IVR is an acronym for 'Interactive Voice Response' - essentially a group of technologies that provide the foundations for just about all of the interactive telephone services that we use today:

• the ability to answer an inbound phone call and trap certain information such as the number dialed, the caller's telephone number and the date/time of the call
• the ability to recognize the digits dialed by the caller throughout the course of the call; these may either be 'touch-tone' (DTMF) key presses or the older-style dial pulses
• the ability to play back pre-recorded prompts to the caller, and to record the caller's spoken responses
• access to back-end database systems such as databases
• effective use of advanced technologies such as speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis and speaker verification

In other words, IVR enables companies to provide customers with access to databases and other business systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

However it's not just the IVR technology that is important. More critical is the application of that technology to a given business process, particularly with regard to the dialogue (the sequence of audio prompts and menu options) that is presented to the caller.

At TeleSmart, we have been developing and deploying IVR systems and applications for many years, with a wealth of experience in all aspects of IVR system design from hardware selection to dialogue design and recording.

Call 1-800-TELESMART (800-835-3762) to find out how an IVR application can help you improve the way you communicate with your clients.