Alpine Solutions, Inc.


	Common IVR Mistakes Having developed Interactive Voice Response (IVR), systems since 1988, it still amazes us how many applications we run across that violate basic user interface and programming principals. Click on the following topics to discover useful tips for how to avoid common pitfalls when developing Interactive Voice Response applications. Presenting Choices to Callers Caller Retry Behavior Inconsistent Error Handling Meaningless Error Messages Don't Over-Confirm Caller Input Too Much Silence is not Golden Choose Appropriate Time-out Values Also see our IVR Tips and Strategies page. Presenting Choices to Callers This has been written about many times before, however, it is still a very common occurrence. Callers should not be presented with too many menu choices. Ideally, no more than 3 choices should be presented to the caller in any one menu selection. Granted this is not always possible, and if necessary, up to 6 choices can be presented, but six should be the maximum. Prompts that consist of menu choices should always end with instructions for the required caller action. For example, say "For information on …. Press 1", not "Press 1 for information on …" . In the latter example, callers will forget the action required by the time the prompt completes. Top Caller Retry Behavior Customers have asked how many times should a caller be allowed to retry an entry in an error situation. The answer depends on the type of prompt. If the user is entering lengthy or complex data, such as a credit card or phone number, the maximum number of retries allowed should be three, after which the caller should ideally be transferred to a live operator. If live agent support is not available, an appropriate announcement should be played and the call ended gracefully. On less complex prompts, such as single digit menu selections, or yes/no confirmation, the caller should be allowed up to four input attempts. Top Inconsistent Error Handling While many errors can occur in an IVR application, the most common occur upon digit entry and include too few digits entered, invalid digits entered, and time-out on user entry. Applications should play an informative error message such as "Your entry must contain exactly five digits," followed by a prompt to try again. Retry behavior should be applied in this situation as well. Top Meaningless Error Messages One of our favorite anecdotes is an experience using an IVR application from a large health care provider. As developers of IVR systems, we are often rather hard on applications we use in our personal lives. This particular application prompted for a social security number, upon which we entered a series of ’s and #’s. The system responded with error message "System Error #3022 Occurred," and terminated the call. A better alternative would have been to play an error message such as "That entry was not understood, please try again," or to transfer the call to a live operator. A call should never be ended without offering the caller an alternative, even for unexpected error situations. After all, if your customer or potential customer has a bad experience with your automated system, they may never call again. In any case, the error should be captured for further analysis by the system support staff. Top Don't Over-Confirm Caller Input* Some applications go overboard with user input validation. We had one customer that insisted on confirming each and every user input, even yes/no and single digit menu selections. This unnecessarily lengthens the call and the associated cost, and is burdensome for the caller. Input confirmation should be reserved for long, complex, or critical user inputs such as credit card number, confirmation of order entry, or alphanumeric input. Top Too Much Silence is not Golden Remove any long pauses or periods of silence in the application. Impatient callers will hang-up after a few moments of silence, thinking the application has terminated. If an event takes more than a few seconds, such as call transfer to a live agent or making a host or database query, play a message to inform the caller a short delay may be experienced. Another alternative is to offer music on hold, or a promotional message while the caller waits. Top Choose Appropriate Time-out Values IVR systems allow the application to set the first digit and inter-digit time-out values. The first digit time-out is the time the system waits for the caller to enter the first digit in response to a prompt. The inter-digit time-out is the time the system waits for each subsequent digit. We usually set our first digit time-out to 6 seconds and the inter-digit time-out to 4 seconds. There are of course, exceptions. Prompts for complex or lengthy data such as account numbers or alphanumeric data, should have longer time-outs specified, 10 seconds or more for both time-out values. You never want to cut-off a caller in the middle of digit entry. When prompting for touch-tone versus rotary phone, set the first digit time-out lower, to 4 seconds to minimize the wait time for rotary callers. Top

Common IVR Mistakes
Having developed Interactive Voice Response (IVR), systems since 1988, it still amazes us how many applications we run across that violate basic user interface and programming principals. Click on the following topics to discover useful tips for how to avoid common pitfalls when developing Interactive Voice Response applications.

Presenting Choices to Callers
Caller Retry Behavior
Inconsistent Error Handling
Meaningless Error Messages
Don't Over-Confirm Caller Input
Too Much Silence is not Golden
Choose Appropriate Time-out Values

Also see our IVR Tips and Strategies page.

Presenting Choices to Callers
This has been written about many times before, however, it is still a very common occurrence. Callers should not be presented with too many menu choices. Ideally, no more than 3 choices should be presented to the caller in any one menu selection. Granted this is not always possible, and if necessary, up to 6 choices can be presented, but six should be the maximum.

Prompts that consist of menu choices should always end with instructions for the required caller action. For example, say "For information on …. Press 1", not "Press 1 for information on …" . In the latter example, callers will forget the action required by the time the prompt completes.
Top

Caller Retry Behavior
Customers have asked how many times should a caller be allowed to retry an entry in an error situation. The answer depends on the type of prompt. If the user is entering lengthy or complex data, such as a credit card or phone number, the maximum number of retries allowed should be three, after which the caller should ideally be transferred to a live operator. If live agent support is not available, an appropriate announcement should be played and the call ended gracefully. On less complex prompts, such as single digit menu selections, or yes/no confirmation, the caller should be allowed up to four input attempts.
Top

Inconsistent Error Handling
While many errors can occur in an IVR application, the most common occur upon digit entry and include too few digits entered, invalid digits entered, and time-out on user entry. Applications should play an informative error message such as "Your entry must contain exactly five digits," followed by a prompt to try again. Retry behavior should be applied in this situation as well.
Top

Meaningless Error Messages
One of our favorite anecdotes is an experience using an IVR application from a large health care provider. As developers of IVR systems, we are often rather hard on applications we use in our personal lives. This particular application prompted for a social security number, upon which we entered a series of *’s and #’s. The system responded with error message "System Error #3022 Occurred," and terminated the call. A better alternative would have been to play an error message such as "That entry was not understood, please try again," or to transfer the call to a live operator. A call should never be ended without offering the caller an alternative, even for unexpected error situations. After all, if your customer or potential customer has a bad experience with your automated system, they may never call again. In any case, the error should be captured for further analysis by the system support staff.
Top

Don't Over-Confirm Caller Input
Some applications go overboard with user input validation. We had one customer that insisted on confirming each and every user input, even yes/no and single digit menu selections. This unnecessarily lengthens the call and the associated cost, and is burdensome for the caller. Input confirmation should be reserved for long, complex, or critical user inputs such as credit card number, confirmation of order entry, or alphanumeric input.
Top

Too Much Silence is not Golden
Remove any long pauses or periods of silence in the application. Impatient callers will hang-up after a few moments of silence, thinking the application has terminated. If an event takes more than a few seconds, such as call transfer to a live agent or making a host or database query, play a message to inform the caller a short delay may be experienced. Another alternative is to offer music on hold, or a promotional message while the caller waits.
Top

Choose Appropriate Time-out Values
IVR systems allow the application to set the first digit and inter-digit time-out values. The first digit time-out is the time the system waits for the caller to enter the first digit in response to a prompt. The inter-digit time-out is the time the system waits for each subsequent digit. We usually set our first digit time-out to 6 seconds and the inter-digit time-out to 4 seconds. There are of course, exceptions. Prompts for complex or lengthy data such as account numbers or alphanumeric data, should have longer time-outs specified, 10 seconds or more for both time-out values. You never want to cut-off a caller in the middle of digit entry. When prompting for touch-tone versus rotary phone, set the first digit time-out lower, to 4 seconds to minimize the wait time for rotary callers.
Top