Cross-Industry

There are many IVR solutions that are used across many industries. They solve general business issues and are not tied to any particular industry or method of doing business. All businesses are faced with providing better customer (external and internal) service while dealing with cutting costs. The key is to find those areas of the business where automating processes makes the most sense from both a financial and a customer impact viewpoint.

Cross-Industry Solutions

Bulletin Board/Information Services

Callers can retrieve information on a variety of issues by simply following the prompts. The information and the specific flow of the prompts are set up by the business to meet the needs of their callers and can be modified at any time. This is the most common use of IVR solutions in the market today.

CTInsight

CTInsight provides multiple benefits to businesses with Avaya Call Centers. It is available as an enhancement to Avaya Contact Center Express (CCE) / Avaya Interaction Center (IC) or as a stand-alone solution. CTInsight offers three primary value enhancements:

Delivers information to the agent desktop that identifies the caller and allows the agent to more efficiently and effectively handle the call.
Saves time and dollars by using business intelligence to route calls to the correct destination, reducing the need for redirected calls.
Provides a better experience by helping callers get to the most appropriate agent for their needs and minimizing the necessity to provide information multiple times.

CTInsight is offered in a number of available configurations. In the simplest form, it monitors incoming calls for the associated Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) and Automatic Number Identification (ANI) information provided by the switched telephone network. CTInsight then provides the mechanism to display that information to an agent desktop at the same time the call arrives at the agent’s telephone.

For the many business situations in which ANI information would not provide a reliable match with customer records, CTInsight can be configured to prompt the caller for other information such as account number, home telephone number or other unique identifier. System confirmation of the caller’s input can also be provided. At that point, INI’s Data Connection Plug-in (IDCP) can be invoked to query a customer’s data system to determine customer name, address, customer ID, and routing information.

Collection and confirmation of the caller’s information can be done with a combination of Touch Tone, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and/or Text-To-Speech (TTS), depending on business requirements.

Customer Information Access

This solution is called many things—Account Inquiry, Order Status, Policy Information, etc.—depending on the industry using it. Simply put, it allows the caller to access information from a company database. Security generally includes some type of identifying number (customer ID, SSN, etc.) and a password. Voice Authentication software moves this to a higher level by having the caller register their voiceprint prior to actually using the solution. The system stores this voiceprint and then compares the caller’s voice to the voiceprint each time the system is accessed. The key benefits of this type of solution are freeing up agent time to handle more complicated calls, extending service hours and options for those callers who wish to get the information as easily as possible, and providing additional services not currently available due to constrained agent time to provide those services.

Emergency/Event Notification

Providing an efficient method of notifying groups of people in the event of an emergency or some other planned event has gained prominence in the wake of 9/11. Agencies need to notify emergency personnel, employees, and other personnel in a proactive and traceable manner. Utilizing “outcalling” functionality, an automated system can be programmed to notify these people in a timely manner. Options include single or multiple lists of “callees,” response verification, alternate cascading number calling if not reached on the first try, estimated time of arrival upon notification, and a variety of options specifically designed to meet that agency’s needs. Contact notification reports can be sent to specific people via email or made available via an Internet browser.

Employee Benefits

At least yearly, employees are asked to verify/modify their existing employee benefits. This can be accomplished with an IVR solution that prompts the caller for their identifying number and password, and then walks them through a series of selection options. This can be extremely sophisticated with the use of speech recognition technologies that allow the addition of new family members, for example, by simply saying or spelling the name when prompted. Employees can request forms to be emailed or faxed to them when necessary.

Employee/Department Directory

The caller is prompted to speak the name of the person or department they wish to talk to. The system then confirms what was said, recognizes the input, and transfers the caller to the desired party. Information may be played prior to the transfer, such as the extension or telephone number, for future reference. In addition to reducing the workload for the company operator(s), this solution simplifies the issue of publishing corporate directories and having them go out of date quickly. As more employees become mobile and work virtual office, the ability to call a single number to reach the person you want is a productivity saver. Since the database can be changed real time as employees move or leave, the system is always up to date. The initial directory loading is drawn from a variety of existing sources (HR database, employee database, etc.) and requires integration to existing legacy systems.

Expected Wait Time/Queue

This solution is used in call centers to alert callers about lengths of wait times and then to give them options to handle the call if they don’t want to wait.

Help Desk

IS departments are being swamped with trouble reports and spend a fair share of their day responding to status questions and opening trouble tickets. The optimum would be to have the personnel actively involved in resolving problems, not collecting information. This solution allows the employee to call the help desk, input specified information through customized prompts, and then have the trouble ticket opened in the help desk system. At any time, the employee can call the system and request a status. The status fields generally indicate when resolution is expected or if the ticket has already been closed. IS employees are freed from these time consuming tasks so they can concentrate on problem resolution. As a customized option, the system can be set up to receive SNMP messages from systems to open trouble tickets, as well as generate general announcements to callers when a specific geographic area is affected by one of these troubles. Email notifications can also be added if that is the primary mode of communication.

Password Reset, utilizing voice authentication technology for security, allows employees to call the system to request a reset for lost/forgotten passwords. The system confirms the caller’s identity using voice authentication software and then either resets the password or assigns a new one. The new password can be spoken to the caller or it can be sent to the caller’s voicemail box for additional security.

Help Desk Dispatch

Once a trouble ticket is opened, the appropriate technician can be notified via pager or wireless phone to alert them about the ticket. This can be customized so that only certain levels of troubles (i.e. "red alert", Level 1, etc.) receive this priority notification treatment. The technician is prompted for a response to indicate they have received and accepted the trouble call. They can also dial back into the system when the trouble is resolved to close the ticket and leave a specific message for the trouble ticket initiator if desired.

SureConnect™

Allows callers to leave contact information so they can receive a call back rather than remaining on hold.

Time Clock Reporting

This solution allows employees to call in from a phone to “clock in” to the time reporting system. It is particularly useful where employees may change work location regularly or even multiple times during the day. The employee is prompted for an identifier (or Voice Authentication can be used), a job site code, and any other information needed for the system. The IVR system passes this information to the time reporting system real time. Various reports and alerts are usually designed to keep supervisors informed on pertinent information. This solution does away with lines at the time clock and eradicates data entry errors that typically occur when time cards are used.

User Interface

Both touchtone and speech technology interfaces are in use in today’s market. The application itself often dictates the approach to be used, with speech technologies gaining preeminence due to their user friendliness and intuitive approach. Speech technologies consist of speech recognition, text to speech translation, and voice authentication for security of access to information.