Hosted IVR

October 03, 2012

Enterprises have the Ability to Automate their Call Center Services through IVR

By Monica Gleberman
Contributing Writer

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) has become the latest in automated technology for communication. Companies use IVR to reduce the cost of common sales, service, collections, and improve the support calls to and from their company. IVR can include everything from pre-recorded voice prompts, automated menus, key-entry responses, and voice recognition.

As businesses continue to grow, they are looking for either an in-house of out-of-house call center with IVR technology to help them streamline their customer service. “If you have a lot of agents working in one location, the chances are that for telephony related contact center applications, on-premise solutions are going to be the best fit,” said Toby Sparrow, general manager, OPEX (News - Alert) Hosting. “For applications that do not involve telephony, cloud-based solutions may still be a very strong option.”

IVR has evolved from a standalone solution to one where numerous programs and applications can be integrated into it. IVR includes applications like complaint management, company information, automatic surveys, activities, and more. If hosted through a cloud-based system, agents will even have access to reports and real-time numbers. IVR changes an experience for a customer. A customer no longer needs to worry about explaining their issue to a bunch of people. Instead, they become part of an automated system that helps them get to the right person the first time. 

Regardless of which you choose, an on-premise or virtual center, the most important thing is the capabilities it will give the agents. Some of the most critical features such as call recording, quick and efficient responses to incoming calls, and telephony infrastructure that IVR gives a center can help a call center work at its optimal level.

“For smaller, geographically distributed or home working organizations where it can be challenging to source good quality telephony applications which cater to the needs of smaller businesses, hosted telephony (recording, ACD, IVR, queuing agent reporting and management etc) is probably an ideal fit,” said Sparrow.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Austin 2012, happening now in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.

Edited by Brooke Neuman