Cisco IP-IVR
The Cisco IP-IVR is, as the name implies, a Cisco Internet Protocol Interactive
Voice Response (IP-IVR) unit.This provides companies with the ability to
prompt an incoming call for some type of information, collect the information,
and possibly do a database lookup, or pass on this information elsewhere.While
this is important, the most valuable feature of the IP-IVR is that it is the queue
point for IPCC.When there are no agents available to service a call, the IP-IVR
will hold that call, as well as provide some type of music-on-hold until instructed
by another application (possibly Intelligent Contact Manager [ICM]) to pass the
call to another source. Have you ever given a call center a ring, and instead of
speaking to a person, gotten one of these standard prompts:
“Good Day and welcome to XYZ Corporation.We apologize, but currently
all of our Agents are busy, you are currently number two in the
queue and your expected wait time is 35 seconds. Please hold until an
operator becomes available.Your call is important to us.” (The dreaded
elevator music then starts playing until the call is transferred to an agent.)
“Good Day and welcome to XYZ Corporation. So that we can better
service your call, please make a choice from the following options. Press
1 for Sales, press 2 for Marketing, press 3 for Technical Advice, press 9 to
talk to the Operator, or please hold until your call is answered.”
“Good Day and welcome to XYZ Corporation. Please enter your
account number and password followed by the pound sign.”
The preceding spoken messages are generally provided to you by an IVR (in
this case, the IP-IVR). It is also quite common to have multiples of these prompts
combined to provide the caller (whilst they are in the queue) with information
relevant to them. Examples of this would be to provide daily cartridge specials to
a person who purchases large amounts of printer cartridges. Another option
would be, as in the case of the second and third examples, to extract some information
from the customer, and use this information to identify their needs,
which allows them to pass through to the correct agent the first time.We will be
referencing the preceding example messages throughout this IP-IVR section.This
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is so we can better assess some of the capabilities of the Cisco IP-IVR and provide
an understanding of how the Cisco IP-IVR fits into the IPCC.
The Cisco IP-IVR Solution can run on several different server platforms.
Currently, while co-resident with CallManager, the IP-IVR has the ability to be
able to service two IVR ports. If more ports are needed, it also has the ability to
be able to scale up to 60 ports on a dedicated platform.The actual amount of IPIVR
ports will depend on the number of ports purchased. Currently you have
the option to add multiple additional IP-IVR ports as the need arises, but special
care needs to be taken to adhere to the maximum number of supported ports as
per your IP-IVR hardware platform. Please note that this does not mean that
ICM (discussed later in this chapter) will allow you to use all the ports you have
purchased. For ICM to control the IP-IVR ports, a separate license needs to be
purchased to allow this control to happen.
NOTE
When looking at the different platform options be sure you do NOT
underestimate the amount of IVR ports required, but instead cater to the
customers’ future requirements. The last thing you need is to purchase a
platform that caters a maximum of 30 IVR ports and in six months’ time
realize you need more than the maximum 30 supported ports. As a
design rule, try not to exceed 75 percent of the maximum number of
ports supported by the platform. Obviously, you may not be able to
determine beforehand all the requirements, and in this case, bigger may
probably be better (a bigger hardware platform, that is, not an increase
in the number of ports).
Before discussing the components of the IP-IVR, it might be best to give
you some insight into a few of the capabilities of the IP-IVR.We’ll start off by
looking at the three different sets of messages, their abilities, and what information
is required to make them work efficiently. Let’s look at the first example, the
one that tells the caller what number they are in the queue.
Looking at this example, there are several variables that need to be considered
when using this prompt. For example, how do we know that we are number 2 in
the queue? Also, how do we know that the estimated wait time is 35 seconds?
The simple answer is that we get the information from ICM (discussed later in
the chapter), but if you look at the prompt, you will see the following steps.
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Play the Welcome Prompt File (“Good Day and welcome to XYZ
Corporation.We apologize, but currently all of our Agents are busy, you
are currently number __”)
Find out the position in the queue from ICM and repeat this to the
caller (“2”)
Play an interim prompt in this case (“in the queue and your expected
wait time is __”)
Find out the estimated wait time from ICM and tell this to the caller
(“35”)
Play the seconds files (“seconds”)
Play another sound file (“Please hold until an operator becomes available.
Your call is important to us.”).Add music, or possibly an advertisement,
or even start the script from the beginning, the choice is yours.
A simple script, like that just mentioned, has several components that need to
be recorded separately but joined together to provide a single seamless prompt.
Later in this section, we’ll discuss how we integrate the different steps of the script.
The second example uses caller input to let them decide which particular
department they would like to speak to.This not only saves an agent from having
to answer the call, find out the caller’s requirements, then do a transfer to the correct
agent to deal with the query, but it also helps to increase customer satisfaction
as the caller is immediately directed to the correct agents without having to
restate any information or be rerouted from the operator to the agent.
Because of the design and flexibility of the IP-IVR, it is possible to reference
multiple menus after the caller has made their choice from the initial menu
prompts. So, in the previous example, it is possible to play another menu (or multiple
menus) to the caller after they have pressed number 1 to go through to
Sales.This allows you to further define which department the caller wants to be
connected to. Once again, you may give them the option to press 1 to go
through to the Router Sales Department, press 2 to go through to Switch Sales
Department, press 3 to access the Security Sales Department, press 9 to be connected
to an operator, or simply hold for the next available agent.
This last option is normally used in situations where the caller is not able to
enter Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) tones via the handset, and is normally
only needed on the initial menu prompts.
In the third and final example, we take the information the caller has provided
(an account number and a personal identification number [PIN]), use it to
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make a routing decision. For example, if you have a platinum-level caller, who
always spends large amounts of money, and a silver-level caller, who has a small
enquiry, calling in at the same time, would it not make sense to provide your big
spending customer to take precedence in the queue, and while waiting there,
have some relevant information (for example the special of the day) played back
to them? This type of flexibility allows you to identify customers based on certain
matched criteria and provide a service according to the rules you have set up.
These are some of the capabilities available in the IP-IVR. Others include time
of day, day of week settings, and so on.