deliver information, as opposed to selling something, will not be affected by this ban. So things like automatic reminders about appointments or something like a bad weather delay or cancellation can still be made with an automated system.

As a company that offers a software product that can perform robocalls, we worried at first about our sales. What would be the impact the ban on robocalls would have on our IVM Answering Attendant? While we realize some sales may be lost, we have a great deal of confidence in IVM as more than a just robocall-software product. The list of features and benefits IVM provides extends way beyond automated outbound calling, including:

• Call attendant - use as a automated attendant to facilitate directing and transferring incoming calls.
• Connect to telephone line(s) using a professional telephony board, voice modem, directly to a VoIP service, or to a PBX like Axon Virtual PBX.
• Corporate voice mail solution for anywhere from a single line answering message to hundreds of voice mailboxes. Recorded messages can be played at any time, forwarded to an email address, or accessed remotely.
• Interactive Voice Response system design your own advanced IVR system for anything from an information line to a phone-in customer survey. The possibilities are endless.
• Call Logging - all calls are logged with the date, time and caller ID information.

So no more, “Congratulations, you’ve just won a free vacation,” or “Would you be interested in trying new car insurance.” We could not be happier that these pesky messages we did not sign up for will no longer be interrupting our daily life, but why not explore the other possibilities IVM Auto Attendant software can offer your business?