1 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

1. INTRODUCTION
Interactive voice response, or IVR, is an automated phone system and software that allows an individual to conduct transactions by phone without the assistance of a live operator. Typically a individual caller will interact with an IVR by making selections from voice menus. The menu selections are made using touch phone keypad entries or by speaking words or phrases into the phone. Interactive Voice ResponseInteractive voice response (IVR) is synonymous with voice response unit (VRU). The primary function is to provide customers with the ability to access automated information with in the organization. The system provides directed call vectoring to provide the caller a preference in choosing available products /services. This interaction allows the individual to conduct transactions with the phone system as well as the computer system which is linked with phone. The phone system plays prerecorded voice prompts and the person typically presses a number on a telephone keypad to select the option associated with the voice prompt . IVRS (interactive voice response systems) use voice recorded prompts and menus to present information to callers. Touch-tone telephone keypad entries are gathered from the caller to collect information and to provide user navigation. Information is delivered to the caller using text to speech or pre-recorded responses. This information can be obtained locally from internal databases or remotely through the internet. Personalizing your call center IVR means giving the IVR system a more human touch, as well as developing the apparent spontaneity and intelligence of the system to increase caller satisfaction. The more you succeed in making the caller feel important, the more effective your IVR system will be.

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2. Personalizing Your Call Center IVR System for Better Service

A recent TMC article, Ten Tips for Improving IVR Functionality, got me thinking about the elements of a caller-friendly IVR system. Two of the ten items touched on personalizing call center IVR for better service, and I think this is a very important and often underestimated part of quality IVR systems. As much as possible, call center IVR systems ought to be personalized to callers to be effective. This means not only customizing the functioning of the IVR system, but also giving the call center IVR system a human touch. The fact is that every caller is unique, and an IVR system needs to be able to handle different callers with different needs. A good call center IVR system will be programmed to handle as many different situations as possible. A personalized IVR system will impress callers and make the call center IVR seem more like a person. After all, the more individualized an IVR call, the more it will simulate human interaction.

What are some ways to personalize your call center IVR system? As the TMC article points out, you can integrate the IVR system with your customer database (see my previous blog which touches on IVR customer profiling). An IVR system can also customize error messages, avoiding those generic error which can be so frustrating. 2.1 More ideas for personalizing your call center IVR system: 1) Have the IVR system address callers by name. Any salesperson knows that addressing a prospect by name creates instant rapport.

2) Have the IVR system prompt sales based on past purchase history. .Use the IVR system to analyze the callers buying habits from past call center IVR interactions. This kind of personalization can be a great way to boost sales.

3) Have the IVR system offer different satisfaction surveys based on the context of the call. Callers will only answer surveys if they are approached at the right time. A

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3 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers prospect calling just to inquire wouldnt be able to rate company performance the way a loyal customer could.

4) Tailor the IVR hold music/narration according to each caller. Use the hold narration to promote different company offerings according to specific caller profiles and watch your sales rise.

5) Accommodate repeat callers by anticipating their needs. Have your IVR system predict the callers needs based on call history. For example, depending on who is calling, as well as recent transactions, the IVR system may ask Would you like to check your balance, Mr. Jones? or Would you like to pay your credit card bill, Ms. Smith?.

2.2 How to personalize the call

Personalizing your call center IVR means giving the IVR system a more human touch, as well as developing the apparent spontaneity and intelligence of the system to increase caller satisfaction. The more you succeed in making the caller feel important, the more effective your IVR system will be. IVR CRM integration will become characteristic of high performing organizations as measured by customer loyalty and retention. This type of system allows organizations to optimize the customers experience when contacting the call center for assistance. It also provides an environment for directed, customized service, while providing the organization opportunities. It also provides with scripted up sell or cross-sell

an environment for decreasing costly live agent calls while increasing the overall customer experience by shortening the call transaction length and providing personalized menus and

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4 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers options. While installation and implementation will be costly, the payback will be achieved through increased customer retention, lower carrier costs, lower call center agent costs and greater customer satisfaction.
.

Fig1

3. Provide Personalized Service

Inbound self-service allows callers to interact with the organization during and after hours, typically without the assistance of an agent. The growth of inbound IVR is being driven by increased center phone volumes, the need for faster, more efficient service, and cost savings. Noble IVR solutions allow callers to interact with critical data in various databases. The IVR system can also gather caller information such as product orders, credit card information, as well as provide account or product information. Self service Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

5 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

systems support large volumes of contacts without requiring costly workforce resources and provide timely, automated resolution of customer inquiries, automate complex processes, support 24/7 operations with voice mail, fax-on-demand, and multilingual services, and eliminate repetitive and costly agent tasks for common questions. 3.1 Automated Messaging Outbound messaging allows the person called to answer questions, take surveys and more without an agent resource. Outbound IVR facilitates a range of markets including collections, telesales & lead generation, market research, alerts, group & community communications.

4. Reduce Dropped/Abandoned Calls and Increase First Call Resolution

IVR menus can help keep more callers on the line by eliminating call transfers and onhold time spent waiting for a qualified agent. IVR qualifies a caller's needs and ensures that the call receives the most rapid response either through instant access to automated information or through intelligent routing to the best available resource. The system captures the caller's menu selections and can transfer them to the agent along with the call, so the agent can see the path the caller has taken. The system can also pull account information based on caller entries and push it to the agent's screen. The awardwinning Noble Virtual Assistant improves inbound queue management by providing waittime estimates for on-hold callers and allowing them to enter a call-back request. The system holds the caller's place in line and places a call-back when the next agent becomes available. The caller may also select a different time for a call-back and enter an alternate phone number. 4.1 Utilize the Power of an Integrated System The broad array of capabilities and advantages offered by this tool rival stand-alone,

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6 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers third-party IVR systems. Basic features include touch-tone routing (phone tree routing), which can be linked to skills based, DNIS, or call overflow routing. Expanded functionality delivers the ability to replay or 'speak' numbers, money amounts, dates and times, etc., and can integrate with an off-site mainframe system and with payment processing tools for automated billing and payment services.

5. Features:
4.1 Dynamic Call Routing Menu options, skills, priority, and service level routing are all customizable through our call-flow manager 4.2 Flexible Menu Builder Graphical 'flowchart' interface for application development with point-and-click functionality to create intricate IVR flows, launch menus, make recordings, setup automated messages and external call transfers, and define help tables without the need for complex programming or technical knowledge 4.3 Automated Attendant Improve call handling and customer satisfaction with automated responses to common questions and processes, and more efficient queue management during peak periods 4.4 Play Messages Assign messages based on menu selections and entries, ANI, and other attributes, and create your own greetings and custom messages with easy-to-use wizards Create Personalized Services Provide personalized information through integration with ODBC standard databases to retrieve account information to push to agent screens or to 'speak' to callers with text-to-speech capabilities 4.5 Complete Reporting Capture menu selections and view reports on IVR statistics Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

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5. Five Effective Ways to Use IVR for Profit & Productivity

Most contact centers do not realize the real potential of an IVR system. Auto Attendant, survey calls and appointment reminder are really useful but an IVR system can do a lot more to improve efficiency and profitability of organizations. The following is list of five ways you can use an IVR system to improve your customer service, retain customers, and cut down operational costs.

5.1. Give personalized experience

One of the best ways to improve customer loyalty is offering loyalty. Give your customers a personalized experience whenever they call for assistance or information. Replace one for all IVR menu with a personalized call flow for each customer. For instance, Replace: Thank you for calling Stratasoft, a premium provider of predictive dialer and call center software. Please listen carefully to the following options. Press 1 for professional services. Press 2 for .

With a personalized message like this:

Thank you for calling Stratasoft. If you are calling to inquire about your System Upgrade, it is scheduled on 2nd January, 2011. Press 1 to change your schedule or press 2 to cancel this System Upgrade. Press 3 for professional services You can use demographic information, previous interactions (purchases, complaints,

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incomplete applications etc.) with the customer or most frequently used options by the customer to build a dynamic IVR menu. This would help customers finish their calls as soon as possible. You can also deploy multilingual scripts as per customers preference (instead of asking customers to select a language every time they call) or use personalized greeting message for each customer (Good Morning, Mark is better than Good Morning, Dear Customer).

5.2. Offer premium services

Special customers deserve special treatment. Customize your IVR system to service calls from exclusive customers on priority and route their calls to dedicated customer service representatives; do not make them lost in an IVR loop. Allow them to redeem special discounts, use premium services, or get limited-time offers via IVR.

5.3. Provide consistent services all the time

With an IVR system in place, you are ready to serve customers 247. Customers can call anytime; they do not expect a tired voice greeting them even at mid night. IVR delivers consistent performance and efficiency. It does not sleep and never greets customers with a tired voice. IVR saves time and cost too. The cost of a call held in waiting queue, routed to an agent, and finally transferred and processed by another agent is definitely higher than a call being processed by an automated IVR system. If you have an IVR system in place, you would notice that most of customer problems are fixed quickly with a self-service IVR program. It saves both time and cost in term of agent hours and cost per call (CPC).

5.4. Smooth traffic spikes

IVR can take the load off your agents during peak hours. Instead of keeping your Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

9 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers customers in waiting queue or dropping calls, you can route their calls to an IVR to manage overflows or process low priority calls customers calling to get product information can be routed to IVR while sales leads are processed by skilled agents.

5.5. Automate Tasks

If you are considering migration of your contact center operations to off-shore locations to reduce cost, think again. Perhaps you can save significant amount just by automating most of your contact center operations without taking risks of migration. Many contact center operations can be automated and do not require agents help. Empower your customers with ability to manage their subscriptions, edit personal settings, and billing information. Integrate your IVR system with database, CRM, or whatever system you are using to manage customer relationships. It would reduce unnecessary burden of your agents and bring down overall cost of handling calls in your contact center

6. Three Advantages of an IVR Call Center

Using an IVR call center has lots of advantages for any type of business, no matter whether youre in sales, customer service, or a combination of the two. This type of call center can be quickly and painlessly set up, and it can allow your employees to help customers more efficiently and effectively on a daily basis. This type of call center solution has many advantages, but here are just three of them.

The best type of solution that utilizes the latest technology on the market can help

with intelligent call routing. Basically, this means that when customers call in,

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10 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers they can use the voice response system to get to the customer service or sales representative who will be most likely to be able to help them. Also, the IVR solutions on the market today can work with voicemail routing. This way, if a customer has a problem,

but would rather leave a message and wait for a response than wait on hold, the voicemail gets to a group of people who are most qualified to handle the problem it contains. Another advantage of this type of call center option is that it can cut down on hold

times in two ways. For one thing, in helping customers who have simple questions to find answers on their own, the call center solution keeps these particular customers off of the hold queue. This means that they are more satisfied because they found answers without having to wait on hold for fifteen or twenty minutes. Also, by taking these customers with simple questions out of the queue, your representatives are freer to deal with more complex issues in a timely manner. Lower call volume for your agents means lower hold times for your callers and better customer satisfaction.

Finally, this type of technology today works on many platforms, including

service-oriented architecture, and is easy to work with. You can quickly set up your very own personalized IVR call center that suits the needs of your business. Instead of using something generic that doesnt work well with the needs of your business, you can use a system that is totally suited for your businesss particular needs at any given time. This is incredibly useful, especially if you can get the system up and running quickly on the platforms youre already using within your business framework. Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

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7. Database provides the following interactive voice response solutions and information:

IVR Services - IVR outsourcing services at DSC data center. IVR Applications - A comprehensive directory of IVR phone applications. IVR Systems - Complete analog and digital phone systems with IVR programs. IVR Software - Program tools for developing IVR applications. IVR Programming - Custom IVR development by our experienced staff. IVR VoiceXML - Remote access tools embedded with our IVR programs. IVR Reports - Management reports and interactive voice response graphs.

DSC IVR solutions utilize Intel processors and contain Dialogic IVR telecommunication boards. These solutions provide callers with the ability to automatically obtain information or perform transactions using a phone system.

IVRS (interactive voice response systems) use voice recorded prompts and menus to present information to callers. Touch-tone telephone keypad entries are gathered from the caller to collect information and to provide user navigation. Information is delivered to the caller using text to speech or pre-recorded responses. This information can be obtained locally from internal databases or remotely through the internet Contact DSC to learn more about our IVR software, phone systems and customized IVR development services.

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8. IVR Systems
DSC offers both an affordable and expandable IVR phone system. This solution includes a modern Windows PC with Dialogic computer telephony cards. When combined with our extensive IVR software, these phone systems can perform both inbound call distribution as well as outbound IVR Call campaigns concurrently. Fig2

The WIZARD analog IVR system is our entry level call center phone system that supports analog phone lines. If your calling center requires more lines, our PACER digital IVR system can be used in environments where digital phone line support is necessary.

9. IVR Software
DSC has created an IVR software development library that can be used to create virtually any phone application. Our easy to use interactive voice response software leads you step by step through the design and production of your custom phone applications.

Fig3 You can design and create your own phone programs using this full-featured software

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toolkit. Alternatively, DSC can provide you with a custom IVR phone application. These applications can be easily ported to our digital phone system when your call volume

requires a larger system. To obtain additional information about our IVR software, please view the IVR software manual that includes a detailed description of the IVR functions available when developing IVR applications.

10. IVR Programming Services

DSC offers complete phone application development and programming services along with our comprehensive IVR application design and development. From simple to complex phone applications, DSC personnel can design, develop, test and implement your phone campaign quickly and have your phone program in place with a minimal amount of time. Fig4

Our highly professional and trained programming staff can analyze your phone needs and design it to meet your requirements. Your calling campaign does not have to conform to a static IVR model. Instead our IVR applications will answer your calls according to the rules dictated by your business.

11. IVR Outsourcing

Besides offering state-of-the art phone systems and computer telephony products, DSC provides complete IVR hosting services at its multiple data centers. Using the technology that we have developed, our experienced programming staff can design and implement

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14 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers your inbound calling campaigns quickly and efficiently. And you will find our IVR services are quite affordable as well.

12. Online IVR Reports

An important feature included with each of our IVR solutions is a complete IVR reporting system. These reports provide the administrator with a total view of the performance of each of your IVR campaigns and include graphical presentation of data as well. This online reporting and feedback system helps you Fig5 IVR graphs and charts of operational statistics let you measure the effectiveness of each phone campaign as it is running.

Call Reports observe and control the performance of your automatic call answering services.

The statistical information contained in each of these reports can be downloaded into a spreadsheet format for individually customized reporting.

13. Applications: Automated Attendants ACD Systems - Call Distribution Alerts & Reminders Card Activation Dating and Chat Lines Fax on Demand Hotlines and Helpdesk Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

15 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

15. Telecommunications:
We provide effective and specialist audio production services to the telecommunications industry. If your business is providing IVR and ACD services to contact centers, our business is to help your call flow, flow. If you provide Asterisk/Trixbox PBX and VoIP solutions to SMEs, we can help you deliver effective, professional solutions to your clients. From assisting in the design of your IVR structure, associated scriptwriting, and casting the voice of choice, right down to recording the individual prompts. Our specialist knowledge in encoding and optimizing audio for telecoms and embedded systems, together with our creative passion, will help you develop an IVR that will enhance the overall customer experience. If you simply install PABX/PBX systems, we have a range of 'white label' audio production services for on-hold marketing, from scriptwriting to mixing, encoding and licensing.

15.1 Call Flows and IVR Optimization

Fig6

Our review service will provide you with a fresh look at your IVR. Our aim is to improve the customer experience through the IVR system by: streamlining the flow, ensuring scripts are informative and concise, option optimization, and dynamic structuring. read more

15.2 Scriptwriting for IVR

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16 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

Fig7

Our specialist scriptwriters are on hand to write IVR prompts that are concise, effective and communicate well. Recommendations include pointers regarding use of language, tone of voice, integrating promotional messages and brand consistency. read more

15.3 IVR Prompt Recording

Fig8 Working with your prompt list, we can record your IVR system using one of our experienced voiceover artists, who are actually trained in how IVR works. Understanding concatenation, context-sensitive systems and the flow of speech, enables us to record prompts which concatenate naturally.

15.4 Voice Casting

Who is your voice of choice? The voice on your system represents your brand. So choosing a voice for your system shouldnt be taken lightly. Our unique approach to voice casting, which we call Voice Characterization, considers your Fig9 brand qualities to represent your brand as a voice.

15.5 Encoding

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17 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

Fig10 Using bespoke conversion software, we can provide prompts ready to use. Our attention to detail is paramount. The results depend on what you start with: our prompts are precisely edited, analyzed, pre-filtered, and manually processed by specialist audio producers.

16. IVR CRM Integration Migrating the Call Center from Cost Center to Profit
Today, more institutions are seeking ways to change their call center mission from a cost center to a profit center. This change can be achieved by incorporating up-selling and cross-selling into the list of call center functions. In order to fully leverage the many customer contact points within a call center, it is necessary to invest in leading edge technologies to truly realize the benefits of anticipating and reacting to the customers needs and wants. Institutions will derive greater customer satisfaction, higher retention rates, and more successful attempts at up selling and cross-selling by providing tailored, accurate and timely responses to the customers needs. As these benefits are realized, the call center will become a profit center.

16.1 Current IVR Environment

Todays IVR environment in a typical call center involves calls being routed directly to the IVR from the public telephone switch. Once the call arrives, the customer will be presented with menus and must select an option that will further direct the call. Menus tend to contain many options and several layers. If the organization typically processes complex transactions, this process can be very confusing and frustrating for the customer. The programming language that is used for directing calls within an IVR and for access to

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18 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers other systems for information retrieval is usually proprietary and does not allow any of the code to be shared between systems. This provides additional layers of complexity when a new system is introduced into the IVR environment as specific code must be written and maintained. Generally, real-time information can only be provided through a defined link to a legacy host system. The typical IVR will not contain dynamically defined menus or options based on the historical information. It will merely report back to the customer the desired information within the customers defined query. If the customer has a question beyond the scope of the defined menu options, then it is likely that a costly live agent will become the final destination.

16.2 Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is usually defined as a tracking or data analysis tool used to determine a customers up selling or cross-selling are virtually nonexistent in a typical IVR platform. The current IVR environment will only support the processing of voice communications. A completely separate communication channel must be built and maintained to support web access applications. This may cause issues for customers if they encounter a problem with a web application and contact a live agent in the call center for assistance, only to find that the application is unrelated to the call center and no help can be provided.

17. Building Blocks of IVR CRM Integration Real Time Information

One of the basic building blocks in constructing an integrated IVR CRM application is to provide system access to real time customer data and information. The system should be able to access enterprise wide data from any source within the organization. This will provide real time feedback and data mining capabilities resulting in the best anticipatory environment for likely menu options or agent scripts, based on the customers prior history and transactions within the organization. Once access to real time information has

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been established, the next step is to provide a software environment that allows actions to be taken based on the real-time CRM information. This may involve conditional IVR scripts, where the customers prior history of product choices or transactions will dictate the available menu options to be presented. The result is a better targeting of the customers experience to provide a higher likelihood that the customers needs and wants will be satisfied within the IVR application and will not involve the transfer to a live agent. Another application would be live agent scripting based on CRM information that would serve to prompt agents with likely desired products or services for up-selling or cross-selling opportunities.

18. Building the Engaged IVR CRM Application Fully Engaged IVR CRM
18.1 Architecture:
Single platform to service both voice and web access to customer service Includes use of SALT to allow speech as web navigation Method. Middleware network backbone utilizes SOAP to allow exchange of information between decentralized, distributed applications

18.2 Challenges:
Significant cost to implement Complex programming requiring well-defined user Requirements.

19. Advantages:
Organizations can utilize current web developers to write voice applications Allows real-time combination of business processes with unique customer knowledge to create and deliver personalized, anticipatory service System is completely open and scalable - acquisitions no longer present difficult conversion issues from acquired system to legacy system

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20. Expected Outcomes and Benefits

An engaged IVR CRM application allows organizations to proactively determine a customers likely needs and present appropriate customized options in the IVR menu. In this scenario, the customer is not forced to experience the entire menu of options that do not apply. This type of platform also incorporates real-time, enterprise-wide knowledge of the customers entire relationship to the organization. Only those items relevant to the customers current relationship with the organization will be presented as options in an IVR script resulting in dynamic, personalized IVR scripts based on real-time customer information. The successful IVR CRM installation can also be leveraged to provide upsell and cross-sell opportunities based on a real-time analysis of the customers current relationship with the organization. Based on this information, scripts can be presented to a live agents desktop for prompting discussion with the customer, or pre-recorded messages could be played through the IVR. Directed sales efforts based on real-time customer historic information will certainly pave the way for increased sales results through the call center, hence leading the migration from cost center to profit center. Successful integration is achieved by a blend of XML interpreting the customers input (either spoken or Touch Tone), and then accessing the IP network to determine the customers relationship. Knowledge is then returned to the IVR to provide a dynamic IVR script based on relationship knowledge of the customer. This system can also be programmed to provide likely up-sell or cross sell opportunities. As an example, a large US bank recently installed a CRM system that uses real-time analytical capabilities to increase its credit card business. The bank implemented a data analysis system that predicts which customers are most likely to respond to new incentives.

20. The HTK horizon platform delivers truly personalized IVR, SMS and email for contact centers and large enterprises.

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21 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers Horizon version 2.2 provides a dynamic IVR capability that can automatically adapt to specific customer needs and preferences, reducing the number of calls met by static pushbutton menus and generic call-queues. The high level of personalization enabled by Horizon means that callers find the information they need much faster, resulting in shorter calls and fewer transfers to live agents. With CRM integration out-of-the-box, Horizon provides extensive options for profiling, classifying and targeting customers down to an individual level. This means that personalized, multi-channel contact strategies including proactive outbound IVR and SMS messaging can quickly and easily be created by non-technical customer service and marketing managers. Traditionally, IVR has been perceived by customers as a cause of irritation, frustration and even anger, often leading to a degradation of customer loyalty and the destruction of brand value. With customers increasingly demanding a return to good old-fashioned personalized service, press-1-for-this-and-2 for-that simply doesnt cut it, explains Marlon Bowser, CEO at HTK. "This is often compounded by long call queues, making IVR a real bug-bear for customers and a major cause of concern to large enterprises. Horizon enables a much better customer experience than traditional IVR it represents a significant and important step forwards in the contact centre industry. In addition to an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface for the creation of highly personalized IVR services, Horizon 2.2 includes an integrated multi-media content management system and a selection of plug-in applications to automate a wide range of routine business tasks. Not only can HTK Horizon transform the customer experience, but its dynamic IVR capability has already become a cornerstone of marketing campaign management for a leading UK mobile network operator, said Bowser. Horizon is handling over 30 million

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calls per-year to deliver targeted marketing offers to their pre-pay subscriber base.

21. The Benefits of Call Centre Technology Improvements

Time was when high call volume companies would hire hundreds of call centre agents just to keep up with the thousands of calls they receive every day. For companies, this represented huge investments in infrastructure, equipment, manpower and time. However, in spite of these, clients had to wait for several minutes just to have their call attended to by one of the agents, which is not always good for customer relations. People were always asking for better customer service while companies were constantly on the lookout for ways to improve client service while saving on costs. In the early 1960s a new call centre technology called Interactive Voice Response or IVR was developed. It allowed clients to interact with a companys computer through pre-recorded prompts and responses heard by the caller by pressing on the keypads of a

touchtone phone. It offered relief from having to wait a long time to have a call attended to as all calls are immediately answered once they get through. It also allowed continuous 24-hour operations while saving on employee expenses. However, it posed a challenge since some callers complained of getting confused trying to keep up with the numerous menus. In the 70s quite a few companies have picked up on the idea of incorporating the IVR technology in their call centers to automate call handling and improve service. Around this time, speech recognition software was already being developed and incorporated into IVR. This allowed more convenience to callers since systems now began recognizing and responding to speech. Callers literally began speaking to computers and got either pre-

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23 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers recorded or dynamically generated responses, even if recognition was still limited to small vocabularies. However, since the technology was still relatively young, it was costly and complicated to use. In the 80s as the demand for IVR continued to gain momentum, more and more companies got into it. Speech recognition systems were continuously being developed and improved to provide further convenience to callers. As more and more players came in, the development steadily progressed while costs slowly dipped. From the 90s up to the present, call centre technology has improved so much that a high level of customer service quality is now possible at minimal cost. With the emergence of more powerful computers, what was once accessible only to huge corporations with very high call volumes is already benefiting smaller companies as well. From having to hire hundreds of agents to attend to calls, call centres now save a lot while maintaining a high level of customer care by using voice recognition software. Call centres can now operate round the clock without having to worry about rising wage and infrastructure costs. IVR is now used not only for inbound calls but for outbound calls as well. It may even be used to identify and organize clients in order to design personalized services depending on their preferences. Customers, on the other hand, enjoy numerous benefits with the continuous call centre technology improvements as well. Since IVR has allowed call centers to operate 24 hours, 7 days a week even with minimal workforce, clients now have the freedom to access information at any time of the day without having to wait a long time to have their concerns addressed. And since all calls are answered instantaneously, this saves time and costs for the client. With speech recognition software, a long and confusing list of menus is no longer a concern as well since services are tailor-suited to meet each clients needs.

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24 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers

This means that each call provides convenience and ease of access to services required. The great thing about call centre technology is that it is continuously evolving. Services continue to improve as new ideas are turned into new technology. What may be wishful thinking now may be tomorrows reality. One things for sure though, as more advancements in this field are made, more and more people and companies alike are sure to gain from them. Looking back at how much progress has been made to enhance this segment of customer

service, and how fast these advancements are taking place, we can only look forward with optimism at how much more we stand to benefit from it in the years to come.

22. What is Personalization?

Ability to dynamically adjust IVR interaction reflecting a holistic view of the customer Proactively provide information customers Add personalization. One of the key differentiators for companies is their ability to recognize their caller and customize their response.

23. Voice Experience Manager Benefits Over deliver On Customer Expectations

23.1 Business Challenges

Customers are frustrated by confusing IVR menus and zero out Phone system is not integrated with other channels, resulting in siloed, inconsistent experiences

Personalization is impossible via the phone system Low customer satisfaction with phone experience

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24. Features

Unified Knowledge Foundation: Enables consistent, personalized experiences across channels, including phone

Pre-Built App Modules: Promotes customer experience best practices for phone channel

Communications Enabled Desktop: Integrates with existing phone systems for softphone, CTI, and universal queuing

25. Benefits

End-to-End Customer Experience: Connects your customer channels intelligently to ensure a complete, unified experience

Rapid Deployment: Cloud delivery combined with pre-built app modules expedites time to value

Cost Savings and ROI: Voice automation and intelligent routing greatly reduce service costs and deliver tangible returns

26. US Airways implements IVRs in contact centers to increase domestic jobs

Outsourcing has been a common trend among larger corporations that are looking to save money. US Airways recently announced that it would create several contact centers throughout the United States in order to bring domestic jobs back into the country. The three contact centers will be located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona and Reno, Nevada. As a first in the domestic airline industry, each of the call centers will be equipped and supported by new natural language interactive voice Department of IT, ICET, Muvattupuzha

26 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers response systems. The IVR will help create a fast and personalized environment for

customers looking for information on the airline, including their current flight status, account details and other information. "The IVR not only complements the broad range of self-service options available to customers on usairways.com and in the airports; it is also closely integrated with US Airways' reservations centers so our agents have information about a customer, such as their name and existing reservation, as they are connected with callers," said Kerry Hester

of US Airways. "This makes the interaction easier and more efficient for customers." Experts have found that the most common places for IVR applications are self-service portals, such as contact centers, which are becoming more popular around the country and helping drive the IVR market.

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Fig11 IVR functional modules

27. How Contax IVR II Ease Your Design Task : Contax IVR II is centered on its Runtime Engine that will execute call-flow

assigned to individual channels. When a call is coming in, call-flow associated with that channel will be executed and end either by the caller or the call-flow design. To do this, Contax IVR II provides a collection of common components usually

required in call-flow design. Make them available to designers choice. Each component has its related code implementation, when executed by IVR II runtime engine, detail operation will be carried out.

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28 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers Thus, IVR designer has no need to know the under-line operation and can focus on their logical design. They dont need to worry about telecom operation any more. Contax IVR II uses GUI to allow designer pick component(s) and drag and drop

them in the design panel. Connections are made to control the proper flow based on operation condition or design requirements. Interface to SQL database, web server and other resources (e.g. DLL, E-mail

server, Fax, SMS, etc.) are all packed as component, so designers can use them at functional level. (Nice and easy!) For every components, theres rich choice of property which can be filled (or,

bring in as variables) to reflect real operation needs. Thus, a comprehensive solution is available , which allows you to design, deliver and support advanced interactive platforms for multimedia communications. (such as telephony, voice, fax, email and mobile transactions)

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Fig12 new missions of contact centers

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30 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers Features Interactive Application Generator GUI for Component drag and drop Build-in Flow simulator Benefits No programming needed for CTI design No Telecom details required Can easily verify design before placement

Support Multiple Media for Voice, Fax, Further simplify CTI design tasks SMS Flexible in interface to database and Web & SQL Server support other services MS SAPI based TTS & ASR Advanced speech functions without programming Channel Configuration & Monitor Facility good monitor and debugging utilities capability via system database to simplify design Outbound call support effort

28. Customer Service Should Be Your Focus in Contact Automation

The focus of the upcoming Customer Contact 2010, East: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, April 18-21, is on customer excellence, which is ever important in todays competitive economic environment. As we all know, customer retention and loyalty are critical factors for any company trying to survive and prosper, and most companies are trying to do that with less money and fewer resources. If you arent finding ways to not only meet your customers expectations, but exceed them, then you are likely to lose them. At MindXchange, I will be focusing on Customer Experience Excellence and how it relates to contact automation during a session titled Proactive Customer Care: The New Competitive Advantage? With my day-to-day focus on Continuous Improvement, I will share how a company needs to move the decisionmaking about its contact automation solution from the IT department to the C-level suite executive level. Contact automation from inbound and outbound calls to email and web notification solutions isnt about technology. It is about customer service and a continuous focus on improvement. When you put the customer before the technology and keep an eye on improving interactions with them, then you realize that there will always be something your contact automation center can do to make the customer interaction easier, faster, and more satisfying. You will win loyal customers and you eventually improve the bottom

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31 Personalized IVR in Contact Centers line by increasing and saving money. Everyone in your company should have their eye on that ball, from your agents to your IT department to your C-level executives. Ill keep you posted on what I learn at MindXchange in the coming weeks. Lemrow is director of Continuous Improvement at Contact Solutions, Inc., where he leads a team of professionals who are experts in contact automation solutions and are incentives to create partnerships with customers to find new ways to save them money while increasing automation rates. Some big names AOL, iPhone, and Map Quest have created some buzz in the IVR world this week. Using IVR, AOL has created a free Map Quest mobile drivers to watch the road while getting directions from their phone. For those without a dedicated GPS navigation system, this is great news and makes it even easier for them to use their iPhone for almost everything. It also puts Map Quest ahead of its competition and is a free app for the 40 million people who own iPhones. As an IVR provider, its nice to see newer and better applications enter the market. Whether you are for or against it, health care reform is the topic of the year. Boosted by our ailing economy, the bottom line for many is the need to find ways to cut costs in every aspect of a business, whether it is in the health care industry or not. One example of a best practice in health care savings is how MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services devoted to providing health and human services program management and consulting services, helped its client, a state-run public health insurance program for eligible low- and medium-income residents, realize an immediate return on investment of $100,000 in savings per month through a contact automation solution for calls coming into its state-operated contact centers. After the state initiated a major health reform initiative, thousands of calls were coming into live phone agents every day, inundating them with more calls than they could handle. MAXIMUS needed a solution that was less resource-intensive, more cost efficient and more customer-friendly to continue to deliver superior customer service to its client. Working closely with the states decentralized contact centers, MAXIMUS developed a pilot program in which it used interactive voice response (IVR) to start screening calls and then leveraged unique Continuous Improvement to evaluate, gain efficiencies, and grow the program. Now, MAXIMUS has automated thousands of calls each day for its clients, and provides a higher level of service to their customers. that allows

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Other benefits MAXIMUS has received include continual optimization, 247 system monitoring and analysis, and an ability to scale operations without increasing agents to the same degree, along with improved caller experience, higher automation rate and reduced call time on live agent calls. . Thats a health care solution that provides a winwin for everyone involved.

28.1 What does your contact automation solution help your company do better for your customers?
If you saw our release earlier this week, you know that we are all about helping our customers save money. In FY2009, we worked with them to save more than $4 million, and our goal for FY2010 is $10 million or more. Through our daily focus on customer service, we try to make a companys contact automation system a value added service, not a drain that threatens the end users experience. In fact, this company was founded on the premise that no one hates IVR, they hate bad IVR. We focus on providing the best contact automation experience, from IVR to email, text messaging and web self service, by making them efficient, scalable and cost effective. We create partnerships, which the dictionary refers to as a joint interest. We call it goal congruency. We work with our customers to ensure we are aligned with their end goal of creating a contact automation solution that offers great customer satisfaction, is flexible and can grow with the needs of the company and its end users. We do it through constant measurement, from pre- to post-change metrics that show the impact of the contact automation solution, its cost savings and customer satisfaction numbers. It is a day-in and day-out philosophy of great technology coupled with even better service.

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29. CONCLUSION

Interactive voice response (IVR) is synonymous with voice response unit (VRU). The primary function is to provide customers with the ability to access automated information within the organization. The system provides directed call vectoring to provide the caller a preference in choosing available products or services. It is generally used more in sales management rather than actual data mining. The most effective use of CRM is to utilize the customers historical relationship and transaction data to drive anticipated menu options or customer service responses within the call center. The properly designed system should provide anticipatory reactions based on the customers predicted needs or wants.This will have the effect of providing targeted sales opportunities during the service call and seamless service to the customer, thereby improving the customer experience in dealing with the institutions call center function.

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30. REFERENCES
URLs visited are, www.google.com www.ieee.org www.seminarpaperonline.com www.wikipedia.com http://www.axis.com/files/whitepaper/wp_ccd_cmos_40722_en_1010_lo.pdf. www.ivrcrmIntegration.com www.nuancepersonalization.com

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