IP Office IVR

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IP Office IVR

IVR systems can be used to control almost any function where the communication can be broken down into a series of simple menu choices. In IP Office use, such as customer support lines, IVR systems scale well to handle large call volumes. Avaya IP Office Voicemail Pro supports the ability to construct powerful interactive systems based upon DTMF telephone key entry. This is achieved by using the flexibility provided from the built in call flow actions. As a caller passes through any part of a defined call flow the system is capable of interacting with most third party databases through the use of the standards based ADO interface (ActiveX data objects). The system is capable of retrieving information from a database and writing information into databases. The result of this is that powerful Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) can be designed to specifically meet the requirements of the business and the customer experience that is required.

The use of IVR and voice automation enables a company to improve its customer service and lower its costs, due to the fact that callers’ queries can be resolved without the cost of a live agent who, in turn, can be directed to deal with specific areas of the service. If the caller does not find the information they need, or require further assistance, the call is then transferred to an agent who can deal with them directly through CTI integration. This makes for a more efficient system in which agents have more time to deal with complex interactions, for example, customer retention, up selling, cross selling and issue resolution. This way, the customer is more likely to be satisfied with a personalised service and the interaction is likely to be more fulfilling and rewarding for the agent, as opposed to dealing with basic enquiries that require yes/no responses, such as obtaining customer details. Employee satisfaction is important in the telecommunications industry due to the fast turnover of staff, IVR is therefore one way of retaining a workforce and allowing them to do a more effective job. IVR also enables customer prioritisation. In a system whereby individual customers may have a different status, for example, a bronze, gold or platinum card holder, the service will automatically prioritise the individuals call and, in the case of a platinum card holder, move them to the front of the calling queue.

Avaya Voice Mail Pro already has out-of-the-box IVR system applications. However, if an even higher degree of sophistication is required in your IVR system application, custom programs written in Microsoft Visual Basic can be integrated into the voicemail system – making the power of the voice mail system to integrate with your accounting, customer management, and product management databases virtually unlimited, especially in combination with TTS. A text-to-speech (TTS) engine is the piece of software that raw data, such as an account balance, is “read” to a caller over the phone. The Avaya IVR solution comes with its own TTS engine.

IVR systems are typically used to service high call volumes, reduce cost and improve the customer experience. Many IP Office IVR users use IVR services to extend the business hours of operation. Typically callers speak information into their phone and this is then used to complete their enquiry, order or contact without a live agent, 24/7, 365/365. Examples of typical IP Office IVR applications are:

• telephone banking
• televoting
• credit card transactions
• helpdesk systems
• customer servey systems
• customer surveys
• Information Bulletin Boards
• order taking
• order processing
• support desks
• contact centres
• call centre caller segmentation
• secure access to information through PIN checking
• remote time sheet management

Accessing Database Information within Call Flows (IVR)

Voicemail Pro provides the ability to construct powerful interactive systems based upon DTMF telephone key entry.
This is achieved by using the flexibility provided from the built-in call flow actions. As a caller passes through any part of a defined call flow the system is capable of interacting with most third party databases using the standards based ADO interface (ActiveX Data Objects). The system is capable of retrieving information from a database and writing information into databases. The result of this is that powerful Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) can
be delivered to specifically meet the requirements of the business and the customer experience that is required.
Example interactive systems that can be built as a result of these facilities include: Information Bulletin Boards, order taking and order processing systems, front end systems to Help Desks/Support Desks, Contact Centers, secure access to information through PIN checking, survey systems, remote time sheet management, etc.
• The ability to interact with Database information is enabled through the purchase of the IPO LIC – IP500 3rd PRTY IVR RFA license key. The entry of this key will enable the operation of four new Database Action Icons within the Voicemail Pro client.

The database actions that are provided through the Voicemail Pro Client are:
• Database Open – Opens a link to the required database. Multiple databases can be accessed during a call but only one database can be opened at one time.
• Database Execute – Provides the ability to enter a query on the opened database. The query can ‘Select’ data from the open database or can ‘Insert’ data into the database.
• Database Get Data – Provides access to the data that has been retrieved from a database through the Database Execute action. The user can retrieve the next item, previous item, first item in the list or the last item in the list.
• Database Close – This action will close the current database. If the database is open when a call terminates then the database will be automatically closed.
As with other Voicemail Pro call flow actions, the database actions include the ability to communicate with the Avaya Compact Contact Center for reporting purposes, the Voicemail Pro installation includes Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) to simplify connection to most common databases.
Interaction with the opened database is done through Structured Query Language scripts (SQL). An administrator can enter SQL script directly into the specific section of the Database Execute action. For administrators that are not familiar with SQL scripts, a script can be created automatically through the use of a SQL Query Builder Wizard.

Using Text To Speech (TTS) Facilities within a Call Flow

A Text To Speech (TTS) engine can be added to further enhance IP Office IVR capabilities; TTS facilities can enhance the callers experience by allowing the system to read back to them any information that has been extracted from a database. For example, in a Book Shop, the caller dials into the system and is asked for an ISBN number of the book they require. The caller enters the ISBN through the telephone keypad and the system locates
the title of the book from the database. As well as finding the title, the system could also look up the author of the book and whether there were any books in stock. By using TTS, the system could now respond to the call:
“The book, Lord Of The Rings, costing $6.99, written by J R R Tolkien is in stock”.

The languages currently supported by the Avaya TTS engine are:
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Dutch
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• French (Standard)
• German
• Japanese
• Italian
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Russian
• Spanish
• Spanish (Latin)
• Turkish

TTS Licensing

TTS is an optional licensed component of Voicemail Pro, and adds a TTS resource pool for Voicemail Pro to use and release as required. TTS licenses are independent of Voicemail Pro licenses. If a system integrator wants to use a different TTS language set from those supplied by Avaya this can be done by using the 3rd party TTS license instead of the Avaya language TTS. Both license types are based on a concurrent usage model

Visual Basic (VB) Scripting

The Voicemail Pro call flow programming interface has been extended to allow an administrator to provide Visual Basic (VB) scripted logic that can be interpreted by the Voicemail Pro server. This ability allows system administrators to program the voice system via VB Scripts thus providing additional choice and flexibility in providing IVR applications. The VB script action contains a VB-Scripting parser (Syntax checker) to ensure the
legitimacy of the administrator derived VB Script before it’s incorporation. Each VB script action used within a call flow can contain a maximum of 1000 characters; however a call flow may contain multiple VB script actions within it.
VB Scripting on IP Office Voicemail Pro is an optional licensed component.

On a right mouse click in the VB Script window the methods and variables are available will be listed to assist when constructing call flows.