Aswath Weblog

Replacing IVR Systems

I am certain that each one of us have horror stories relating to IVR maze. To ease this, many IVR systems allow look-ahead dialing. But then many administrators ask us to listen to all the choices before selecting one because thy have changed recently. Of course they do not say how recently the menu choices have been changed. All in all, IVR is a necessary evil because the user has limited way to signal the far-end. Recently Fonolo has come up with a crazy like a fox scheme to overcome this tedious interaction.

Apparently, they utilize multiple techniques to traverse large companies’ IVR systems to map the menu tree and make them available in Fonolo’s website. Users can visit their website, select the menu tree corresponding to the company they are interested in and identify their choice. Then Fonolo will connect the users to the company’s IVR system, navigate the IVR menu choices and land on the intended point. This has received lots of positive attention in the blogosphere. Of course some have pointed out a practical difficulty. There are times, IVR system will collect private information and some users may be reluctant to pass it on to Fonolo. But my objection is more fundamental. Fonolo has inserted itself between me and the enterprise I am interested in. This very fact may be of value to Fonolo and can claim that it is entitled to market this information because they are providing a free service.

Just because I take exception to their solution does not mean that the pain point they address is not real. My suggestion to IVR designers is to recognize this and simplify those callers who have access to Internet. A preferred approach could be for these enterprises to produce IVR map on their own website. Then internet connected callers can first visit this website, traverse the IVR menu tree just like Fonolo users will do. Once they reach the desired point, the site can generate a string of digits. Then a caller has to dial the standard number and enter the generated number string. The IVR system can correlate the entered digits to the selection made on the website and route the call accordingly. This way, we can augment the limited signaling capability available in PSTN with the rich UI available through the web browser. This is what “Intelligent at the End” will suggest.