To start planning a speech application, envision exactly what you want the caller to experience when calling into your system. Without being concerned with how to set it up, just ask and attempt to answer as many questions as possible. For example:
- What options do you want to offer the callers?
- Do you want to offer callers the opportunity to interact in more than one language?
- What means do you want to offer callers to respond to options? By voice? By using touchtone keys on the telephone? By recording their answers or other short messages?
- Do you want to provide a visual guide to the callers in addition to voice?
- What voice gender do you want to use in presenting your prompts?
- Do you need to use Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology to provide the caller a way to hear text-based information?
- What about hearing- or speech-impaired callers? How do you want to provide for their special needs?
- What scenarios or situations do you think callers might require help with?
These questions are just a sampling. Try to be as comprehensive as possible.
