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, IVR expert Plum Voice divulged in a blog some details and tips on how contact centers can deliver on the promise of excellent customer service and satisfaction. TMC’s (News - Alert) Mae Kowalke explained that there are primarily two ways to deliver customer satisfaction; knowing what the customer wants and then meeting those needs with quality customer service experiences.

Asking “yes” or “no” questions or having customers rank between one and 10 is clearly not as useful as getting detailed feedback on customer experiences – whether good or bad. For example, the blog cites one research firm who asks an additional question listing 10 attributes, and then asking callers to choose any that may have swayed their entire experience. It’s these kind of details and extra efforts that ultimately yield the best results.

Also this week is news about Amazon’s IVONA acquisition, which will prove very interesting for Amazon’s Kindle and how it will compete with other big players Nuance (News - Alert) and Apple. While IVONA’s technology is already featured in the Kindle Fire for services including text to speech, voice commands, and “Explore by Touch,” this new acquisition will certainly bring about even more advances in natural language capabilities, noted TMC’s Tracey Schelmetic.

“IVONA’s exceptional text-to-speech technology leads the industry in natural voice quality, accuracy and ease of use. IVONA is already instrumental in helping us deliver excellent accessibility features on Kindle Fire, including Text-to-Speech, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch,” explained Dave Limp, VP, Amazon Kindle, in a statement. “The IVONA team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession, and we look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world.”

Wrapping up this week is news circulating around the hot topic of mobile voice recognition, which may not be completely at the forefront, but is making a quick rise up the ranks. Ever since Siri burst onto the scene mobile voice recognition has taken off, paving the way for such technologies as Dragon Mobile SDK and Nuance’s rivaling voice assistant, Nina.

“So with multiple SDKs on hand, some might ask, what's stopping voice from being the next big thing? Why don't we see more people talking to their phones for everything or talking to their tablets?” asks TMCnet’s Steve Anderson in the article.

To find out the answer, read the entire article here.

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.