One of our products in service is the IVR. IVRs are automatic telephone answering systems that can use the phone’s DTMF tones or ASR, voice recognition, to receive instructions from the caller and recordings or TTS systems, text-to-speech converters, to give the caller the information they request. .
Using a system with DTMF and recordings is recommended when the information to be given to the client is finite and little (it must be recorded). DTMFs are acceptable when the search for information is limited to short menus or numerical information, for example the postal code.
For a client project, with little money, I wanted a TTS system, text-to-speech converter, to give information from on-call pharmacies. Call spikes were expected just after television commercials. The problem, like most of the time, was the budget.
If we set up a service to be able to answer calls at peak times, we would need TTS licenses for each channel, which would seriously increase the costs of the service, and would not be viable for the customer.
Here comes the good thing about working with a great team. One solution could be to record the address of all the pharmacies in Spain, very expensive and quite inefficient. However, the solution we gave to the project was the generation of a learning system, the first time you give information from a pharmacy, use a TTS license but record the audio file, the rest of the time, you no longer need the license. TTS since you have the audio file ready.
The reduction in costs has made this project feasible and the client can start it. In post-test evaluations, patients overwhelmingly stated that the intervention had helped them overcome obstacles to taking the medication , such as being too busy or having to take multiple medications at once. They also claimed to be more aware of the importance of medication thanks to these messages.
How does an IVR system work?
In an ivr systems for pharmacies, callers are given the ability to select options by pressing the keys. Pressing a digit on the telephone keypad sends a DTMF tone to the company service system, which then selects the appropriate action / response according to the digit pressed.
Where are IVR Systems used?
The IVR systems can normally handle and service high volumes of phone calls. With an interactive voice response system, businesses can reduce costs and improve the customer experience, because callers get the information they need 24 hours a day without the need for expensive human staff.
Some IVR applications include telephone banking, flight schedule information, and televoting.
