Five Options to Consider When Choosing IVR Systems
January 12, 2011
By Juliana Kenny, TMCnet Managing Editor
Choosing a proper IVR system for your business can be a daunting task, especially while there are so many offerings and solutions out in the marketplace. To make the process more simple and less time consuming, Plum Voice offers these five points to consider when making the leap for a new IVR system.
Deployment Options
Ideally, your IVR vendor supports multiple deployment options as this will enable your business to gain access to large amounts of telco and IVR capacity when handling spikes in usage. Look for IVR vendors that offer service level agreements and uptime guarantees.
Service Level Agreements
SLA’s are important for a number of reasons, but most importantly, to ensure the IVR’s support procedures. You want a solution that offers 24/7 support as well as uptime guarantees. The SLA should state the hours of support given as well as protocols followed should outages occur.
Make Sure Your Vendor is Not a Reseller
It’s vital to make sure your IVR provider is the original provider of its product. Many vendors have taken to simply reselling others’ services which might mean they are less apt to know how to fix it if something goes wrong. Resellers are sometimes more knowledgeable in the call routing field instead of specifically focused on IVR. You want your provider to be singularly devoted to supporting your IVR system.
Make Sure You Select a Vendor that has Experience
A vendor that’s been in the business for a while is more likely to have seen the trends and developments over the years. Having seen where IVR has been naturally leads to better ideas about where it should go. A vendor that can look towards the future will be able to provide valuable software to you at a competitive pricing structure. Experienced vendors can also manage large deployments more efficiently.
Work with a Vendor that support Open Standards
You don’t want to end up with an IVR application that will not run on any other vendor’s platform, just in case you end up being unhappy with an aspect of the service. VoiceXML (News - Alert), the standard for voice applications, should be supported by any vendor you choose.
Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.
Edited by Juliana Kenny