anymore about having to pump their own gas; in fact, people are annoyed if they can’t serve themselves at a gas station. And even the relatively newly introduced self-checkout machines in supermarkets are gaining wider acceptance by customers who prefer to serve themselves rather than wait in line for a cashier.

So, clearly, it is not the self-service aspect of IVRs to which people are reacting. When provided with a technology that enables them to serve themselves, people will embrace that technology as an empowering tool. But they will embrace it only if they are able to use it, and they will see it as empowering only if they are able to systematically accomplish their goals without frustration.

Currently deployed IVRs are generally not viewed as empowering tools, or ones that can effectively serve caller needs. Instead, users tend to perceive them as obstacles installed by companies to keep callers from reaching expensive human agents.

The glaring disconnect
between what companies aim
to achieve in deploying IVR
systems (better customer ser-
vice) and what they actually
do achieve (customer frustra-
tion) can be squarely laid on
the shoulders of shabby voice
user interface (VUI) design
and implementation. The vast
majority of today’s IVRs are,
simply put, shamefully unus-
able, and customers detest
them.
The viscerally strong reaction
that callers have to IVRs is fully
justified. IVRs not only fail to
do their job, but they also fail
while pushing some of our most
sensitive emotional buttons.
They treat us with little intel-
ligence and thoughtfulness and
exhibit an unsettling degree of
irrationality that breeds con-
tempt, if not revulsion, against
them. Rare and precious is the
IVR system that respects your
time, anticipates your needs,
and gives you exactly what you
need, quickly and efficiently.

back to the Future
Now envision a new breed of
IVR system.

Imagine this: You are at home, lying on the couch watching your favorite TV show, and you want to quickly ascertain your checking-account balance. So you reach for your cell phone, fling it open, press the “ 9” key, press the “call” button, place the cell phone to your ear, and engage an IVR system as follows:

System: Hi there! The last four
digits?
You: 0219.
System: Okay. Hang on. Your
balance is $5,235 dollars and 23
cents. Anything else?
You: No.
System: Great. Goodbye.

At which point you would flip your cell phone shut and then go back to watching your show. The whole interaction would have taken you between 20 and 30 seconds, no more.

Compare this with getting
your information from the Web.
If you are like us and you use a
desktop at home, it means you
would have to get up from your
sofa, walk to the room where
the desktop is, turn the com-
puter’s monitor on, log in to the
machine (we have it password-
protected), open the browser,
click on the tab that points to
your bank’s login page, type
the login credentials, and then
navigate to where your check-
ing balance is displayed. After
that, you’d log out from the
account and bring the browser
down (to minimize any security
risks), switch the monitor off,
and shuffle back to your sofa.
At best, it would have taken you
between four and five minutes
to accomplish your task.