If you're using an answering service, it can be challenging to make sure each caller gets as personalized an experience as when they reach your own office. One of the ways answering services can help maintain continuity is through an upfront, customized recorded greeting. Customized greetings, or auto attendants, can help bridge…

Over the last decade, technology has evolved at an alarming rate. From face recognition in our smart phones to cars that drive themselves, it's amazing how much technology is a part of our everyday lives. While I think we can all agree that robots are awesome, businesses should not be so quick…

When you call your TV service to find out why cable is on the fritz and hear, “For Service, say 'Service,' or press 1,” that’s Interactive Voice Response or IVR for short. Basically, IVR allows a combination of voice and keypad responses to get callers where they want to go. IVR makes…

The job of a virtual assistant is never easy. Imagine dealing with hundreds of calls a day, often for similar issues, and having to repeat yourself over and over. It would be maddening. That's where Agent Assisted Automation comes in - using pre-recorded audio, desktop integrations and tools to make an operator's…

Love the simplicity of calling your bank whenever you want and getting your account information from an automated teller rather than having to wait for assistance from a live operator? The ease of automation is brought to you by Interactive Voice Response, or IVR, which allows computers to interact with the human…

If you like robots, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is the most affordable business receptionist. Take a look below at the top 10 ways IVR can strengthen your customer care and save you money. If done right, implementing an IVR keeps everyone happy: robot people get robots, people people get live answering service…

You know how when election time rolls around, you get those pre-recorded calls from candidates with a message about a bunch of campaign promises that they almost never keep following being voted in? Those calls are made by an invention called the Auto Dialer. An auto dialer can automatically make calls from…

H.A.L. 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Lost in Space’s B-9, that sounded the warning, “Danger Will Robinson!” Number 5, the electrified robot from Short Circuit. What do these artificial life forms have in common? Movies with cheesy writing and bad graphics? No. Two words: speech synthesis. The first computer-based speech synthesis…

I really don’t like to talk on the phone. It’s been that way since I’ve been a little kid. I used to get so anxious that I had to write down what I would say before I would order a pizza. If the pizza guy asked me any questions outside of my…

Have you ever tried to guess someone’s phone number just by listening to the telephone keypad tones that the push buttons made? No matter how hard your little ears strained to hear those pitches, you would never get the numbers right. You were actually trying to decode DTMF. Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)…