IVR Deconstructed

Happy Labor Day to all!  This has been a great summer filled with outdoor activities, ranging from camping and mountain biking to festivals and concerts, but the symbolic end of summer is now upon us.  The summer whizzed by, and fall is bearing down.  This is, symbolically, the last weekend of summer and many people’s last opportunity to wander around in white, wear shorts, and sit on a patio enjoying the great outdoors.  While most of us feel a certain sense of melancholy trying to say goodbye to summer, there are plenty of fall things to look forward to!  One of my personal favorites is college football.  College football season kicks off this weekend and students and alumnae nationwide will be waiting with bated breath to track their team’s rankings in the BCS.  From the quest for the Heisman to the race to bowl placement, college football is just one of fall’s great events to look forward to!  Avid fans like myself consistently monitor every game and attempt to take in every play, all the while crossing our fingers that our Alma Mater succeeds.  However, this is a huge influx of information, and it is nearly impossible to monitor all of these statistics.  An IVR system offers just such a solution to all of our information problems.

An IVR system by Plum Voice could allow users to track statistics and receive information about team standings and game outcomes. Plum allows users to enable inbound and outbound calling from virtually anywhere, allowing avid football fans like myself to constantly stay abreast of player statistics and team status.  The second scores were determined or rankings change, subscribers would receive a phone call, via the outbound calling feature included in all applications.  Football viewers would be alerted to all pertinent news regarding their favorite team.  If, for some reason, one missed a game, an IVR system could be put in place to track and describe play, and monitor game statistics and outcomes.  Users could call into the system, select their favorite team, and hear announcers’ commentary in real time, never missing a thing.  Users could also receive highlights and link through to interesting facts and statistics regarding their preferred team.  With so many games to watch, and so little time in which to view them, a football-themed IVR system is the perfect solution to any fan’s problem!

We recently developed a mashup using QuickFuse and the Amazon Product Advertising API.  I have to say as an avid reader, this application is one of the most useful voice mashup we’ve created.  The application provides information on any product sold on Amazon’s site including customer reviews, ratings, and price. Also, for published material, it provides editorial reviews.

This IVR application is useful to me as I often shop at brick and mortar bookstores that don’t provide supplementary information about their products. Often I peruse the aisles of these stores looking for interesting titles, new books, or works from my favorite authors I have yet to read.  When I stumble upon something that seems worthy of a purchase, I’ll call the Amazon IVR mashup, say the ISBN number, and then hear reviews or search for other books by the same author.  Although I don’t always let a review sway my buying decisions, it is helpful to hear what others have to say about a book and its author before I invest my money and time.

In the past, I used my iPhone to look up product reviews, but I found the process slightly arduous.  My Internet connection speed always varies and it seems to take 3 to 5 minutes to access web pages that contain the information I need.  With the Amazon IVR mashup, I can get book reviews from Amazon in seconds.  It’s a very convenient process when you’re looking for information about many different products.

Subtle changes are becoming more and more visible as the seasons begin to change.  There is crispness observable in the air in the mornings, the leaves are slightly beginning to alter their colors, and the sun is setting a bit earlier with every passing day. While there are no more water parks to frequent or outdoor music festivals to groove at, there are plenty of fall activities on the horizon that should put a slight spring in people’s step.  While the end of summer is typically a symbolic and melancholy time for most, there are certainly some things to look forward to: performance fleece wearing, the integration of warm weather hats into everyday outfits, and the beginning of a new fall TV season.  Premier week kicks off in mid-September, typically coinciding with the change of the seasons and accommodating the new cooler temperatures.  There is always a twinge of possibility during premier week, and the potentiality that the networks will produce the next Lost or Wire.  TV audiences can always be excited by the mere fact that they might discover their future favorite show, making those long winter nights a bit more negotiable.  With the both cable and network changing up their schedules and rolling out huge amounts of new fare how are television viewers supposed to keep track of shows that might peak their interests?

This is where an Interactive Voice Response system could come in to play.  For viewers on the go, an IVR system could be constructed to inform them of current and future TV offerings, and act as a sort of Zagat guide for the television viewing populace.  An IVR system could be set up to work in any number of ways.  It could act as a TV guide of sorts, gathering information about each and every show available on network and cable TV, and indexing it based on subscriber time zone and preference. Viewers could place an inbound call, hear summaries of shows, get recommendations based on their preferences, and find out what time their preferred shows are on.  Users could also program the IVR system to place an outbound call and remind them when a show they want to see is going to be airing, ensuring that they won’t miss a moment!  The IVR system could be set up so that users could record and hear personalized reviews of shows, even going so far as to set up friend and reviewer networks, so that subscribers could hear reviews from trusted commentators.  Last but certainly not least, this system could be set up to interface with personal Tivo and DVR systems, so that even remotely, users could program their recording to devices to capture their preferred shows.  While the new fall season might feel overwhelming for some, an IVR system can assist everyone in sorting out and pinpointing those shows that are going to become weekly staples in their TV viewing lives!

From exotic Senegalese spread to French haute cuisine, restaurant week in Boston is upon us again.  For two glorious weeks, all of Boston’s culinary treasures are available at a reduced fixed rate and menu, giving epicureans the city over the opportunity to try some of the best restaurants in Boston at a reasonable price.  The concept is fairly straightforward; restaurants are offering two-course lunches for $15.10 per person, three-course lunches for $20.10, and three-course dinners for $33.10.  At restaurants like L’Espalier and Taranta, this is a steal, as meals could easily set a party of two back a hundred dollars or more.  With close to 250 restaurants participating, this is every gourmand’s dream.  The city is their oyster, so to speak, and it is most certainly a case of so many restaurants, so little time.  So what is a gastronome to do?  How does one even wrap their head around getting to all the places they want to hit?  Here is where an Interactive Voice Response system could come in quite handy.

An IVR could be set up to interface with restaurant-goers in various ways.  First and most importantly, the IVR could be set up to interact directly with restaurants.  A restaurant database would be constructed that had the ability to interface with restaurants the city over.  With one quick phone call, foodies could be in touch with their favorite eateries, make reservations, and be well on their way to a culinary feast.  While OpenTable and other sites like it are great resources for Internet users, sometimes individuals on the go simply don’t have access.  The IVR could also be set up to interface with online reservation companies by adding telephonic options to their Internet-centric sites.  Users could telephonically dial in from anywhere and request reservations.  Additionally, an IVR system could provide reviews of menus, user recommendations, and information about drink and appetizer specials.  In the event that a reservation needed to be shifted or changed, the restaurant could also make an outbound call informing restaurant-goers of any change to their dining agenda.  This IVR system would be a one-stop shop of sorts, where food connoisseurs could get information on everything they needed to fully immerse themselves in the Restaurant Week experience!

This morning, I turned on the faucet to brew up a pot of coffee and start my day right and it made the most awful creaking sound.  Thinking that it perhaps just needed additional time to adjust to the morning, I let it run for a bit.  Unfortunately, the horrific noise only got worse.  Owing to the fact that it was 7am, and my property managers wouldn’t be available until after 10, I had to go without my morning coffee and forge on with my day sans caffeine.  As the workday progresses, I also have to remind myself to get in touch with my property managers at a later time.  This got me to thinking about how an Interactive Voice Response system could greatly assist renters in their quest to get their household appliances fixed in a timely manner!

This IVR system could be used by property management companies in lieu of the answering machines or answering services that they typically rely on.  Tenants could call in, report their problem, make use of the automatic speech recognition feature to elaborate further upon their issues, set up maintenance arrival times, stipulate special instructions, and in the event of an emergency, be dispatched through immediately to someone on call.  Instead of leaving messages that often times aren’t responded to, residents could be sent a claim ticket via text or voice message, confirming the receipt of their request and the estimated arrival time of maintenance personnel.

In addition, residents could receive outbound calls confirming that their request had been fulfilled, detailing the work performed, or requesting an appointment to complete additional work if necessary.  Property managers could also eliminate the need to personally contact maintenance personal, using the IVR system to interface immediately and directly with them after a resident request has been made.  If property management companies utilized an IVR system, they could cut time in half by immediately having a call dispatched to maintenance personnel, allowing tenants to describe the problem in depth, and allowing maintenance personnel to get back in touch with tenants and brief them about the status of their request, all with the help of an IVR system.