What’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

and How Can It Help Your Company or Business

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an effective tool to get messages out in a timely, professional, and cost effective manner. Many businesses are using IVR technology to help cut costs and to improve customer sales and support.

Interactive Voice Response allows a computer to automate interactions with telephone callers through the use of voice recognition and touch-tone telephone keypad entry.

IVR solutions use pre-recorded voice prompts and menus to present information and options to callers, and entries made on a phone's keypad to collect responses. Some also enable responses to be gathered through spoken words through voice recognition.

For example, airlines use an IVR system to help retrieve flight information and real-time flight delays. They can set up their IVR system to recognize callers by their registered phone number.

For example: Would you like to check the status of your flight to Chicago? For yes, press or say 1. To hear additional options, press or say 2.

Businesses and companies use an IVR to help direct customers to the appropriate party and to help streamline customer service.

For example: Hello and thank you for calling Joe's Auto Parts. If you know the extension of the party you wish to reach, please enter it now. To speak with the operator, press 0 at any time. For Sales, press 1. For Support, press 2. For Billing, press 3. To repeat this message, press pound.

TouchTone Communications’ customer, New York-based Dial Global, is a full-service radio network that produces and distributes radio programming to more than 6,000 stations in the U.S. One of their services, Radio Voodoo (an IVR system), answers phones for radio stations and makes it possible to use caller recordings in station programming. Dial Global provides the technology, and TouchTone provides the toll-free and DID termination.

"Radio Voodoo is a service that specializes in allowing radio stations to have their phones answered by an IVR. Stations then use the audio left by listeners during radio shows or in promotional announcements. Radio Voodoo has partnered with TouchTone as a provider of toll free origination and DID termination. As you can imagine, radio station traffic has great highs during contesting and sometimes great lows depending on market size. TouchTone has been able to balance the sometimes huge spikes from stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles while servicing the smaller stations in Lubbock, TX, Massena NY and St. Joseph, MO. 

The best part about working with TouchTone has to be the customer service. At Radio Voodoo, so much of our success has been the team at TouchTone coming up with creative ways to find solutions to our problems. They are energized, engaged, and do not rest until we arrive at a solution. TouchTone is very much a part of the team that has made Radio Voodoo a must have for radio stations across the country."

~Dee Perkins, Distribution Sales Manager
Dial Global

Looking for IVR voice termination? TouchTone Communications provides quality, low-cost in-bound (local and toll-free) and outbound calling to IVR service and software providers. To learn more call 888-TOUCHTONE or e-mail sales@touchtone.net