Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Visual IVR Customer Service

Visual IVR is used in Customer Care services to describe an IVVR Service. The terminology indicates the evolution from services that are based on regular voice calls to 3G video calls.

So what can Visual IVR do for a Customer Care / Customer Support center?!

The basic principal of a Visual IVR service is to provide the easy access and interaction to all users without the need to install a dedicated application and with no overhead of device support and security. Current mobile customer service solutions are usually very limited, poor in user experience, and requires the user to make a significant effort in order to use the service.

A Visual IVR service enables the organization to cut on expenses and head count, to provide a better and easier service to the customers, and centralize as many different services in one access point to the service. Such a service can use the phone keys (DTMF), voice commands with voice recognition, and even video input.

A good Visual IVR service is tailor made for the organization's needs. Visual IVR can be used for simple navigation to view information ( Visual IVR Self Service ), contact a customer service attendee (with an ability to send text, graphical information, and video), and to grant access to specific systems (such as ERP, data centers, and billing). Such a service can also manage complex authentication rules description to allow customers and employees to use the same service to retrieve, insert, and update information.

A Visual IVR service can support any number of concurrent users without damaging the quality of experience and with no dependency on the mobile phone's operating system, encryption support, or the customer's technical skills.

Our Visual IVR solutions can serve telecommunications operators (land-line, mobile, cable, satellite), financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, investment companies), health care companies, delivery services (postal services, shipping services), and commerce (stores, online stores, services providers) etc.

You can contact our representatives to learn more about the values of Visual IVR solutions to your organization here.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Mobile Banking

Mobile Banking ( M-Banking ) is defined differently by different companies in the Mobile Banking market. Ugunduzi's definition of Mobile Banking is:

Mobile Banking - A system or service that enables customers to access the bank account and perform actions and inquiries, using their mobile phone, which they usually perform in the bank or using the bank's systems (such as the bank's internet website).

This definition excludes the person-to-person payment which is more Mobile Wallet and Mobile Payment system than pure Mobile Banking.

Traditionally, basic Mobile Banking services were implemented using SMS services (SMS Banking), Mobile Internet Banking (WAP), and dedicated clients. We believe that with the new era of interactive media, the service should be much richer and include access to information in an easy way, an ability to watch financial tips, and to talk with live customer service professionals that are able to interact and deliver videos, pictures and texts (such as an updated information on a specific stock). Our Mobile Banking IVVR System which is already in use by a leading bank, is a cutting edge service. IVVR requires no prior installation, has a very wide support among existing devices (3G penetration rates are very high in developed countries), and is very secured (the call is encrypted and the servers are located in the bank's premises using a secure direct network with the mobile operator).

The benefits of using Ugunduzi's IVVR are obvious:
1. The application is dynamic and server centric (thus can be updated immediately to all users that access the service)
2. The IVVR M-Banking provides an intuitive and clear navigation options
3. IVVR Mobile Banking holds the widest device support in interactive services
4. Ugunduzi's Mobile Banking is secure even more than many of the internet based solutions (based on architecture of the solution and the video calls standard encryption)
5. Ugunduzi's Mobile Banking supports live chat with bank's representatives while viewing graphical content on the screen sent by the representative in real time
6. Our IVVR system has the success record to make sure banks and financial institutions get a proven and a stable service.

Click the link in order to learn more about Ugunduzi's IVVR Mobile Banking System

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IVVR Billing

Billing an IVVR service the regular conservative way is easy (as long as you can get an agreement with mobile carriers), you launch a service on a mobile number and get a revenue share from the generated calls to the service. Revenue sharing is a simple solution but it is not an option in certain markets (like in markets with unlimited calls plans) and usually can be problematic in terms of ROI from the service.

This post is about the other billing options we have in IVVR which in part are less common and not even recognized.

Premium lines – this option is the second most obvious and common way to launch IVVR services. It is based on a premium line with a fixed revenue model. According to local regulatory issues, users are charged per minute. The service operator gets its revenue share form the accumulated calls generated by the service. This option is a good option where available as long as the prices for a premium call suit the content price and that the service operator gets a significant portion of the revenue generated. First services to use IVVR premium lines are of course adult services that already used this billing option in the IVR based services.

RB (Reverse Billing SMS) – this option is a very functional one where there is no revenue sharing agreement with the operators but there is access to reverse billing. Depends on the service, a RB SMS can be sent during the call per any configured event or at the end of the call to sum all the costs for the session. This option is very easy to integrate as the billing solution but can only be supported by few good IVVR platforms (at least easily), still requires to reach an agreement with a local cross-carrier SMS provider, and most importantly, depending on the market but you usually get only between 50-70% of the payment.

Credit card – in the case of IVVR, there is an audio-visual feedback which means a user can be prompted to enter the credit card information and billed by the credit card company. This option is best suited in services that require a big payment which is not supported by RB SMS or in cases where the service operator wants to get a larger share of the payment. The credit card billing can be used by integrating the IVVR service with an online credit card payment system.

Subscription – this option can be used when the service operator wants to generate a stable revenue stream or to provide an “all you can eat content” service. The subscription can be based on direct billing through the mobile operator’s bill, credit card, and RB SMS. The IVVR platform filters every caller (by the caller ID) unless the caller is a subscriber to the service. This option can only support the number associated with the subscriber (unless it generates a personal ID and PIN code) and of course doesn’t support unidentified numbers.

A good IVVR platform can support many kinds of payment calculations. The billing can be based on any billable event such as: per event, per content item, per call duration, per a sum that was inserted by the user (like in donation applications), and more.

Services that can benefit from the billing opportunities of the IVVR platform include the usual media portals with premium content, Voting applications, Trivia games, Gambling applications, Shopping services, and we even have a donation service where people donate to a specific cause using their credit card number (so they decide how much they want to donate).

When it used wisely by services professionals, an IVVR platform can be the best mobile medium for billable events and it requires no installation and no unusual skills from the caller. An IVVR service that is backed up by a payment method or that is used as a payment method, is fast, intuitive, and can generate revenues in many ways to best fit the needs of the service and match all relevant regulatory requirements.

Contact us if you are interested in launching any of these services:
Ugunduzi – IVVR Services

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

IVVR News

As a result of the fighting in Gaza, Israel’s channel 10 started to promote its IVVR service (*977) and release a summary about the fighting every hour. People on the go, use the service in order to get updated with the news immediately and comfortably. The promotion is done during the news on TV in a text scroller on the bottom of the screen. Thousands of IVVR calls were handled in just a few hours.