IVO VOIP IVR phone system features outline
What is VOIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. Some VoIP services may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some VoIP services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone connected to a VoIP adapter.
How VoIP / Internet Voice Works
VoIP services convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. If you are calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal before it reaches the destination. VoIP can allow you to make a call directly from a computer, a special VoIP phone, or a traditional phone connected to a special adapter. In addition, wireless "hot spots" in locations such as airports, parks, and cafes allow you to connect to the Internet and may enable you to use VoIP service wirelessly
What's an IVR?
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an interactive technology that allows a computer to detect voice and keypad inputs. IVR technology is used extensively in telecommunications. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to access a company’s database via a telephone touchtone keypad or by speech recognition, after which they can service their own enquiries by following the instructions. IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio to further direct users on how to proceed. IVR systems can be used to control almost any function where the interface can be broken down into a series of simple menu choices. In telecommunications applications, such as customer support lines, IVR systems generally scale well to handle large call volumes.
Most people are familiar with IVR applications without knowing it. IVR is the system that allows users to retrieve information such as bank balances or flight schedules from any telephone. Many organizations use them to identify and segment callers before connecting to a specific department.
So if you have high call volumes coming through to your business, IVRs are a great way to reduce your costs and improve your customer’s experience.
Having an IVR means you can have your customers self-navigate to the correct department in your company; this will save you and your customer time, eliminating the need for transferring calls from one agent to another.
What is IVO
IVO is interactive virtual office. Having IVO is like having your own telephone company within your office, you can assign numbers, extensions, and tons of other setup based on your needs and company requirements and it acts as an IVR but with added intelligence.
IVO Hardware requirements
By using a standard pc with 1 GB ram and 20 GB hard disk, you can setup IVO to be your virtual secretary. IVO will reside on a standalone PC with a fixed IP address through company router and other IP-Phones will be connected to it via the network
What can you get with IVO
- With IVO IVR you get a reliable and tested system that requires no large investment.
· You get a USA Phone line which connects via internet, make and receive calls as if you are in USA for a monthly fee as low as 15 dollars a month
· Your staff will use their computers to make and receive calls by using the soft phone and headsets with ear peice and microphone
· All your office Phones will be IP phones and can call each other intra company
· IP phone cost ranges between 30 - 200 dollars depending on number of lines they can handle and their brand. Lots of them can be found on E-bay.
· IVO can take your calls and filter them based on caller ID and run specific assigned scrips based on the group the CID belongs to or based on time and date / time of the call
· IVO can redirect the caller to a voicemail, or a specific extension (Based on which script is setup)
· IVO Can ask caller some questions and then accept input from the user to interpret and compare with the company database.
· IVO Can access company database and analyze the data provided by the user to read back the relevant output over the phone
· IVO can call you and remind you of appointments that are set in your contact list
· IVO can read your emails once they are received by calling you
· IVO can call you and conference with other third parties if programmed in secretary mode.
· IVO can setup conference calls and conference rooms where people call in and enter a pin for a preset conference
· IVO can let callers know that there are some memos left for them and thus prompt caller advising that they have a memo from (You / Your company) press 1 to listen, or press 2 to connect with operator. If caller click 1 the system will read / play to the caller the voice memo, as a voice mail or as a text to speech based on what kind of memo is set into the system
· You can receive faxes on the IVO box, and those faxes will be sent to your email address as graphics or PDF formats.
· With IVO you can create your own DO NO Disturb List (DND) list of people who you do not plan to answer their phone calls)
· IVO can create a list of VIP People (People whom you want to treat special and run specific script for them when they call. You can customize a personal greetingfor your VIP caller, and directly forward their call to your office or personal number.
· If you are a road warrior and / or you travel a lot this may be your ultimate solution especially with your laptop connected to the internet along with the Soft Phone you can make / receive phone calls any place where you have internet and best of all it is free. You can also check your email mail and you voicemail.
· Ring your multiple phone simultaneously. The CEO can have a phone at the beach house which rings the same time with the office phone when his extension is dialed, and best of all it is free.
· You can restrict callers from calling specific numbers, or calling offshore calls without having a pin code
· you can monitor / record some of the calls per extension or number dialed.
· Recording calls can be done without the caller knowing and can be retrieved at any time
· You can setup personalized voice mails and other dictation mailboxes to keep track of calls / projects / memos
You can leave 2 types of memos for Caller Groups or caller Id. Once the caller calls and the CID is recognized by IVO system the system will prompt the caller about the waiting message.
You can setup and customize scripts to make IVO work for you
What are Scripts
A script is a set of sequential commands you set on IVO to teach the system step by step how to handle a incoming call from a specific number, or any other criteria
Some of the script commands are
· Hang-up
· Answer
· say something / read something
· accept user input
· check the database based on a specific input and return a value to the caller
· read retrieved values
· forward the call to a specific number
· conference caller with another caller
· Place specific caller on hold whilst doing other actions as database search or letting you know who is online.
· Hang-up on the caller and end the call
· Record the call
· Save the user information in a file and forward it to an email address
· connect to specific hardware in your office or location such as turn on light / air condition, radio, etc, anything that can be plugged to electricity. (You may require a specific power outlet that can be controlled from the PBX and the phone
· etc...
There is no specific order to set the scripts except for the part that you need to set the script to answer the phone in order to continue with any of the other actions. Scripts can be customized in any order you program them.
What can you connect on IVO
You can connect your regular PSTN (Public Switch Telephone Network) line into a hardware (tdm400) installed on your VOIP machine, this device will translate the analog signal from the phone into a digital one and does all the features described above
Your Office / home LAN is your phone network. Eliminate the cost of dedicated phone cabling in the office. You connect phones to your ip network, just like any other IP based hardware , Laptop computer or network printer.