IVR Deconstructed

Since introducing local number availability in 65 countries, Plum customers have deployed a number of voice applications around the world by easily managing all their numbers and IVR call flows from one centralized platform and interface.  We now have customers managing localized voice applications in 50 countries all by serving VoiceXML from their web servers to the Plum platform in the US and Europe.  In addition to providing local numbers, the Plum IVR platform supports ASR and TTS in a dozen languages to make data collection and delivery easy.  Businesses that want a local customer service line, phone survey, or any other automated phone application can sign up for free access to the Plum platform at http://www.plumvoice.com/developers

Nearly three weeks into the crisis in Japan and you’d think we’d be talking about resolution and recovery, but we’re not.

“The earthquake, tsunami and the ensuing nuclear accident may be Japan’s largest-ever crisis,” Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has now said, according to the New York Times. “We find ourselves in a situation where we can’t let down our guard. We will continue to handle it in a state of maximum alert.”

These comments come after the discovery of contaminated water and harmful levels of radioactive elements in the area around the plant—both suggesting the situation is getting worse rather than better.

Already, at least 11,000 people have died and Japan’s economy has taken a serious blow. But it’s still shocking to hear the prime minister say this may be Japan’s worst crisis.

The island nation’s 2,300-year-old history is peppered with earthquakes and tsunamis and fires. The Japanese traditionally built their homes and cities of wood and lightweight walls (shoji screens) for flexibility during earthquakes and easy repair afterwards. Tsunami is a Japanese word meaning “harbor wave,” after all.

And, of course, there were Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A week ago, the Japanese government felt the Fukushima plant crisis was coming under control. This week, everything is different.

Workers have been injured from exposure to radiation including stepping into contaminated water. There’s radioactive iodine at over 3,000 times normal levels within 1,000 feet of the discharge (making its way into the Pacific). And plutonium found in the soil around the reactor suggests at least a partial meltdown.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, iodine-131 (the radioactive iodine found downstream of the plant) causes thyroid problems, including cancer. Iodine-131 was the cause of thyroid cancer after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. It has a half-life of about 8 days, which means it’ll be in the water for that long.

Meanwhile, CNN is reporting that Greenpeace wants to expand the evacuation zone of 12 miles around the plant. The environmental advocacy group did tests in Iatate 25 miles away and detected radiation levels high enough to give someone outside of a building the “maximum annual dose in about 100 hours.”

So no, things aren’t getting better. They’re getting worse.

Our lives, both personal and professional, revolve around our computers.  Most of our jobs require constant computer use, whether we are using word processors, photo-editing software, or email.  In addition to work computer use, many of us use computers at home to social network, chat with our friends, and surf the Internet.

There is nothing more disconcerting for a computer user than to encounter the blue screen of death or the sad Mac face.  To anyone who has experienced this icon, it means that your computer has encountered a fatal or near-fatal crash.

Second only to the awful sinking feeling that you will have to potentially spend hundreds of dollars on a new computer is the realization that you have not backed up your files.  Anyone who has been 7 pages deep into a proposal or who is working on their Master’s thesis knows that there is nothing more perturbing than not being able to capture the glory of the first draft they wrote.

Thousands of work files can be lost if users don’t adequately back up their data, which can be extremely devastating if they are irretrievable.  Sometimes people don’t remember to back up their data, which is where an IVR system could come in quite handy.

An interactive voice response system could assist users in remotely backing up their data.  By interfacing with an online data storage website, users could call in and program a computer backup.  Your computer would then automatically upload information to an online data storage site.

This IVR system would also be advantageous in that users could retrieve files from their computer while not directly in front of it.  Have a presentation you forgot to send to yourself? This IVR system could simply interface with your computer so that you could upload your file to a file-sharing site and be ready to roll, all telephonically.  Instead of being faced with the prospect of never seeing valuable data again, users could back up their data quickly and on-the-go!

The municipal governing body of India’s largest city is telling its employees to quit talking on their cell phones so much.

Seriously.

Doesn’t it sound like a father and his teenage daughter?

He opens the bedroom door.

“I told you to get off the phone.”

“Fine. I will.”

He stands at the door, kicking off the staring contest.

“Go away. I will.”

He doesn’t move.

“Ugh. So annoying. [Into the phone…] I gotta go.”

“Thank you.”

“What-evs.”

He closes the door, waits outside listening.

“[Into the phone…] Okay, he’s gone.”

He opens the door again.

“Gimme that thing.”

“OMG, LMA [leave me alone]—“

But it’s not a joke. If the employees go over their allotted minutes, they have to pay for the extra time out of their own pockets. And we’re talking about work calls here to city residents about sewage and stuff, not personal calls about last night’s cricket match or whatever.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, or BMC, is the municipal governing body of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the commercial and entertainment capital of India. Perhaps ironically, the BMC is supposedly the nation’s wealthiest municipal body with an annual budget larger than some Indian states.

But this isn’t some tightwad father who doesn’t let his kids use their cell phones. And it’s not that the BMC is a bad father. In fact, the organization is currently in the running for an award from the United Nations for reducing disaster risk, according to CNN-IBN.

On July 26, 2005, much of Mumbai, which lies on India’s west coast on the Arabian Sea, flooded after record-setting rainfall. Australia’s Sunday Morning Herald reported the following day that 66.6 centimeters of rain had fallen in 24 hours in Mumbai, the highest amount ever recorded in India for one day.

The rain took 59 lives (landslides), flooded much of the city, stranded thousands in railway stations and on roads with no way to get home and caused large-scale destruction across the city.

According to CNN-IBN, the BMC implemented measures to strengthen its disaster management following that disaster—including setting up disaster control rooms, constructing cyclone shelters and coordinating with other cities to create a disaster risk management plan. For that, the BMC might get a UN award.

So it’s not a bad or cheap father issue. The Times of India is reporting that the BMC is asking its kids (sorry, employees) to keep the phone minutes down to improve efficiency and save money because the organization’s financial reserves are diminishing. The cell phone crackdown is just the first of many cost-cutting measures on the horizon.

But…

Not to be teenager-y (teenagers are know-it-alls)—and this may be an obvious question—but are they still using wireless or are they using Voice over IP?

Because if they switched to VoIP they could probably save a lot of money…and they wouldn’t have to cut their kids’ cell phone privileges…(sorry, employees!)…

The outbound IVR market in North America is still in its infancy although the last couple years has seen a lot of growth that looks to be continuing strongly.

Historically, outbound IVR systems were the meat and potatoes of call centers using auto-dialers for cold calls. That was clearly just the beginning, though, because outbound IVRs are finding their way into niches all over industry.

In international markets, IVR growth in general has been stronger than here in North America. Slow growth here was offset by growth in places like India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim.

That actually changed somewhat for outbound IVR (at least in the United States) in 2003 when the Federal Trade Commission changed the rules for outbound telemarketing calls.

The changes set strict guidelines for outbound calls to customers. But while many thought the changes would put an end to outbound calls, they enabled companies to call already-established customers. They effectively limited cold calls but made it easier for companies to keep in touch with their current customers.

Companies began thinking of things in a different way, starting what was essentially proactive customer interaction. They began reaching out to customers to provide better customer service. Instead of annoying, it actually improved service and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Outbound IVR systems have found their home in this niche. Healthcare providers can remind patients of appointments and regular checkups. Loan or credit card companies can alert customers if their payments are late. Restaurants can thank diners for visiting their places of business. Companies can welcome new customers and send out loyalty calls.

A 2008 study by Datamonitor projected that the market for hosted outbound IVR in North America would double between 2008 and 2013. Seeing the new and various ways organizations are using outbound IVR, it’s not hard to believe.