Radish Blog

Why NOW Is the Right Time for Visual IVR

 

ChoiceView Visual Bot

A guest article by Dr. Theresa Szczurek, former CIO / Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology for the State of Colorado.

I was talking recently to the Director of Call Centers for a large, multi-national manufacturer. She said, “The time is right for a ChoiceView® Visual IVR. We need to get funds into next year’s budget NOW.”

This very experienced Call Center Director then explained, “The voice call is not going away. We get thousands of phone calls each day. Our voice-only IVR routes calls to agents, and often it’s NOT the proper agent. That’s frustrating for callers. And there is little call containment in the IVR to solve the callers’ needs. A Visual IVR can help ensure that the call is routed to the right agent, so the caller saves time.”

She emphasized, “Most importantly, however, the Visual IVR can often provide visual information that the caller wants about order status, product information, or installation instructions, for example. Fewer calls will then transfer to a live agent. This saves us money. The caller gets an improved experience and is happier with us.”

A Visual IVR Is Easy!

A ChoiceView Visual IVR provides the benefit of SEEing and HEARing information. ChoiceView opens the door for a new generation of Visual IVRs, Visual Bots and Visual Live Agent positions. Callers can interact with visual menus and responses while talking and hearing on the same original phone call. According to Dr. John Medina, author of Brainrules, when you see and hear information you are 600% more likely to understand. Callers can navigate 4X to 5X faster using visual menus and directories. See ChoiceView in action.

What About My Current Contact Center Platform?

ChoiceView augments, not replaces, your current platform. This is the most logical, realistic, and cost-effective approach.

    1. ChoiceView is built on an open interface that leverages voice platforms from Amazon Connect, Twilio, Avaya, NICE, Cisco, and many others.

    2. ChoiceView provides the visual interaction with callers while the native voice platform supplies AI / machine learning, speech recognition, text-to-speech, call processing, integration points, reporting, and other tools.

    3. As a result, Radish’s Visual IVRs and Visual Bots are very simple to build, deploy, enhance, and maintain since they utilize only one element — the native voice platform with its standard script creation and editing tools. From an architectural standpoint, there’s only one box!

The Power of the ChoiceView Lambda

As an example, ChoiceView adds visual capabilities to Amazon Connect through use of the ChoiceView lambda function. It’s inserted, as any other Connect element, in contact flows using the standard Connect dashboard and tools. Amazon Connect with ChoiceView controls the voice-and-visual call by itself. It is the Visual IVR, without requiring additional components.

Of course this means that third-party developers can easily add visual capabilities to their own voice apps through the same ChoiceView lambda. Shouldn’t we expect this capability on phone calls we make every day? Learn more about ChoiceView for Amazon Connect.

“Now I See What You’re Talking About!”™

Why Accessibility Matters

A guest article by Dr. Theresa Szczurek, former CIO / Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology for the State of Colorado.

CODA won the best picture Oscar in 2022. The acronym CODA means ‘child of deaf adult’. This touching movie raises awareness of the challenges faced by people with hearing disabilities, as well as CODA family members. The question we need to ask is, what are we doing to support people with hearing loss and improve their accessibility?

Why Should You Care?

1. NEGATIVE IMPACT. Hearing loss has been shown to negatively impact nearly every dimension of the human experience, including physical health, emotional and mental health, perceptions of mental acuity, social skills, family relationships, and self esteem, as well as work and school performance.

2. FINANCIAL IMPACT. Those with unaided hearing loss earned on average $20,000 less annually than those who used hearing aids or cochlear implants.

IT’S THE LAW. U.S laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), require that accommodations be made to improve accessibility to those with hearing and other disabilities. Accessibility is defined as “the quality of being able to be reached or entered, easily understood or appreciated.” ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government programs and services.

Practical Pointers for Coping with Hearing Loss

1. GET EDUCATED. Learn about hearing loss and other disabilities and what you can do to accommodate the situation.

2. SEEK MEDICAL HELP and get tested. People with hearing loss wait an average of 7 years before seeking help.

3. COPE AND SUPPORT. The Mayo Clinic offers tips to help you communicate more easily despite your hearing loss. For example, tell your friends and family that you have some hearing loss. Position yourself to hear by facing the person you’re talking to. Turn off background noise. For example, noise from a television may interfere with conversation. See the complete list.

4. TURN ON CAPTIONS. During virtual meetings and while watching TV, turn on captioning so audio is represented in text format. In this way, people can leverage visual as well as audible information sources.

5. TAKE ACTION. Government and businesses must consider the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide technological and other solutions that can help people accommodate hearing loss.

6. USE ‘VOICE WITH VISUALS’ COMMUNICATIONS. According to Dr. John Medina, author of Brainrules, when you see and hear information you are 600% more likely to understand. That’s one reason why Radish Systems offers ChoiceView® as a way to transform voice-only transactions into multi-modal ‘voice with visuals’ communications for both automated and live interactions. Learn more.

Improving the Robotic / Human Interface

 

Robotics

A guest article by Dr. Theresa Szczurek, former CIO / Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology for the State of Colorado.

WHAT IS RPA? It stands for Robotic Process Automation. According to Wikipedia, “Robotic process automation is a form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots or on artificial intelligence / digital workers. It is sometimes referred to as software robotics.” RPA for government and business services is commonly implemented as chatbots, voicebots, or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? RPA is a hot technology trend because it provides value. Gartner in its 2021 Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation report states, “Robotic process automation remains the fastest-growing software market, as RPA is one of the most popular choices for improving operational efficiency with tactical automation.”

HOW DOES IT RELATE TO CHOICEVIEW? ChoiceView® augments and enhances RPA by joining a data session to a phone call and introducing a brand new ‘voice with visuals’ experience for users. It’s a new type of phone call positioned between a standard (PSTN) phone call and a videoconference. It’s easy to add a ChoiceView visual dimension to Amazon Connect, Twilio, Avaya, and many other contact center platforms.

WHAT ARE BENEFITS OF CHOICEVIEW RPA? RPA improves operational efficiency through automated transactions. Visual RPA with ChoiceView steps up the game by delivering even faster and easier-to-understand automation, resulting in higher user satisfaction and better call containment. Learn more and see use cases.

Shouldn’t we expect this voice-and-visual capability on the routine calls we make everyday?

Phonebot Hell and Other Inconveniences

Phonebot Hell

See it on YouTube. Has this ever happened to you? That’s why we have ChoiceView! ChoiceView adds visual menus and visual responses, along with voice and AI, to dramatically improve the user experience.

ChoiceView is a new kind of voice-and-visual phone call positioned between a voice-only call and a videoconference. It delivers an enhanced user experience on the types of calls we make everyday without the fear and trepidation of a video call. Studies show that people understand 6X better when both seeing and hearing information and that callers navigate 4X faster with visual menus.

Shouldn’t we expect this voice-and-visual capability on the routine calls we make everyday?

ChoiceView provides relief for live agents as well. ChoiceView’s value proposition is based on delivering efficiencies in contact centers. Rather than trying to answer questions and resolve issues by voice-only, agents equipped with ChoiceView can send relevant visuals to callers — from either a predefined library or material on their desktop. Material sent is active content, including forms and navigational menus that can be saved by callers, page-by-page, for future reference.

ChoiceView is also a visual building block for Amazon Connect, Twilio, Avaya, and other systems. See the ChoiceView Lambda function for Amazon Connect.

Checkout what we’re doing at Radish and see how ChoiceView is dramatically and easily enhancing customer engagement. “Now I see what you’re talking about!”™.

Going Backwards on Phone Service?

I’ve been wondering about the proliferation of VoIP phones and their lack of interoperability. It reminds me of phone service in the US in the early 1900s. At that time, if you wanted to call someone, that person needed to have the same kind of phone as yours. Oftentimes both of you needed to be using the same poles and wires.

These days, it’s really slick to use Skype, for example, to call someone. But if you do, one of two things will happen: (1) you’ll either reach a Skype endpoint in which case you can have an enhanced call, or (2) the call with drop down to PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) as a voice-only call. In most cases, you’ll be stuck with PSTN as the lowest common denominator.

Likewise, if you call a business or organization, one of two things will happen: (1) you’ll either reach an automated voice system such as an IVR or phonebot, or (2) you’ll reach a live person. Automated voice systems obviously can’t handle calls other than PSTN and a live person can’t either unless they’re equipped with a matching phone app. Then they’d need a special app for every type of call they’d receive. The result again is that you’re stuck with a voice-only PSTN call.

For all the hype, VoIP calls don’t really improve the types of calls we make every day. Think of the calls you make to businesses or organizations to get information or support, resolve a billing issue, ask a question, or get medical assistance.

Enter Radish Systems. At Radish, we take interoperability seriously. You should be able to make a phone call and connect with anyone in the world as a first step. Then engage in an enhanced transaction without using a special app. It’s a new mode of phone call that’s better than voice-only PSTN, without the interoperability limitations of a VoIP call. This approach is called ChoiceView®.

  • ChoiceView starts with the familiarity of a phone call. It is, in fact, a phone call, not a pre-arranged conference.
  • It doesn’t need a mobile app, so it works with first-time callers.
  • It works with smartphones as well as any phone and separate computer or tablet.
  • It preserves voice quality without needing a broadband connection.
  • It’s inherently compatible with phones, automated voice systems, contact center positions, and business phone systems.
  • It encourages businesses to go beyond voice-only calls with the confidence that their customers can engage without needing a special app.
  • It presents a significant opportunity for developers to build ChoiceView apps on all the voice-only platforms.

Checkout what we’re doing at Radish and see how ChoiceView is dramatically and easily enhancing customer engagement. “Now I see what you’re talking about!”™.