IVRs, Interactive Voice Response (Systems)

IVRs are those voice (and soon video) menu systems we're so used to when we try to reach the customer care of our cellphone carrier, like "For knowing our latest offers, please press 1, for listening to the Xmas greetings from our CEO, please press 2, to speak with our technical department please press 3, to be transferred to our administrative department for billing and invoices, please press 4. To replay this menu, please press 5". OK, IVRs can be obnoxious, but are also useful.

A call to an IVR is at least initially a one leg call, but after a way can become a two or three legs, if you are transferred to an operator, that maybe after a while invite a sales representative to the call.

IVRs "interactivity" with the caller is almost universally based on the caller to press digits on the dialpad. There is also a growing use of ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) systems, that are able to understand what the caller says. This recognition is usually made in a limited knowledge domain, for example, after asking "from what State are you calling from?", an ASR enabled IVR can be able to understand the caller saying the name of the State. In the future will probably be released ASR providing good reliability in "free form" conversation, but technology' is not yet there.

In any case, the IVR logic is implemented as a tree, where from the initial root the caller is able to navigate the branches back and forth by choosing (through the dialpad or by voice) an option between those that are presented to him.