IVR Deconstructed

With the economy finally experiencing a much-needed rejuvenation, both public and private companies are ramping up their hiring.  Job growth in 2011 should be up exponentially from the previous years, and there should be many more opportunities for individuals seeking employment and looking for new opportunities.  While this is fantastic news for everyone out there in need of work, employing and training a new employee can sometimes become quite laborious, on both the employer and employee ends.  Training employees is an incredibly comprehensive process, and can mean a massive undertaking for all involved.  Current employees have to take time out of their already busy days to train and educate their new co-worker, and new employees are constantly trying to keep up with the plethora of information they receive daily.  While one-on-one training is vital to educating a new employee about branding and positioning, a lot of info can be gleaned from other sources.  An interactive voice response system would be a great tool that would aid new employees in getting up to speed without forcing others to sacrifice work time for training.  An office-based IVR system would interface with the company website, whitepapers, marketing materials, and even competitors.  New employees could learn all about their new company telephonically.  Individuals could also record information for training purposes that new hires could engage with upon their employment to familiarize themselves with the company.  They could take telephonic quizzes to demonstrate the information they had picked up, information they still needed to learn, and replay all lectures and recordings as necessary.  In this way, current, busy employees wouldn’t need to allot so much time to training, and new employees could receive company info at the touch of a button.  This would be a great IVR system for all, and make employee training much more efficient and streamlined!

OnStar has announced today that they have launched a voice application student developer competition utilizing the QuickFuse platform.  The competition will be judged by thought leaders in technology and application programming interface (API).  Students at five universities have been selected to participate: Carnegie Mellon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Michigan, University of Texas, and University of Toledo.  Through the QuickFuse voice application development platform, OnStar will provide its unique vehicle data model to students in the challenge.  Through March 11, students from participating universities can submit voice applications that provide solutions in one or more ways:  responsible connectivity (keeping drivers safely connected to infotainment options), informed driving (using vehicle information to improve the driving experience), and location (using location-based information to enhance the driver’s lifestyle, and increase productivity of plan travel). Student entries will be judged by OnStar IT and Engineering executives as well as API and technology thought leaders including Robert Scoble, Scobleizer; Daniel Jacobson, director of engineering for the API, Netflix; David Pogue, technology columnist, New York Times; and Valerie Casey, founder, Designer’s Accord. The Grand Prize Winner will be announced at Where 2.0 in April and awarded a Developer Dream Package of various technology tools valued at $10,000.

Goldfish only have three seconds worth of memory capacity.  Swallowed chewing gum takes seven years to digest.  Humans use only ten percent of their brains.  Eating less than an hour before swimming increases the risk of muscle cramps or drowning.  These are common misconceptions that are perpetuated so often that people have come to believe they are correct.  These, and countless other fallacies have become commonplace beliefs that are frequently and incorrectly, perpetuated.  Have you ever been engaged in a conversation in which someone says something that sounds slightly off or patently inaccurate?  I certainly have, and find myself irked when something sounds odd, or just blatantly wrong.  Have you then whipped out your smart phone or attempted to text Cha Cha or Google to ascertain the correct answer, only to find that it turns into a very time-consuming activity that rarely yields the proper answer, or does not provide you with enough information to refute your argument?  While smart phones and Google text are great for many reasons, finding out tidbits of information through these services or devices is often times tiresome and ineffective.  A fact-finding interactive voice response system would offer a great solution.  This IVR system could be set up to interface with various Internet databases like Wikipedia, governmental, and informational websites.  Users could call in, pose a question, whether it had to do with sports scores, trivia, or random factoids, and the system would interface with these backend systems to generate the correct answer.  The response would be spoken, so there would be no character or space limit on the answer, and users could glean a complete understanding of the situation.  Instead of sitting through meetings and get-togethers feeling that the conversation was somewhat off or imprecise, users would be informed and impart with accurate information, and perhaps everyone could become a bit more collectively informed!

I woke up this morning to a world blanketed in snow and an outside temperature of 3 degrees.  While my trek to work was the opposite of fun, I couldn’t help but think about how the snow was stacking up at ski resorts around the state.  Anyone who likes engaging in winter sports knows that a snowy day is a good day, and most skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing enthusiasts live for the days when the powder is knee deep.  Being able to engage in outdoor activities is a real treat, but many of us live in cities and must commute to mountain resorts.  This can mean a lot of time spent in traffic, a lot of money spent on lift tickets, and having to endure snow/cold.  An interactive voice response system could make getting to the mountain easy and hassle-free.  Users could use this IVR system in a multitude of ways.  They could utilize the system to check ski reports state and even nationwide by placing a quick, inbound telephone call.  Users could find out about new snow totals, expected snow, and outside temperature and wind chill.  Users could utilize the same IVR system to get the traffic report, alerting them of what roads to take and what roads to avoid.  Subscribers could find out what percentage of the mountain was open, what the conditions were on the mountain, and parking availability at the resort.  Additionally, users could utilize the IVR system to find out about deals on one-day lift tickets, passes, and even purchase their tickets all telephonically.  One of my main gripes about going skiing is how much money and effort it takes just to get to the mountain.  An interactive voice response system like the one mentioned above would go far in getting winter sports enthusiasts to the mountain, cheaply, safely, and as pain free as possible!

As it stands, we are six days into the New Year.  Many of us out there have made New Year’s resolutions which we are quite intent on keeping.  Whether we want to get in shape, eat healthier, have more fun, read more books, or pursue a long-forgotten hobby, sticking to resolutions can be somewhat difficult at times.  Some resolutions require extensive lifestyle changes, and are very demanding in terms of personal time. Individuals could receive support from friends, family, and other people interested in achieving the same goals through an interactive voice response system.  Various New Year’s resolution themed IVRs could work on a subscriber basis.  For example, there could be an “Eat Healthy” IVR system that would collect nutritional and caloric data, recipe suggestions, and vendor information.  Users could call in on the go from anywhere, tabulate daily calories, hear about nutritional information of products they were consuming, get ideas for recipes, and as an added bonus, access a forum where subscribers could record thoughts and observations.  This IVR system would also allow users to establish their own private message forums, where they could form networks and call in to hear progress updates and suggestions from their friends and families.  If they were out and about, they could call into this IVR system and get vendor and recipe information without having to access the Internet or their smart phones and quickly and easily do their shopping before they arrived home.  New Year’s resolutions IVRs could be set up for any number of categories, and subscribers could utilize this on the go tool to receive the necessary information and support that would help them stick to their New Year’s resolution, whatever it might be!