Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Solution helping Organizations to overcome the COVID-19 Business Crisis

Published on : Monday 03-08-2020

Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a telecommunication technology which allows a computer machine to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF tones input via a keypad. In telecommunication application world, IVR system allows customers to interact with a organization’s host system via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after which services can be inquired about

through the IVR dialogue. IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio to further direct users on how to proceed. These systems are deployed in the network which are sized to handle large call volumes and also used for outbound calling as IVR systems are more intelligent than many predictive dialer systems.

Commercial application of IVR has started something around 1973, which was designed and developed by Steven Schmidt. Those days it was a DSP technology based and limited to only small vocabularies. Periodically it was innovated and enhanced with new features and capabilities. We are in the world of latest IVR solutions which are best for any organization. Apart from telebanking facility provided by any bank, there are several other business domains which are widely using IVR technology solution; like Restaurants, Hospitality, Travel & Tourism, Food delivery services, Logistic and many others.

Today world is going through difficult phase of COVID-19 crisis. It is extremely important to sustain and continue business growth, as it should be primary focus of organizations despite of issues. At broad picture COVID-19 crisis has big impact on economy of not only specific country but worldwide. Due to technology innovations now days it is possible for many job functions to work from home which is good for safety measures in this scenario.

We all are witnessing this COVID-19 pandemic situation first time which has impacted each person in the world. All scientists are doing their best to find vaccine to overcome this situation. No business wants to be outdated in market till the conditions actually improves. Organizations must to be in touch with customers.

Why Cloud Hosted IVR Solution is a need of today?

In this pandemic condition Cloud Hosted IVR solutions are best for any organization. It is proving its need in many domains since years and most importantly it has shown its essential need in the past few months.

IVR solutions makes it possible for any organization to continue seamless communication between all customers, clients, business stakeholders, and corporate employees. It allows employees to work from home and yet to satisfy clients or customers.

Let me give an example. Suppose there is a BFSI organization who want IVR solution with 3 languages English, Urdu & Telugu where they want to include four product categories such as Mobile banking, Gold, Business Loans, forex and 9 branches - then such customized & comprehensive IVR tree with required multiple options is also possible in most of latest IVR solutions.

These needs can be summarized in four key facilities or benefits of Cloud Hosted IVR for any organization.

1. Work from anywhere

2. Better ROI than onsite

3. Easy to scale up or down

4. Reports and Compliance

Let’s discuss each benefit in details.

1. Cloud Hosted IVR Solution allows Work from Anywhere

There are known lot of issues while working from home, once of which is connectivity. If connectivity is best employees, stakeholders or clients will never face issues in verbal communication, exchange of data, images, files and other critical data.

IVR gains professionally recorded studio prompts with intelligent IVR tree. It helps industry to design a professional voice greeting to make “Halo Effect” giving assurance of brand image. Then it prompts for options which helps caller to direct towards proper information he/she looking for. We all have experience it while using tele-calling facility of our bank.

It offers high level of degree of professionalism to the organization.

2. Cloud Hosted IVR Solution provides Better ROI than Onsite

Cloud Hosted IVR Solution allows for all the benefits of a standard on-premise IVR solution which any organization can have; only it is over the cloud. It can result in significant savings, as there is zero infrastructure cost. It can be fully customizable depending on provider and is a solution that can cater to almost all industries. It also helps call agents to perform more effectively by saving time and quality of delivery.

Being cloud hosted, even it can work 24X7 and will show customers value of your service.

3. Cloud Hosted IVR Solution is Easy to scale up or down

Being cloud hosted service, depending on service provider it is easy to scale up or scale down IVR channels. That is flexibility is easy on configurble cloud hosting which business can benefit with.

4. Cloud Hosted IVR Solution provides Reports and Compliance

Cloud Hosted IVR helps with different reports and information for compliance – as it tracks various details as well as records call through it. These are very essential to improve service delivery.

Also, as the information shared via cloud hosted IVR is sometimes personal or confidential, it is important to choose reputed vendor who can protect information of your organization or customers.

Organization should not ignore cybersecurity while choosing Cloud Hosted IVR.

Shekhar Ashok Pawar is CEO of GrassDew IT Solutions Pvt Ltd which is primarily focused on Cybersecurity Assessment & Audits, IT Consulting, Customised Software Development and Software Products. With more than 15 years of international experience, he is CISA, CEH, CHFI, MCP, Blockchain Developer, Dip Cyber Laws, CMMi Level 5 ATM & ISO 27001 LA. He is also certified H/W & S/W expert for Mobile Phones, Computers and CCTV cameras. He did Executive Management (SJMSOM, IIT-Bombay), after Engineering in Electronics & Telecommunications, Mumbai. He is also certified for "Digital Signal Processor & Applications" by Analog Devices - DSP Learning Center, IIT Madras.

He is lead contributor to GrassDewPanther @ LinkedIn which is focused on sharing global cyber threats and related news. Shekhar's recent book “Air Team Theory: Understanding 10 Types of Team Mates and Best Practices to Succeed” was published in January 2020 and is a hot-seller on Amazon.