Announcements

As with prompts, it is very important that you design the application announcements to facilitate a successful interaction with your callers. Announcements are used to inform the caller. Be selective when deciding whether or not to include announcements in your design, and if you decide to include announcements, how many.

Feedback announcements

Feedback announcements should be short and clear. If you want to include "please" and "thank you," include them only occasionally so that callers can complete the call as quickly as possible.

Avoid referring to the system as I or we. If callers think the system is a person, they may use more words to make their answers more friendly, thus making speech recognition more difficult. For example:

If a request will take more than two or three seconds to fill, assure callers that work is being done. For example:

"Looking for your records. Please wait."
or
"Please wait while your information is located."

Confirmation announcements

There are times where you should read the entry of the caller back, and allow the caller to confirm it. Other times, a feedback announcement (such as "Please wait while your information is located") is more appropriate than a confirmation announcement.

When you need confirmation

In cases where a recognition error or caller touchtone error would have a significant impact (like credit card numbers or call destinations), you should give callers an opportunity to confirm the entry. To do this, repeat the entry and prompt callers to say "yes" or "no" to confirm, as in the following examples:

• With speech recognition:

  "What is your customer number?"
  < 432886 >
  "Customer Number 432886. Is this correct?"
  {pause}
  "Please say yes or no, now."

• With touch tones:

  "Please enter your customer number."
  < 432886 >
  "432886. If this is correct, press 1. If not, press 2"

• With IVR Designer, use a separate Prompt and Collect node to do the confirmation.

When you do not need confirmation

In cases where a recognition error or a caller touchtone error would not cause a big problem (that is, if it is easy for callers to return to the point in the application where they really wanted to go), you may choose not to allow callers to confirm an entry. Also skipping the confirmation of nonessential entries can speed the call.

Even if you do not confirm an entry, it is important to let callers know how the recognizer interpreted the input. To do so, include context-relevant information in the next announcement you play. For example:

"What month?"
< August >
"Artists performing at the Palace Theater for August include..."

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