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--- what_not_to_include_at_the_beginning [2018/08/21 11:31]
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+++ what_not_to_include_at_the_beginning [2019/08/09 12:18] (current)
lisa.illgen_concentrix.com [Sales Pitches]
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 Long messages aren’t effective at the start of a call and can even be detrimental. Save instructions for 'just-in-time' help.
-Balentine (2007) in his essay "Identifying Bad Practices" addresses several of the types of messages that commonly appear early in IVR calls but which the VUI design community generally considers to be poor design practice. Following is a list and discussion of up-front messaging practices to avoid.
+[[references#balentine2007|Balentine]] (2007) in his essay "Identifying Bad Practices" addresses several of the types of messages that commonly appear early in IVR calls but which the VUI design community generally considers to be poor design practice. Following is a list and discussion of up-front messaging practices to avoid.
 ==== Web Deflection Messages ====
-Rather than viewing their IVRs as valuable tools for providing customer service, some enterprises seem to want to get callers to abandon the IVR and switch to the Internet due to its lower cost per transaction (Rolandi, 2005, 2007a). As Balentine (2007) points out, however, to achieve the goal of getting callers to hang up and use the Web instead, you must accomplish 4 sub-goals:
+Rather than viewing their IVRs as valuable tools for providing customer service, some enterprises seem to want to get callers to abandon the IVR and switch to the Internet due to its lower cost per transaction ([[references#rolandi2005|Rolandi, 2005]], [[references#rolandi2007a|2007a]]). As [[references#balentine2007|Balentine]] (2007) points out, however, to achieve the goal of getting callers to hang up and use the Web instead, you must accomplish 4 sub-goals:
   - Remind the caller that an enterprise Website exists.
   - Get the caller to believe that the Web experience will be superior to the IVR.
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    * There's no evidence that callers frequently (if ever) hang up and go to the Web after having heard this kind of message.
-In conclusion, when presented early on in a call, Web deflection messages are usually perceived as time wasters and are more likely to irritate than inform callers, which itself has adverse effects on usability, corporate image, and the cost per call. "For all those callers who don't need or can't use the website address, the company spends an extra 6 cents in telephone charges on every call. After 40 million calls per year, that begins to add up" (Kotelly, 2006, p. 62). Web-related messages may have a place in IVR design, for example in after-hours messaging, but not in the standard call introduction.
+In conclusion, when presented early on in a call, Web deflection messages are usually perceived as time wasters and are more likely to irritate than inform callers, which itself has adverse effects on usability, corporate image, and the cost per call. "For all those callers who don't need or can't use the website address, the company spends an extra 6 cents in telephone charges on every call. After 40 million calls per year, that begins to add up" ([[references#kotelly2006|(Kotelly, 2006]], p. 62). Web-related messages may have a place in IVR design, for example in after-hours messaging, but not in the standard call introduction.
 ==== Sales Pitches ====
-Listening to a sales pitch is rarely if ever part of a caller's goal. Sales pitches may have a role in an application, for example, as part of an up-sell or cross-sell option after a caller has finished a task, but not in the introduction. "Poorly placed advertisements that inappropriately take up the caller's time or offer directions that are unlikely to be followed, are a hit against the brand -- unless the brand stands for slow, thoughtless service. This behavior frustrates the caller and wastes money" (Kotelly, 2006, p. 62).
+Listening to a sales pitch is rarely if ever part of a caller's goal. Sales pitches may have a role in an application, for example, as part of an up-sell or cross-sell option after a caller has finished a task, but not in the introduction. "Poorly placed advertisements that inappropriately take up the caller's time or offer directions that are unlikely to be followed, are a hit against the brand -- unless the brand stands for slow, thoughtless service. This behavior frustrates the caller and wastes money" ([[references#kotelly2006|Kotelly, 2006]], p. 62).
 ==== Prompts for Touchtone versus Speech ====
-Some callers generally prefer touchtone (DTMF) to speech, so it can be tempting to offer this modality choice early in the call. Attwater (2008) found that callers care more about receiving effective and usable service than they do about the modality of interaction. Balentine (2007) pointed out that prompting the caller to choose upfront between DTMF and speech forces all callers (most of whom don't actually care) to listen to the prompt and either make a choice or wait for a timeout. All this just to serve the minority who have a strong preference, delaying the caller's first task-oriented interaction.
+Some callers generally prefer touchtone (DTMF) to speech, so it can be tempting to offer this modality choice early in the call. [[references#attwater|Attwater]] (2008) found that callers care more about receiving effective and usable service than they do about the modality of interaction. [[references#balentine2007|Balentine]] (2007) pointed out that prompting the caller to choose upfront between DTMF and speech forces all callers (most of whom don't actually care) to listen to the prompt and either make a choice or wait for a timeout. All this just to serve the minority who have a strong preference, delaying the caller's first task-oriented interaction.
 For these reasons, it's better to assume that speech interaction will work, only switching to DTMF if there is sufficient evidence of caller difficulty with speech. If speech turns out not to be working for most callers, then the organisation should make the necessary changes to get it to work; e.g. testing recognition accuracy, tuning grammars, adjusting prompt wording, usability testing, etc.
 ==== 'Your Call is Important to Us' ====
-Balentine (2007, p. 363) noted: "The enterprise that values a customer's call will service the call quickly. It is counterproductive to waste precious time on declaring value when the declaration itself defeats the value." Rolandi (2005, p. 22) stated: "The practice is widespread, but the absurdity of the situation should be obvious if one adopts the perspective of the caller." The general consensus in the VUI design community is that this type of message wastes time at best and, at worst, is also annoying.
+[[references#balentine2007|Balentine]] (2007, p. 363) noted: "The enterprise that values a customer's call will service the call quickly. It is counterproductive to waste precious time on declaring value when the declaration itself defeats the value." [[references#rolandi2005|Rolandi]] (2005, p. 22) stated: "The practice is widespread, but the absurdity of the situation should be obvious if one adopts the perspective of the caller." The general consensus in the VUI design community is that this type of message wastes time at best and, at worst, is also annoying.
 ==== 'Please Listen Carefully as Our Options Have Changed' ====
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 ==== 'You Can Interrupt Me at Any Time' ====
-For most callers, it isn't necessary to tell them that they can interrupt the IVR application. Callers have a natural tendency to interpret silence as a turntaking cue and will interrupt the IVR when it pauses. Heins et al. (1997) conducted an experiment in which some participants received an explicit instruction about the barge-in capability of the application and others did not. There was no difference in the actual barge-in behavior of the two groups, with both groups having a tendency to barge in during pauses in system speech. So, this type of message is completely superfluous.
+For most callers, it isn't necessary to tell them that they can interrupt the IVR application. Callers have a natural tendency to interpret silence as a turntaking cue and will interrupt the IVR when it pauses. [[references#heins|Heins et al.]] (1997) conducted an experiment in which some participants received an explicit instruction about the barge-in capability of the application and others did not. There was no difference in the actual barge-in behavior of the two groups, with both groups having a tendency to barge in during pauses in system speech. So, this type of message is completely superfluous.
 ==== 'This Call May Be Monitored or Recorded' ====

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