IVR Systems

It is a computerized system which allows a telephone caller to select an option from a voice menu and otherwise interface with a computer system. The system plays pre-recorded voice prompts to which a person presses a number on a telephone keypad in order to select the option chosen or speak simple answers such as yes or no or numbers in answer to the voice prompts.

The system makes use of natural language speech recognition in order to interpret the questions that a person wants answered.

This system can be used for creating and managing many services which includes banking, telephone, caller identification and routing, order placement, airline ticket booking and balance enquiry. There is a difference between voicemail systems and IVR systems as they are a one way communication tool whereas IVR systems attempt two way interactions with callers.

IVR systems are deployed at the front end of call centers in order to identify what service the callers want and to extract numeric information such as account numbers as well as provide answers to simple questions such as account balances or allow pre-recorded information to be heard.