Interactive voice response (IVR) solutions featuring automated notifications help companies to easily deliver simultaneous real-time notifications to large groups of people located anywhere around the world. This can be done by voice, email, text or fax.

Benefits of Automated Notifications

• Reduce inbound calls
• Allow customers to set their own preferences
• Reduce operating costs
• Improve customer satisfaction and retention
• Increase brand awareness and loyalty
• Drive new revenue

Examples of Automated Notifications

• Service appointment reminders
• Flight delays
• Updates on prescription refills
• Delivery notification service
• Event notification
• Emergency notifications

Emergency Notifications

An outbound emergency notification IVR can be utilized during urgent situations to deliver phone alert messages to users. The end user has the option of acknowledging the call and providing a status update. Simultaneously, dispatch operators can be notified of the event and alerted to the location. Communities can utilize this application to alert the general public about disasters or events occurring in their neighborhood, as well as relay any information on evacuation or escape measures. Additionally, if the resident requires special assistance, the call can be routed by the IVR to an emergency line.

In a related nonemergency service, IVRs can be used in systems that contact the elderly or homebound residents. This application automatically calls members who subscribe to this service every day to ensure their well being. The resident acknowledges the call by simply answering the phone or by pressing a phone key. If the call is unanswered or unacknowledged, a family member or community service group can be automatically alerted by the phone system.

Benefits of Using Emergency Notifications

• Speed the communication process significantly along with response time
• Focus operators on the next task
• Reduce accidental errors at critical times
• Ensure that everyone gets a consistent, timely message

An auto attendant interactive voice response (IVR) application directs telephone calls to the appropriate extension based on selections made by the caller. The IVR replaces or helps human operators by greeting the caller with a welcome message and routing the call to the right destination. IVR auto attendants can also be integrated with a number of call management functions such as an automatic call distributor (ACD).

Examples of auto attendant applications:

• Telephone information lines or hotlines
• Banking (e.g., balance update, credit card payment)
• Food delivery services  (e.g., automated telephone order taking)
• General enterprise (e.g., office hours, directory assistance)

Benefits of Using an Auto Attendant

• Extend hours of operation (24/7)
• Automate routine tasks thereby freeing agents to concentrate on more complex service requests
• Speed response times to callers
• Expand call capacity faster and at a lower cost
• Provide multilingual support
• Reduce the cost of organizational turnover

An auto attendant IVR application developed with Pronexus VBVoice™ saves money in overhead costs and simplifies incoming phone call procedures. Call centers in particular can instantly become more productive by letting the phone system gather caller information, verify caller identity and determine the best service representative to handle the request.

Automated directory assistance interactive voice response (IVR) applications can be programmed with the name and extension number of every person in an organization. Typically, a caller is asked to spell the user’s name using the numbers on the telephone keyboard or with automatic speech recognition (ASR) the caller can say the name of the person they are trying to reach to be connected. To ensure that the caller is connected to the right person, a built-in spelling feature can be added to the IVR. Automating these calls is potentially a major opportunity for cost savings or more productive deployment of staff.

Benefits of Automated Directory Assistance

• ‍24/7 coverage ensures your customers and employees around the world can quickly and easily contact anyone in the directory at all hours of the day simply by speaking their name
• Decrease operational costs – staff can focus on other more important tasks and less staff is needed
• No longer a need for a printed internal directory, employees can pick up their handset and say the name of the person to whom they wish to speak to
• Make changes and updates to the system quickly and easily
• Improve customer service – consumers can now be guaranteed that they will receive the correct telephone number

Automated directory assistance applications developed with Pronexus VBVoice™ have provided a tremendous improvement to the industry by allowing a caller to have voice-activated access to a large database of company information simply by using the telephone.

Increase Caller and Operational Efficiency with Speech Recognition

The implementation of an effective automatic speech recognition (ASR) interactive voice response (IVR) solution can reduce the number of agents, supervisors, trainers and quality assurance specialists that are needed within the call center and provide your callers with a self-service solution. If a customer is provided the option of gathering the information s/he needs without accessing an agent, more agents are free to handle calls that can’t be resolved with self service.

Current Trends

• ‍Need to reduce call center operating expenses to improve the company’s margins and bottom line
• Desire to automate as many servicing tasks as possible prior to moving call center activities offshore
• Need to replace self-service applications that are either reaching their end of life or becoming too expensive to maintain
• Current generation of self-service web and voice portal technologies and solutions that can deliver high value applications not previously available

Why Upgrade to ASR

Reduce costs

• ‍Self service means your business’s staff and operating expenses can be controlled and/or reduced

Drive revenue

• ‍Automatic transactions mean your call center can handle more calls with the same number of agents
• With overhead costs alleviated and improved customer service, you have the flexibility to offer new services and increase customer loyalty
• Build brand new voice-driven services that differentiate your company and deliver potential new revenue sources

Increase caller and operational efficiency

• ‍Information is delivered more consistently when customers can respond to verbal prompts
• Eliminate errors in manually entered touchtone numbers
• Expand possibilities beyond the telephone keyboard
• Efficiently manage call peaks and avoid customers waiting in call queues
• Dedicate human agents to more sophisticated services
• Reduce the amount of time an agent needs to remain on a line, increasing the number of calls that agent can effectively handle within their shift

Phone banking is a service provided by a financial institution, allowing its customers to perform transactions over the telephone using an interactive voice response (IVR) application. Most telephone banking systems use an automated phone answering system with phone keypad response or voice recognition capability. With the obvious exception of cash withdrawals and deposits, IVR solutions offer virtually all the features of an automated teller machine.

Typical Phone Banking Services

• ‍Balance enquiry
• Last transactions
• Request for statements
• Funds transfer
• Bill payment
• Interest rate quotes
• Foreign exchange rate quotes
• Branch location and opening hours
• New product announcements and product information
• Feedback and suggestions

Benefits of Implementing Phone Banking

• ‍Provide 24/7 multilingual customer service
• Reduce overhead costs with self-service facilities
• Increase productivity and profitability
• Promote customer growth and boost customer retention
• Improve competitiveness

Pronexus VBVoice™ makes it easy to develop an effective phone banking system that integrates into your call flow. VBVoice is a simple and cost-effective way to provide your customers with 24/7 access to banking and account information, which can promote customer growth and significantly improve your competitiveness.

A fax server interactive voice response (IVR) is a computer-based fax machine. It allows a company to securely and efficiently deliver business information from virtually any application, whether it be via fax, email, print or internet. By integrating and automating the flow of fax, paper and electronic documents, businesses can experience significant cost reductions.

With approximately 100 million fax machines worldwide, faxes are still an ideal way to disperse information. Fax on demand allows a caller to retrieve information via fax simply be using their phones. Users can either use touchtone to choose the document or automatic speech recognition (ASR) to “say” which document they would like. This service is ideal for companies who need to have information constantly available to their customers or employees in places other than their website. For example, wholesale electricity prices, mortgage rates and account balance information can be dynamically updated just prior to transmission and easily sent to the end user.

Typical Fax Application IVR Users

• ‍Businesses that send faxes from and receive faxes on a computer
• Businesses that need a fax system that can handle multiple lines and faxes
• Businesses that need the same document faxed to many different recipients
• Businesses that have remote clients who need to submit faxes to the fax server
• Businesses that need an archive of all faxes

Examples of Fax-on-demand Uses

• ‍Provide forms or applications to your customers
• Process catalog orders
• Post event schedules or late-breaking news
• Send large documents that can be faxed more easily than emailed to destinations with only dial-up links
• Provide technical support in the form of technical bulletins
• Distribute information for sales and marketing

Benefits of Using Fax-on-demand

• ‍Reduce costs by allowing an IVR to handle your fax requests (you can reduce expenses for staffing, phones, postage and printing)
• Increase customer satisfaction: customers appreciate having immediate access to updated information and having the ability to serve themselves
• Improve office efficiency and free up support and service staff by automating the fulfillment of requests
• Provide 24/7 unattended access to information for your customers and prospects
• Fulfill lead generation activities for sales and marketing programs

With an automated gift card interactive voice response (IVR) application, customers can activate their card, check their balance or add money to their card through the telephone. Not only is this self-service solution easy for customers and cost effective for call centers, but the gift card IVR can help prevent card fraud by sending out cards as inactive and requiring the customer to call in to securely active their card. Customers can call from their home phone or even from their cell phone while shopping in the mall.

Benefits of Gift Card Activation IVR Application

• ‍Security: Gift card holders can be assured that their gift card is not intercepted and spent before they receive it
• Increase sales: Due to the added security and convenience of your gift cards, customers will be more likely to buy them
• Gain advantage over competition
• Reduce operating costs for managing paper gift cards
• Increase convenience: Customers can activate, reload or update their gift cards 24/7
• Personalize the greeting to blend into your corporate identity

Gift card activation IVR applications developed with Pronexus VBVoice™ are fully customizable and allow your customers to conveniently manage their own gift cards, resulting in improved customer service and higher sales.

An inbound interactive voice response (IVR) application allows callers to complete virtually any job that can be performed by a live agent – all at a small fraction of the cost to the company. When a user calls a company with an inbound IVR system they can be presented with a fully customizable menu system via voice or user input-driven commands. From there the caller is directed to the appropriate information or agent. This application is essential to organizations large and small that are looking for new ways to cut costs and provide better customer service.

Examples of Inbound IVR Applications

• ‍Education: Course information, exam results, absentee notifications
• Financial institutions: Real-time account balances, stock information, telephone banking, loan and mortgage applications
• General business: Help desk inquiries, automated customer service, order taking, office location and hours
• Government: Service information, licensing fine information, emergency notification
• Healthcare: Admittance and discharge records, inventory reports, claims processing and billing
• Media: Membership renewal, classified ad responses

Benefits of Using an Inbound IVR

• ‍Personalization: Inbound IVR applications are designed to give businesses and their customers a simple, superior and personal inbound call experience
• Seamless integration with other applications such as customer managed relationship (CMR) systems
• Increased agent satisfaction and lower turnover
• Cost effectiveness: Reduces the need for live agents
• Increased customer satisfaction: Customers are able to serve themselves, while agents have more time to cover complex issues, therefore, provide better customer service.

Having an inbound IVR integrated into your call flow can not only set your company apart from the competition, but can help reduce overhead costs during difficult economic times. Pronexus VBVoice™ enables the rapid development of an inbound IVR customized specifically for your needs.

Market research and polling interactive voice response (IVR) applications are a simple and cost-effective way to conduct surveys and to better understand your audience, your members and your constituents.

Not only can IVR polls and surveys provide fast, efficient results, but they can provide important data to help focus your targets for future follow up either by phone, letter, or even in person.

IVR polls can be used for a broad range of applications including customer satisfaction surveys, employee studies, etc. Respondents can either dial in to complete the survey, or a dialer can make outbound calls to the respondents. No person or agent is required to talk with the contacted party, who in turn simply listens to the recorded survey and presses their dial pad to record their responses.

Benefits of Market Research and Polling IVR

• ‍Excellent response rate: Giving people the opportunity to respond by telephone increases the chances of them completing the survey. Telephone surveys can be completed anonymously, which increases not only participation, but honesty
• Enables your respondent to access surveys 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Have the ability to change your surveys as often as you like with ease and confidence
• Conduct your surveys in any language
• Instantly gather and analyze data from all of your calls in standard databases
• Run multiple surveys simultaneously
• Avoid the limits of online surveying. Those with reading, writing or IT literacy difficulties and those with visual impairments may be excluded from your demographics with online surveying
• Low cost: Campaigns that can’t justify or budget the cost of traditional live interview polling can opt for an IVR poll to provide basic baseline information

With Pronexus VBVoice™ you can easily develop a market research IVR application to improve your response rate and organize your data into one database.

Reach Your Target with Outbound IVR

In the past, outbound customer interactions were handled by way of direct mail, or internal staff. Today, many businesses are leveraging outbound interactive voice response (IVR) applications to notify their customers of events, sales or issues. Outbound messages can be tailored and personalized to each individual, generating a high customer satisfaction and improved customer loyalty. Outbound IVRs are efficient because they can quickly and inexpensively contact large groups of people.

Examples of Outbound IVR

• ‍Missed appointment reminders: Customers are called if they miss an appointment, providing an opportunity to reschedule
• Appointment reminders: Customers are called the day before an appointment to confirm, with the option to reschedule — fewer no shows
• Customer service follow up: Customers are called after service or sales transactions to ensure that they were satisfied with their experience
• Customer mining: Based on content management system (CMS) data, the software can generate targeted business development campaigns such as due-for-service reminders, specials, recalls or sales events
• Bill collecting: Based on the CMS data, your system could even call your overdue accounts and remind them that their bill/payment is overdue

Benefits of Using Outbound IVR

• ‍Improved customer service: Provides customers with a personalized call experience, immediate information and can be scheduled to ensure you reach callers at a nondisruptive time. Also portrays your company as hands on
• Reach large groups quicker than with manual dialing
• Drive revenue: Increase collections or upsell product
• Reduce costs: Reduce inbound calls
• Proactive communication: Instead of waiting for customers to call your company, outbound solutions allow you to proactively reach out to customers through a variety of channels and applications

From marketing surveys to notifications, outbound IVR provides an effective and affordable way to maximize your outbound campaigns. Pronexus VBVoice™ makes it easy to develop an outbound IVR application that will help your company proactively communicate with your customers.

Enhance Service with Patient Notification and Monitoring IVR

Patient notification interactive voice response (IVR) systems enable the delivery of time-critical information via outbound calls to any desk or wireless phone. This solution can be used to inform and remind patients of appointments, schedule openings and medication requirements. Additionally, an option can be provided to contact someone from your medical staff by pressing a touch phone response in which case the dialer will transfer the call.

Examples of Patient Notification IVR

• ‍Claims and billing
• Office location/hours
• Doctor appointment reminders
• Medical alerts
• Medical surveys
• Prescription refill reminders
• Lab results
• Annual checkup calls
• Prescription reminders

Benefits of Using Patient Notification Services

• ‍Increase customer satisfaction by allowing services like the ability for the patient to make his/her own appointment or request a prescription. Self service speeds the scheduling process for both the office and the patient and increases customer satisfaction
• Boost operational efficiency by relieving staff of the task of making appointments/scheduling calls
• Save valuable resources by eliminating time-consuming tasks such as gathering patient information for medication refills. Staff can concentrate on serving customers and filling prescriptions efficiently
• Potentially save lives: If a homecare patient hasn´t called by his/her appointed time, the IVR can automatically call the patient and immediately alert the homecare staff if the patient does not answer

Healthcare organizations, hospitals, doctor’s offices and dental practices can improve productivity and customer service by implementing patient notifications into their phone system. The Pronexus VBVoice™ IVR toolkit makes it easy to develop an IVR solution specifically for the healthcare industry’s requirements.

Save Time with Predictive Dialer IVR

A predictive dialer interactive voice response (IVR) is a computerized outbound call processing system designed to maintain a high level of utilization and cost efficiency in the call center. The IVR’s dialer automatically calls a list of telephone numbers, screens the unnecessary calls, such as answering machines and busy signals, and then connects a waiting representative with the customer.

Example of Predictive Dialer IVR Applications

• ‍Banking: Debt collection
• Telemarketing: political surveys, market research, charities
• Utility companies: planned outage notification, outstanding bill payment notifications
• General business: mass notifications, those who make continuous outbound calls

Benefits of Using Predictive Dialer IVR

• ‍Save agents’ time: a dialer detects disconnected phone numbers, or fax machines and passes only live calls to agents
• Save management’s time: do-not-call lists, leads and call-backs can be managed automatically
• Boost agent morale: remove the tedious task of manually dialing and the frustration of not achieving the target calls and figures
• Provide real-time feedback: the manager can monitor and maintain optimum performance and productivity. More calls placed means better efficiency and more revenue

A predictive dialer developed with Pronexus VBVoice™ makes it easy to filter out unproductive calls and spares the agent from having to wait for the phone to be answered. Because of this, agents can better focus on phone conversation with customers and improve customer service along with your company’s bottom line.

Automate Transactions with Self-service IVR

Investments in self-service interactive voice response (IVR) applications have skyrocketed during the past a few years, with companies large and small building or enhancing self-service IVR solutions. It is easily more expensive to have a live agent handle a call than an IVR.

Examples of Self-service IVR Applications

• ‍Banking: Change personal identification number (PIN), change of address, balance inquiries, credit requests
• Government: Check licensing
• Healthcare: Claim status, cancel/reschedule appointments
• Insurance: Insurance quotes, policy information
• Sales: Order status requests
• Utility companies: Meter reading, pay bills

Benefits of Using Self-service IVR

• ‍Increase customer satisfaction and customer retention by enabling automated IVR self services from anywhere at any time, with any phone
• Drastically reduce costs, while maintaining high quality service levels
• Offer a multilingual, personalized service
• Multi-channel set up reaching all users, including the disabled and the elderly
• Reuse existing infrastructure and web content investments
• Efficiently manage call peaks and avoid customers waiting in call queues
• Dedicate human agents to more sophisticated services

Building powerful self-service IVR applications with Pronexus VBVoice™ will help automate many transactions that formerly required live employee assistance, while enhancing the user experience by letting them access information more naturally and efficiently 24/7.

Develop Virtual PBX with Pronexus VBVoice

A virtual private branch exchange (PBX) is a computerized device that works as a switchboard, connecting a business with the outside world. It needs no physical presence on either end of the phone call to connect the two parties. Virtual PBX uses voice over internet protocols (VoIP) to route calls over the internet, meaning no expensive hardware is required.

Typical Virtual PBX Uses

• ‍Businesses that operate primarily through freelance contractors and work-at-home staff
• Small businesses looking to increase their professional credibility by appearing larger
• Businesses who want to focus on managing their calls but limit the stress that an advanced calling system can place on a business

Benefits of Using Virtual PBX

• ‍Less office space required
• Less impact from weather conditions
• Remote office interoperability
• More motivated and content workforce
• Broader workforce recruiting base

In the call center industry, a virtual PBX application developed with Pronexus VBVoice™ IVR software allows your employees to work from home, giving you a competitive edge over traditional call centers. It can broaden your workforce by allowing you to hire qualified individuals who are unable to work from the office, such as the elderly or single parents, as well as improve communication lines between remote offices.

Significant Cost Savings

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is the transmission of voice over theinternet in real time by digitizing the voice into packets that are transferred independently over the network. Also known as internet telephony, VoIP is a suitable substitute for the public switched telephone network (PSTN), which works by setting up a dedicated channel (or circuit) between two points for the duration of the call.

VoIP versus PSTN

• VoIP – All channels carried over one internet connection
  PSTN – Dedicated lines
• VoIP – Upgrades usually require only bandwidth and software upgrades (single connection)
  PSTN – New equipment and line provisioning are needed to expand or upgrade
• VoIP – Long distance is often included in monthly price
  PSTN – Long distance is often an additional cost

VoIP IVR

VoIP Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions can not only bring significant cost savings to a business, but can facilitate a virtual contact center in which information can be easily transferred to any agent, anywhere, as long as they have access to the internet. VoIP is compatible with standard IT technologies like web services, allowing businesses to use distributed agents and virtual contact centers with confidence and to improve customer service through more useful applications and a consistent experience.

Typical VoIP IVR Users

• ‍Businesses with multiple phone lines
• Businesses looking for advanced features with limited budget
• Businesses looking to reduce IT infrastructure costs

Benefits of Using VoIP IVR

• ‍Cost savings: Save money on multiple phone lines, special features (three-way calling, conference calling, etc.) and long distance
• Reduce complexity of your technology infrastructure: When you eliminate dedicated voice lines, you no longer need to administer separate voice and data network
• Improve customer loyalty and reduce turnover: Enables companies to implement service improvements that have been technically possible, but economically unrealistic
• Easily integrate with enterprise data sources via technologies such as web services

Pronexus VBVoice™ IVR software allows you to develop VoIP IVR that will save money, improve customer service and reduce infrastructure complexity.

Add Security and Convenience with Voice Verification IVR

Interactive voice response (IVR) solutions with voice verification functionality are on the rise for businesses that are looking for added security and convenience. By identifying unique features of a person’s vocal characteristics and speaking patters, voice verification IVR applications compare a voice sample with a digital voice model to verify the identity of the person speaking. Biometric technology reduces each spoken word to segments composed of several dominant frequencies called formants. Each segment has several tones that can be captured in a digital format. The tones collectively identify the speaker’s unique voice print. Voice prints are stored in databases in a manner similar to the storing of fingerprints or other biometric data.

Examples of Voice Verification IVR Applications

• ‍Banking and accounting: Verify the caller is the account owner
• General business: Employee attendance verification and access control, secure automated password resets
• Government: Protect sensitive information and resources
• Sales: Digital signatures for purchasing transactions over the phone

Benefits of Using Voice Verification IVR

• ‍Substantially reduce the risk of identity theft
• Save time and money for personal identification number (PIN)/password resets
• Focus staff on higher value interactions and work by eliminating time taken to verify a callers identity
• Accurate and reliable identity verification
• Provide a better 24/7 customer service experience
• Can be more accurate and faster than typing or touch-tone entry

Voice verification IVR applications, such as employee PIN or password reset services, are producing positive results for those businesses who have already implemented them into their call flow. Voice recognition systems have a high user acceptance rate because they are perceived as less intrusive and are one of the easiest biometric systems to use. Pronexus VBVoice™ IVR software allows you to develop a highly scalable, cost effective, voice authentication IVR solution that will add security and convenience.