History of the IVR System & Birth of IVR Technology

in IVR  by Martin Marinov 0 comments

IVR or interactive voice response is what you connect to when you dial into a call center. Pre-recorded IVR technology asks you to choose between options, and record your decision by voice, or touchpad tones. If you are thinking the IVR system has been with us forever, you could be right. Bell Labs synthesized speech in the 1930’s when they were ahead of the curve.
A Short Summary of the DNA behind an IVR System
Back then, we did not have call centers at all. These laborsaving, customer-centric innovations only arrived in the 1960’s and 1970’s. So Bell just wanted to find ways to synthesize speech by disassembling it into individual components. This formed part of its research into compressing voice down copper wire and sending it.
In the 1960’s, Bell was trail blazing. Their IVR technology explored ways to dial area codes quicker using dial tone, multi frequency techniques. They wanted to serve callers faster so they were occupying lines for less time. The IVR system reached its first peak in the 1980’s, as call centers earned their stripes in customer-driven businesses.
The Arrival of Computer Telephony Integration
By the early 1980’s, computer science reached the point where a system could cost-effectively store digitized speech, play it back, and understand a human response. This opened the door to coordinating and integrating computer and telephone data on an IVR system.
Thankfully, we replaced the mainframes with desktops and the system runs well on most personal computers. The IVR technology this enables includes:

  • Incoming caller details appearing on a screen
  • Automatic and computer managed dialing
  • Call control (answer, hang up, conference etc.)
  • Coordinated phone and data transfers
  • Operators logging in and controlling status

The IVR System: A Necessity Not a Luxury
Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine handling incoming calls without IVR system support, and automatic call routing, call reporting, and voice recording integration. We may say with certainty that IVR technology and economic growth are part of the same process. How else could today’s huge corporates possibly cope with the demand?
If your business needs IVR, call us today 877-800-4844 or visit callerready.com