Service Description

Network IVR is a managed interactive voice response service that’s menu driven. It optimises customers incoming call management service, permitting improved staff workload planning and agent skills based call delivery. N-IVR can save businesses money and provides their customers with the right information from the right person at the first attempt.

The N-IVR service can only be sold in conjunction with the Kingston NTS (08/09) service as it is operational dependent on that NTS service number(s) being in place. Consequently, the N-IVR solution can not be sold as a standalone service.

Customer Selected Routing through IVR (Interactive Voice Response) allows customers calling a business to select the destination of their call by responding to a list of pre-programmed menu options. Consequently, much staff time is saved by not having to transfer calls around a business as calls are immediately directed to the most appropriate person.

Interactive Voice Response systems can also be used to provide and collect information. Callers can be directed to pre-recorded announcements (eg. store opening times), or you can allow callers to leave a message during peak periods or when your business is closed.

The Network IVR services place Kingston at the forefront of technology with market leading service offerings. There are two platforms with functionality to suite all requirements and pricing structures. Customers can access call statistics and on-line administration via a Web-enabled interface.

There are four elements to Network IVR:

• The Network Contact Centre
• Auto-Attendant
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Voicemail

The elements selected are tailored and dependant on customer requirements.

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Network Contact Centre

A recent development, the Network Contact Centre has greatly enhanced the Auto-Attendant services by increasing the functionality and administration for the customer.

The Network Contact Centre, like the Auto-Attendant, allows customers to route calls across multiple locations, according to the caller’s choice from the menu that greets them. In addition, customers can maximise call centre and agent efficiency through load balancing, skill-based routing and providing emergency settings to the service, all via the Web interface using a secure User Name and PIN.

With all this functionality on the Kingston Network, the need for large sums of capex is removed.

Features

• Routing according to customer selection - callers are directed to the appropriate call handling centre by selecting from a range of options.
• Load balancing - call centre managers can distribute calls by defining an actual call count for each agent.
• Agents can be office based or work from home.
• Up to 500 agents per call centre.
• Skill-based routing – agents can be provisioned into multiple call centres but only need to log on once – via the Web interface.
• Dynamic routing according to agent activity - callers are routed to the next free agent, on a longest-waiting rotation, according to the load balancing settings, or if no overflow agents are available, either an announcement can be played or the caller is directed to voice mail.
• Multiple overflows between call centres, allowing more opportunity for a call to be answered
• Emergency shut down features - administrators can perform an emergency shutdown of a call centre by pressing a simple button on a Web administration page or over the phone, directing calls to a new destination.
• On-line, near real-time call statistics showing full call analysis, agent activity, and call centre busy periods.
• Remote Prompt Recording and Administration - allows the administrator to record new prompts, or change a previously recorded message, from any location.

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Auto-Attendant

The Auto-Attendant feature is similar to the Network Contact Centre but is for customers who want to route calls across multiple locations but do not require the full agent functionality. The call is still routed according to the caller’s choice from the service menu, but is directed to a single destination number, be it a desktop phone, a home-worker, or an ACD. Load balancing can still be achieved, as can emergency routing, call statistics and general administration, all via the secure Web interface using a User Name and PIN.

Features

• Routing according to customer selection - callers are directed to the appropriate call handling centre by selecting from a range of options.
• Load balancing - call centre managers can distribute calls by defining an actual call count for each agent.
• Emergency shut down features.
• Administration functions and near real time call statistics are administered via the Web interface and are protected by a password.
• Remote Prompt Recording and Administration - allows the administrator to record new prompts, or change a previously recorded message, from any location.

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Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) lets customers streamline inbound call handling operations by providing callers with relevant information before directing the call to a dedicated number.

Or if information delivery is the requirement, customers can divert to a pre-recorded message before ending the call. These IVR services can also be used in conjunction with Premium Rate Services, which are all fully ICSTIS compliant.

Features

• Single Outdial Services - callers will hear a pre-recorded announcement and then be routed to a new destination number. For example, "Thank you for calling XYZ Company. We will connect you to the next available agent."
• Single Announcement Information Services - callers choose from a series of options to hear a pre-recorded announcement. For example, Horoscope information with a different number for each Star sign.
• Nested Menu Information Services - callers are directed to the appropriate piece of information by selecting from a range of options. For example, Press 1 for Weather in the North, Press 2 for Weather in the South.
• Voice Form Record and Retrieval - callers will hear a pre-recorded message and then be asked to leave details.
• Tele-voting Services - callers can vote by selecting from a series of pre-recorded options.
• Transcription Service will allow the administrator to retrieve all recorded messages or caller details, or make a random choice if choosing a competition winner.
• Remote Prompt Recording and Administration - allows the administrator to record new prompts, or change a previously recorded message, from any location.

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Voicemail

Network based voice mail lets customers control their mailboxes via a web interface. So not only are businesses guaranteed to never miss a call or lose a message, but staff can pick up messages at any time, from any location.

Features

• Common Number Access - there is only one number for both callers and registered users. Registered users access their mailbox administration functions by pressing a button on their phone during the welcome announcement, and entering their individual PIN.
• Message Retrieval by Dial Up - after logging into a mailbox, a subscriber is informed about the total number of new messages.
• Message Header - a message header precedes each message which contains time stamps as well as information about message priority.
• Skipping Message Header - a subscriber can skip the message header when listening to voice mails.
• Message Retention and Deletion - this gives the user the opportunity to delete unimportant messages immediately after listing and keep the important ones.
• Review of all Voice Mails - all voice mails can be listened to consecutively with the option to reply, delete or transfer each voice mail.
• Transfer Messages to Another Mailbox - users can send a voice mail to another user’s mailbox.
• Telephone Delivery - users can also create messages for delivery to a normal telephone instead of to another subscriber’s mailbox.
• Mailbox Limits - the mailbox can store a maximum of 50 messages at any one time.
• Personal Greetings - users can modify a mailbox greeting message(s) online.
• User mailbox administration function - users can administer their own mailbox via the web or via dialling in to the service using the dial tone multi-frequency (DTMF) functions.
• Password Protection - users can retrieve messages only after entering the right password.
• E-Mail Functionality - voice mails can be automatically forwarded to an Internet email address and can be read by any mail client system. An email can also be forwarded to the voice mail box using text-to-speech conversion.
• VMS Billing Management - a reliable and easy to use billing management system that is designed specifically to keep track of all the actions taken within the voicemail system.

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N-IVR Charging Structure

Tariff 1(iVAS platform only)

Tariff 2 (Open Talk platform only)

Note 1. Subsequent orders will be charged at the equivalent rate for the total number of channels.

0800 (FreeCall Plus) - 3000 minutes per month.
0845 (LoCall Plus) - 5000 minutes per month.

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N-IVR Service Build

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N-IVR Voice Prompt Recordings

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N-IVR Voicemail Service

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