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ariatelecomsolutions · 10 months ago

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IVR Appliance in Delhi NCR: Revolutionizing Business Communication

In today's competitive business environment, effective and streamlined communication is crucial for providing exceptional customer service. One of the most transformative tools that businesses are adopting to enhance customer interaction and optimize operations is the IVR appliance. In a region like Delhi NCR, where the pace of business is rapid and customer expectations are high, having an advanced communication solution like an IVR system is essential. Many organizations are turning to IVR appliance in Delhi NCR to automate customer calls, reduce wait times, and improve overall efficiency.

What is an IVR Appliance?

An IVR appliance (Interactive Voice Response appliance) is a hardware solution that enables businesses to handle large volumes of customer calls automatically. It allows customers to interact with a company’s communication system through voice recognition or touch-tone keypad. The IVR system can route calls to the appropriate department, provide pre-recorded answers to common questions, or direct customers to a live agent if necessary.

Unlike cloud-based IVR solutions, an IVR appliance in Delhi NCR is installed on-premises and offers greater control, security, and customization options. This is particularly advantageous for companies handling sensitive customer data or those requiring specific customization for their communication needs.

Why IVR Appliance is Crucial for Businesses?

Improved Customer Service: The primary benefit of deploying an IVR appliance is that it enhances customer service by automating call management. Instead of waiting on hold, customers are quickly directed to the right department or provided with the information they need, improving their overall experience. This can be especially valuable for businesses in the Delhi NCR region, where customer interaction plays a critical role in maintaining competitive advantage.

Increased Operational Efficiency: An IVR appliance in Delhi NCR allows businesses to manage incoming calls efficiently. By automating routine tasks and inquiries, businesses can free up their human agents to focus on more complex customer issues. This reduces the workload on customer service teams, leading to better performance and reduced operational costs.

Cost-Effective Communication: While an IVR appliance may require an upfront investment in hardware, it offers long-term cost savings. Businesses no longer need to hire large customer service teams to handle repetitive tasks such as answering frequently asked questions or routing calls. Over time, the efficiency and automation provided by an IVR appliance lead to reduced labor costs and higher profitability.

24/7 Availability: One of the most significant advantages of an IVR appliance in Delhi NCR is its ability to provide 24/7 customer service. Even during non-business hours, holidays, or weekends, customers can still access vital information or complete transactions through the automated system. This ensures that your business remains accessible and responsive, even outside of normal working hours.

Enhanced Call Routing: With an IVR appliance, businesses can program the system to route calls based on specific criteria, such as customer input or time of day. This feature is particularly useful for companies that receive high call volumes and need to ensure that customers are directed to the most appropriate department or agent as quickly as possible.

Key Features of an IVR Appliance

Customizable Menus: One of the most powerful features of an IVR appliance is its ability to offer customizable call routing options. Businesses can configure the system based on their unique needs, allowing for tailored customer interactions. Whether it’s directing calls to specific departments or offering self-service options, an IVR appliance in Delhi NCR provides the flexibility businesses need.

Voice Recognition and Touch-Tone Input: Modern IVR appliances can interact with customers using both voice recognition and touch-tone input. This ensures a seamless experience for users, who can either speak their responses or use their keypad to navigate through the system. The ability to handle both methods of input makes the system more versatile and accessible.

Real-Time Reporting and Analytics: Many IVR appliances come equipped with reporting features that allow businesses to track important metrics, such as call volume, average handling time, and customer satisfaction levels. With real-time reporting, businesses can monitor the performance of their customer service teams and identify areas for improvement.

Integration with CRM Systems: To enhance the customer experience further, IVR appliances in Delhi NCR can be integrated with existing customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This enables agents to access customer data quickly, providing personalized service based on past interactions. It also helps businesses track customer inquiries and ensure a more cohesive service approach.

Scalability: As your business grows, so do your communication needs. IVR appliances are highly scalable, meaning they can be easily expanded to handle higher call volumes or new business requirements. This makes them an ideal solution for businesses that anticipate growth and need a communication system that can adapt.

Why Choose IVR Appliance Providers in Delhi NCR?

Local Expertise: IVR appliance providers in Delhi NCR understand the specific needs of businesses operating in this fast-paced region. They offer tailored solutions that cater to the unique demands of companies in industries such as retail, finance, healthcare, and telecommunications. These providers have experience working with a variety of businesses and can offer customized support and consultation.

Reliable Support: When investing in an IVR appliance, having reliable technical support is critical. IVR appliance providers in Delhi NCR offer local support, ensuring that businesses can quickly address any issues that may arise. Whether it’s troubleshooting or system maintenance, businesses can count on prompt assistance to keep their communication systems running smoothly.

Competitive Pricing: IVR appliance providers in Delhi NCR offer competitive pricing for their solutions. Whether you're a small business looking for an affordable IVR solution or a large enterprise with complex communication needs, local providers can offer solutions that fit your budget while delivering top-tier technology.

Customization and Security: With an IVR appliance, businesses have more control over their communication infrastructure. This is especially important for companies handling sensitive customer data, such as in the banking or healthcare sectors. Local IVR appliance providers can offer customized solutions that meet stringent security requirements while ensuring compliance with local regulations.

Cutting-Edge Technology: The IVR appliance providers in Delhi NCR are equipped with the latest technology to offer state-of-the-art solutions. From advanced voice recognition features to intelligent call routing, businesses can leverage cutting-edge IVR solutions to optimize their operations and provide superior customer service.

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elisionvoipsolutions · 4 years ago

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Increase Self Serving Using Call Center Solution to Leverage Several Benefits

Call centers often face a scarcity of skilled agents. If call centers increase the use of self-serving in the call center, they can not only deal with the scarcity of agents, but they can also leverage many other benefits.

Call centers usually face many challenges and one of them is the scarcity of skilled agents. It becomes difficult to have agents that can quickly finish the call and also give resolution within a single call to the customer. Due to a lack of skilled agents’ team, call centers often face long call queues and because of that increased frustration of the customers. The call centers can remove this roadblock by encouraging customers to use self-serving options. Along with filling the gap of not having enough manual resources, this can also help in leveraging many other benefits such as increased customer satisfaction, increased ROI, etc.

Generally, all call centers put in place self-serving options, but those are not used by the customers. So what can a call center do to increase the use of these options? Here are a few effective tips that can help a call center increase the use of self-serving options:

1. Configure IVR correctly

One of the fundamental features offered by all call center solutions is an interactive voice response system. All call centers have this feature in place still people do not use it. To encourage the use of IVR based self-serving options to follow the below-mentioned tips:

Keep messages short. It is very irritating for a customer to listen to a long message and act accordingly. Thus, often customers do not pay attention to these prompts and wait for an option that says, “Talk to customer support executive”. The solution is to keep messages short.

Keep menus short. Too many menu items also make it difficult for customers to remember the options. They often get lost and because of this, it becomes difficult for them to use this self-serving feature. Thus, limit the options in the IVR.

In a nutshell, be very careful when you configure an IVR system that you want to truly be used.

2. Use chatbots

This is the time of artificial intelligence and this is the time to get benefited from the power of technology. AI-based chatbots are now offered by call center solution providers as well as from independent providers. One can implement these chatbots on the website. This will be very effective and useful because more and more people have started using chatbots and customers actually do interact with these bots to get answers to their questions.

3. Add a webpage of commonly asked questions

Some questions of the customers are asked frequently. To save the time of the agents answering these questions, a call center can put an FAQ page on the website in which one adds all commonly asked questions along with its precise answers.

4. Update self-serving options regularly

Whether you use a call center solution or any other option to self-serve the customer, you must keep a habit of refining those options so they can answer the latest queries of customers. Update your IVR prompts, chat intents, and other self-serving options as well. This will keep your self-serving options up to date to encourage more self-serving option use.

If you are looking for a call center solution with the useful self-serving option, then visit

https://www.elisiontec.com/contact-center-solution

#call center solutions

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studio52group · 6 years ago

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5 Tips to Make Sure Your IVR Actually Improves Consumer Satisfaction

Customer support is the backbone of every business. You might be the best in your field, have the most competitive prices, or present the most comprehensive service. None of that will matter if your clients are not happy. In this article, we’re going to cover one of the crucial factors for consumer satisfaction. The telephone is still the preferred channel for customer support, and the right IVR system will also make it the most efficient.

An IVR system is important because of many reasons, you can learn more about that in our article “Here’s why IVR system is essential to your business“. However, a poor IVR system will be really frustrating for callers. Don’t worry, that can easily be avoided. Let’s take a look at some tips to actually increase customer satisfaction with your IVR System.

Keep your menu tight

You need to be extremely careful when choosing your menu options. Too many options will be cumbersome. You should also put the most relevant options first. This used to be harder, thankfully, voice recognition allows a lot of flexibility without overcrowding your menu.

Let callers reach your executives

IVR Systems are wonderful, but they can’t handle every situation. Remember you need to keep your menu tight, some rare cases will have to be left out. Even if the issue could be solved by the IVR users might not know how, or simply rather talk to an actual person. Sure, it would be ideal if every customer sticks to using your IVR, but, is it worth losing possible clients? It’s certainly something to consider.

Put important information in your greeting

One of the most important aspects of a successful IVR system is showing your clients how much you appreciate their time. Having important messages on your greeting will help you accomplish that. You should also consider adding messages while they are on hold.

Test your IVR system regularly

Any mistakes in your IVR system will lead to frustrated customers. Whether an option leads to the wrong place, or stress makes the system crash constantly. Those kinds of problems need to be swiftly diagnosed and dealt with. Lucky for you there are many ways to efficiently test your system, making sure there is nothing to bother your clientele.

Same executive Call-Backs

You can take things one step further with this trending IVR feature. Familiarity is a great way to encourage consumer loyalty and satisfaction. Being able to contact the same advisor they talked to last time is well received by callers. Plus, your executive will already know the details of the case, making your customer support even more efficient.

Following these simple tips will result in a user-friendly IVR system. That will mean happier costumers, which is always welcome. If you’re still not sure how to get the perfect IVR system for your business you can leave it to us. We have all the experience needed to ensure your IVR enhances your customer support.

CALL NOW +971-4-454-1054.

#IVR solutions Dubai #IVR recording in UAE #IVR solution in UAE #IVR service provider in Dubai

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weadrian0123-blog · 6 years ago

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jennabrileyus · 8 years ago

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Alternatives to Google Voice

Google has been consistently expanding for years, and that expansion has taken it into the business world. The company is undoubtedly most well-known for its search engine, and it also has productivity tools available online, a flexible cloud storage solution and its popular email service. But it has also developed its own voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone service with Google Voice, which provides calling, texting, the option to choose a local phone number, email to voicemail and much more. People can use Google Voice for calling and messaging over both their computers or their smartphones. Best of all, Google Voice is available free of charge. This makes it an excellent option for businesses that need an extra line to help with a high call volume, communicate with clients via text message, or make and receive calls from a local phone number obtained through Google Voice. Google Voice is a fantastic service, but it's by no means perfect, as some users have experienced reliability issues. For small businesses and startups that need to keep their expenses to a minimum, Google Voice can be ideal for getting a business phone number or setting up a second line. It's not right for every business, though, as there are situations where it won't be the most professional and effective option. Although providers of business VoIP or hosted private branch exchange (PBX) systems can offer business phone service at a far lower price than a traditional phone company, both types of service can still be costly. Plus, these systems don't always come with a local phone number, and it may cost extra to get additional phone numbers. When it comes to free phone service options, Google Voice is about as good as it gets. But there are some very inexpensive alternatives that allow a business to get a local phone number, send and receive calls and messages, and take advantage of all the other features one could get through Google Voice without breaking the bank.

Grasshopper

Even though Grasshopper has a slightly higher price tag than some of the options on this list, it's well worth it, because it gives businesses a total phone system and all kinds of helpful features. The user can decide if they want to port over a phone number or get a new one, and that new number can be local, toll free or a vanity number. With 800 numbers getting gradually phased out, Grasshopper allows users to get something more modern with an 844-series number. Grasshopper includes a mobile app with several great features of its own. Like Google Voice, Grasshopper can transcribe voicemails and send them to the user's email. It allows the user to set up their own mobile fax signature and email a fax as a PDF. There's an auto attendant feature and an option to set up custom greetings. Grasshopper also has full location flexibility, as the user can add others from any location and give them local phone number extensions. A basic plan through Grasshopper is $12 per month and 6 cents per minute. Its Ramp plan, which includes one number with 500 minutes, is $24 per month. For two numbers with 2,000 minutes, there's the Grow plan for $49 per month. Grasshopper works very well for businesses that need a cloud-based phone system with a wide range of features. It's also a great choice for a business that wants a local phone number and a memorable vanity number.

Telzio

Telzio offers a cloud-based business phone service with plenty of features at a low price. It allows the user to pay as they go, and plan prices start at just $1 per month. That plan includes unlimited call flows, extensions and SIP accounts. The calling rate is $0.119 per minute on inbound calls and $0.168 per minute on outbound calls, although the user has the option of going with a plan instead. The unlimited extensions are beneficial for businesses with large teams, because everyone can get their own personal extension through Telzio. Or the user could set up extensions by department or location depending on what works best for the business. Telzio can forward calls to a mobile device or an IP phone. It also offers an online control panel, IVR menus, free recording of calls and the ability to set certain call hours. If the user needs a fax number or a toll-free number, those are just $5 per month. Users that want to purchase a package of minutes can get Telzio's Pro plan, which provides 1,000 minutes and has a monthly fee of $29. If a business is looking for a system that can deliver plenty of extensions, Telzio fits the bill and includes plenty of other great features on top of that. It's also a cost-effective option for a second business phone line because of its low cost. ... from Updates & News http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Alternatives+to+Google+Voice

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doorrepcal33169 · 8 years ago

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Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs built a system for single-speaker digit recognition. These early systems had tiny vocabularies and weren’t much use outside of the lab. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research continued, expanding the number of words that could be understood and working toward “continuous” speech recognition (not having to pause between every word).

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The first great era of VUIs were the interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were capable of understanding human speech over the telephone in order to carry out tasks. In the early 2000s, IVR systems became mainstream. Anyone with a phone could get stock quotes, book plane flights, transfer money between accounts, order prescription refills, find local movie times, and hear traffic information, all using nothing more than a regular landline phone and the human voice.

IVR systems got a bad rap, resulting in Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Amtrak’s virtual travel assistant, “Julie,” and websites like GetHuman, which is dedicated to providing phone numbers that go directly to agents, bypassing the IVR systems.

But IVR systems were also a boon. Early users of Charles Schwab’s speech recognition trading service (which was developed by Nuance Communications in 1997) were happy to call in and get quotes over and over using the automated system whereas prior to IVR systems they limited their requests so as not to appear bothersome to the operators fielding their calls. In the early 2000s, a freighting company received many angry calls after its IVR system was taken down for maintenance because callers had to give order details via agents, rather than the streamlined process the IVR system had provided.

IVR systems became skilled at recognizing long strings (e.g., FedEx or UPS tracking numbers), as well as complex sentences with multiple chunks of information, such as placing bets on horse races. Many IVR systems from yesteryear were more “conversational” than some current VUIs, as they kept track of what callers had already said, and used that information to prepopulate later questions in the dialog.

The San Francisco Bay Area 511 IVR system let drivers check traffic, get commute times, and ask about bus delays, well before smartphones were available for such tasks. The 24/7 nature of IVR systems let callers do tasks at any time, when agents were not always available.

The second era of VUIs

We are now in what could be termed the second era of VUIs. Mobile apps like Siri, Google Now, Hound, and Cortana, which combine visual and auditory information, and voice-only devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming mainstream. Google reports that 20 percent of its searches are now done via voice.[3]

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

There are not many resources out there right now for VUI designers to learn from. I see many VUI and chatbot designers discovering things that we learned 15 years ago while designing IVR systems—handing off information already collected to humans, phrasing prompts correctly to elicit the right constrained responses, logging information to know how to analyze and improve systems, and designing personas.

There is much to learn from IVR design. In 2004, the book Voice User Interface Design (Addison-Wesley Professional), written by Michael Cohen, James Giangola, and Jennifer Balogh, was published. Although it’s focused on IVR design, so many principles it describes are still relevant to today’s VUIs: persona, prosody, error recovery, and prompt design, to name a few.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

The youngest users of smartphones today are incredibly adept at two-thumbed texting, multitasking between chat conversations, Instagram comments, Snapchatting, and swiping left on Tinder photos of men posing with tigers. Why add another mode of communication on top of that?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

How many times have you received an email or text message from someone, only to wonder if they were mad at you or maybe being sarcastic? Humans have a difficult time understanding tone via the written word alone. Voice, which includes tone, volume, intonation, and rate of speech, conveys a great deal of information.

In addition, devices with small screens (such as watches) and no screens (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) are becoming more popular, and voice is often the preferred—or the only—way to interact with them. The fact that voice is already a ubiquitous way for humans to communicate cannot be overstated. Imagine being able to create technology and not needing to instruct customers on how to use it because they already know: they can simply ask. Humans learn the rules of conversation from a very young age, and designers can take advantage of that, bypassing clunky GUIs and unintuitive menus.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 65 percent of smartphone users have used voice assistants in the last year.[5] Amazon reports at least four million Echos have been sold, and Google Home recently started shipping. Voice interfaces are here to stay.

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Many of us now work in open-plan office spaces. Imagine asking your computer to do tasks: “Computer, find me all my Word docs from this week.” Now imagine everyone in your office doing this! It would be chaos. In addition, when you speak, which computer is listening?

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

If they need to discuss a health issue, most users won’t want to do so by speaking to their phone on the train ride into work. It’s not just privacy for what the user says to systems, either—it’s the potential privacy violations of a VUI automatically reading your text messages out loud or giving you a reminder that it’s time to take a certain medication.

So, should your mobile app have a VUI? If your main use case is hands free—such as a cooking app or playing podcasts while driving—absolutely. If people will use your app in a particularly vulnerable or emotional state, such as for healthcare or comfort, voice can help them. If you want to persuade your users of something, whether it’s to vote “yes” on your ballot issue, or to make sure they go to bed early, or to eat better, voice can help. If you’re building a skill for Amazon Echo, which many people use in the privacy of their home, voice is your only option.

If your use case is going to be mostly in public places, such as navigating a public transit system or for people on the go, a VUI might not be appropriate. If it’s an app people will use at the workplace, having a text messaging mode might be better.

Think carefully about your users and their use cases. “The main question to ask yourself is: Will your users benefit from a VUI?” Adding a VUI because it’s cool and trendy is not the right path. If your app would benefit from a VUI, design with this in mind from the get-go, and create an awesome user experience.

Conversational user interfaces

The term conversational user interfaces is making a lot of headlines right now. The trend is to make everything “conversational,” from turning on the lights in your living room, to ordering pizza, to asking the fridge whether you’re out of eggs. But what does conversational actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Discussing this book over dinner one evening, I talked about the various people I��ve had the chance to talk to as part of my research. My eight-year-old son had a suggestion: I should interview Alexa. Sounded like a good idea to me. (Note: after the first question, I have left out the wake word “Alexa” that I actually did use at the beginning of each question.)

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

Do you consider this set of interactions to be “conversational”? In a way, it is; it’s a back-and-forth exchange of information. But it’s really just a series of one-offs. Each individual snippet is a simple interaction, and the next one has no knowledge of the previous; each one of these exchanges could be completed on its own.

Alexa does have a few skills that go past one turn. For example, if you ask her to order laundry detergent, she’ll remind you of what brand you ordered previously, and confirm that you want to order it again. She also has a popular “choose your own adventure” game. But most of these barely meet the threshold of being considered a conversation.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

But what many of today’s VUIs lack is the ability to go beyond these simple command interfaces—that is, to have a true conversation. To get to the next level, VUIs need to be able to remember the past. There are two ways in which the past is a key component to a conversation:

There’s the past from previous conversations, such as what you ordered yesterday, which song you request to be played most often, and which of the two Lisas in your Contacts list you have texted 257 times versus twice.

There’s also remembering what you said earlier within the same conversation—if not in the last turn. If I ask, “What time does it land?” after just checking to see if my husband’s flight took off on time, the system should know that when I say “it” I mean flight 673.

When you’ve enjoyed a good conversation with a fellow human being, it probably had some key components: contextual awareness (paying attention to you and the environment), a memory of previous interactions, and an exchange of appropriate questions. These all contribute to a feeling of common ground. As Stanford professor Herbert Clark defines it, the theory of common ground is: “individuals engaged in conversation must share knowledge in order to be understood and have a meaningful conversation.”[6]

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

This book is about how to design VUIs—but what does a VUI designer actually do? VUI designers think about the entire conversation, from start to finish, between the system and the end users. They think about the problem that is being solved and what users need in order to accomplish their goals. They do user research (or coordinate with the user research team) in an effort to understand who the user is. They create designs, prototypes, and product descriptions. They write up descriptions (sometimes with the help of copywriters) of the interactions that will take place between the system and the user. They have an understanding of the underlying technology and its strengths and weaknesses. They analyze data (or consult with the data analysis team) to learn where the system is failing and how it can be improved. If the VUI must interact with a backend system, they consider the requirements that must be addressed. If there is a human component, such as a handoff to an agent, VUI designers think about how that handoff should work, and how the agents should be trained. VUI designers have an important role from the conceptual stages of the project all the way to the launch and should be included at the table for all the various phases.

Although VUI designers often do all of these tasks, they can also work in smaller roles, such as designing a single Amazon Echo skill. Regardless of the size of the role or the project, this book will help designers (as well as developers) understand how to craft the best VUIs possible.

Chatbots

Although this book is focused on VUIs, I want to briefly discuss chatbots, as well. Google defines a chatbot as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.” The word “bot” is also sometimes used to refer to these types of interactions.

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Chatbots might be all the rage, but for the most part, they have not evolved very far from the original ELIZA, an early natural language processing computer program created in the 1960s. One popular exception is Microsoft’s Xiaoice, which mines the Chinese Internet for human conversations to build “intelligent” responses.

Text-only chatbots are not always more efficient than a GUI. In Dan Grover’s essay “Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps,” he compares ordering a pizza using a pizza chatbot (Figure 1) versus ordering pizza using the Pizza Hut WeChat integration. It took 73 taps to tell the bot what he wanted, but only 16 taps via the app (Figure 2), because the app makes heavy use of the GUI.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

The key wins for WeChat in the interaction (compared to a native app) largely came from streamlining away app installation, login, payment, and notifications, optimizations having nothing to do with the conversational metaphor in its UI.

Many bots, however, use a combination of GUI widgets as well as text-based interfaces. This can greatly increase the efficiency and success of the interactions because it’s much more clear to the user what they can do.

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Chatbots can provide a great experience for users who don’t want to download an app or add their credit card. Instead, they could scan a code, and immediately begin interacting with the service they need, such as ordering food, purchasing movie tickets, or finding out information about a museum they’re visiting.

Never add a chatbot for the sake of adding a chatbot. How could the chatbot benefit your users? As Emmet Connolly says, “Bots should be used to improve the end user experience, not just to make life easier for customer support teams.”[[7]]

Conclusion

When I was eight, my dad bought the family our first computer: a Commodore Vic-20. I quickly became fascinated with the idea of having a conversation with it and wrote a simple chatbot. When it didn’t understand what was typed, it asked for three possible suggestions it could use when it encountered that query in the future.

When I got my first smartphone, it was years before I used the speech recognition feature. I didn’t think it would work. Now, we’ve arrived at the point that I expect speech recognition to be available wherever I go; recently on a hike, when my son asked me what kind of tree he was pointing at, I actually started to say, “Alexa...” before I realized it wouldn’t work.

Although VUIs are becoming more common, there are still many users who are unfamiliar with it or don’t trust it. Many people try out the voice recognition on their smartphone once and then, after it fails, never try it again. Designing well from the get-go means fewer unrecoverable failure points, which will build trust with users.

We have many nights of blood, sweat, and tears ahead of us as we design our VUIs of the future, but it’s here. Let’s ensure that we design with care. Let’s use our knowledge of human psychology and linguistics as well as user experience design to ensure that we create usable, useful, and even delightful VUIs.

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

Continue reading Is a VUI right for you and your app?.

from FEED 10 TECHNOLOGY http://ift.tt/2xzZwXV

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studio52group · 6 years ago

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A Decade of Experience on Audio Recording

Studio 52 has been supporting enterprises with Audio recording services for years. Our main verticals are On Hold messages, IVR (Interactive Voice Recording), and even Multi-language Dubbing. Audio technology has evolved a lot over this past decade and we feel the responsibility to share with you some of what we’ve learned. In this article, we’ll cover some of our favorite Audio recording trends of this decade.

While IVR technology and Call Centers have been around since the 1980s, things really took a turn on the late 2000s. With important improvements on CPUs, Audio recordings became smarter and cheaper to implement, Windows took the initiative in 2007 adding IVR features to their VoIP Hub. This basically made automated audio technology a necessity for a business to compete in the marketplace.

Higher Quality Recordings

More CPU power allowed space for higher quality audio recordings, this was great news for us. There are many aspects to audio recording, none more important than clarity of the message. With fewer limitations and modern codecs, the quality of functional audio files improved significantly.

Today, we have a wide variety of modern codecs. You’re likely very familiar with MP3, it’s been around since 1988. The issue with the MP3 codecs is that it uses a lossy compression method, which means lower quality playbacks. Back then, the need for saving storage space made working with MP3 a necessity. That changed with the arrival of more powerful CPUs, allowing us to use lossless codecs such as LAC, ALAC, and WMA Lossless. These are about three times larger than MP3 files, but the increase in sound quality made it well worth it. If you’d like to learn more about the different modern codecs, Cortney Moore wrote a great piece about them on Tom’s guide.

More intelligible audio recordings allowed a wider usage for this technology. Nowadays you can efficiently gather all the information needed to deal with a client on an IVR system, severely reducing customer service costs. You can even have your possible clients navigate your services to free up your marketing budget. This had a huge impact on mass market services such as banks, hotels, hospitals and more.

Audio:- Dubai Bank THM

Another perk of the CPU improvements was the facility to include multiple languages for each message. This solved more than one problem for international businesses, eliminating the need to choose which demographic they would give priority. This was particularly important to big hotel chains and international banks. Our work with Radisson Blu comes to mind. They no longer needed to choose a single language for their On-Hold Messages, so we developed for them this recording in both English and Arabic.

Audio:- Radisson Hotel Chain

This meant better experiences for both local and international callers. Nowadays most big companies use multiple languages for their recordings. Either letting the customers choose which they prefer on IVR systems or playing them back to back on On-Hold Messages like the one above.

From DTMF to ASR

Another huge change for the audio recording industry in the last decade was the introduction to Automated Speach Recognition (ASR). While Dial Tone Multi-Frequency is still a great tool for IVR systems, it can get cumbersome and hard to navigate. Adding speech recognition to the mix meant a whole new level for IVR Systems, user interaction was made a lot more intuitive. Developments such as SALT (Speech Application Language Tags), VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language), and CCXML (Call Control XML) made it simple and effective to implement.

Now, this hardly means we said goodbye to the DTMF technology. Not all customers loved the insertion of ASR, especially while it was new and still in need of improvements. Luckily this didn’t present an issue. As we mentioned above, by this time we had a lot fewer limitations. Using both systems simultaneously helped improve the customer experiences, regardless of their preference.

Audio:- Samsung IVR English Arabic

There are many reasons to invest in IVR for your business. We already covered them in a previous publication.

IVR leads to customized conversation and a better customer experience

IVR makes your company look big and professional

IVR can be used for time-based routing and location-based routing

IVR works as a virtual phone receptionist and automated self-service for a wide range of uses

IVR provides easy menu options and personalization

IVR reduces costs

You can learn more about the reasons you should use IVR for your business in our article “Here’s Why You Should Approach IVR Services For Your Business”.

A survey conducted by DMG in 2010 showed that 76.6% of responding enterprises were already using interactive voice response systems and most of those who didn’t have an IVR system in place planned to invest in it in the near future.

Realising The Importance of On-Hold Messages

Looking back to our article “Don’t Give Your Callers the Silent Boring Treatment: Explore Telephone Hold Message (THM)” where we talked about a CNN survey from 2011. 70% of the callers in the United States would hang up the call within the first 60 seconds of being on hold as per a. A North American Telecom study revealed that a caller would stay on the line around 30 seconds longer if they are hearing some music while on hold as compared to a caller who experiences silence. Also, a caller listening to commercials stayed up to 3 minutes longer.

We knew On-Hold Messages had a great marketing potential, but that survey made us realize there was a lot more to this technology. More retention on calls plus extra exposure for marketing campaigns made conversions skyrocket. In the end, that’s what marketing is all about. On-Hold Messages allowed brands to show respect for their clients time, no longer being wasted with awkward silences. It’s also an excellent tool for cross-selling, you can consider anyone waiting on hold a Hot Lead, why waste the opportunity?

A few years later the success of this trend became clear. A study conducted on 2014 by PHMG showed that “45% of UK consumers are happy to hold longer than a minute during calls to businesses and only 6% are not willing to wait at all.” Similar results were found for American consumers. It was clear On-Hold Messaging was here to stay.

Those are just some of the highlights from this past decade of experience. If you want to hear more of our audio recording projects you can visit our site. http://studio52.tv/audio/

Now, if you want all our experience to work for your brand, get your free consultation today, CALL NOW +971-4-454-1054. We are happy to share our expertize. You can also visit one of our offices: http://studio52.tv/contact/

#On Hold Messages Recording Service #Telephone On-Hold Message Service #IVR Recording Company in Dubai #IVR Services in Dubai #IVR Production in Dubai

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jennabrileyus · 8 years ago

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Alternatives to Google Voice

Grasshopper

Telzio

0 notes

jennabrileyus · 8 years ago

Text

Alternatives to Google Voice

Grasshopper

Telzio

0 notes