A lot has been going on in the interactive voice response (IVR) space. From new releases to the latest trends and insights, this is where you’ll find all of the most interesting IVR-related news of the week!

This week, we were given eight foolproof ways to transform the traditional IVR system – specifically, in the banking industry, where many set up a contact center and leave it there without much future improvement. This week, Paul Logan tackled this issue head on, where he likens the process to putting together a puzzle. “When it comes to running a successful financial institution, you need to have all of the pieces perfectly fit into place. In this case, all of those pieces are customer interaction data from a variety of communication channels, including Web chat, e-mail, phone, website, social media and IVR,” the article explains.

The eight steps to securing a foolproof IVR system include the following: Research, personalization, channel consistency, removing the fluff, making the “0” less obvious, simplifying authentication, setting an automation target and remembering to now automate everything.

Also this week, the question of visual IVR was brought to light. Many wonder what happened to visual IVR and where it’s currently situated now. Fonolo (News - Alert), a provider of cloud-based call center solutions, recently wondered the same thing by addressing it in a recent blog. The conclusion seemed to be due to the fact that it “oversimplifies the problem” rather than solving it completely, as many seem to know what visual IVR is but don’t understand exactly how voice becomes translated into video.

The resolution, Fonolo suggests, is in implementing an intelligent front-end to the call center experience. “[This] intelligent interface…clearly needs to be coordinated with the company’s customer service workflow…but the good news is, we’re getting there,” the company explained, even going so far as to predict that this time in five years, intelligent visual interfaces will be the complete standard for call centers as IVR is today.

Wrapping up this week is how IVR played a critical role in this year’s Black Friday (News - Alert) shopping event. While Black Friday may be over, many contend that the technology used to keep shopping going is still in full swing. “Today, customers are increasingly surfing the Web rather than surfing through crowds for the latest and greatest, and as a result, retailers are similarly investing in technologies to help them better process their online orders, keep inventory in check, and, of course, ensure that customers needs are met in the event of a problem or inquiry,” Michelle Amodio writes for TMC (News - Alert).

Industry expert Plum Voice expected 2012 to close well for IVR systems thanks to online and mobile shoppers this holiday season – and they weren’t wrong. About 129 million Americans decided to shop on Cyber Monday (News - Alert) this year, serving as a solid increase from about 122 million who did so in 2011 and 106 million in 2010.

That’s going to do it this week for the latest news in the IVR space. To see what’s new next week, be sure to check back in same time, same place – only here at TMCnet.