Interactive voice response is the system that handles any phone line with an automated menu.
At a basic level it can recognise and respond to telephone keypad button presses, more advanced systems are able to understand speech, and delivers an appropriate response – either by asking for more information or routing the call.
These prompts are essential for large companies and call centres; IVR prompts direct customers to the right person or department. They also help to manage call queues and keep customers happy from the moment they pick up the phone.
Learn about the benefits of IVR >>
History of IVR Systems
Interactive Voice Response Systems were developed in a very basic form in the 1930s, with as electronic speech synthesisers, but the IVR we know today has come a long way since then.
The more modern version of IVR systems, which more closely reflect what we’re used to experiencing on the phone now, were introduced in 1962 yet they were still quite the novelty up until the late 1970s when they were more frequently used in large call centres to direct customer queries.
With improvements in speech recognition, IVR was able to expand into bigger ‘phone trees’ or menus to help point calls and queries to the most relevant department, meaning calls are dealt with more efficiently.
The benefits of an IVR system have developed over the years, from initially using pre-recorded menus and gathering customer decisions through touch-tone technology, to now being able to understand a customer’s spoken query, with the technology evolving to provide a whole spectrum of information without ever connecting a call.
The industry today is worth a huge £14 billion and is growing at a rapid 10.7% a year, clearly it’s one worth investing in.