Newsletter 
September 2007 Issue
- Top Voice User Interface (VUI) No-No’s
- Product Focus: Surveys
- Customer Spotlight: MedApps
- Ask Angel.com: What is a Transaction Page?
- Events: Join Angel.com at Dreamforce!
Top Voice User Interface (VUI) No-No’s
Want to avoid the most common mistakes in VUI design? Here are some tips:
- Don't use open ended prompts. An example of an open ended prompt is: "How can I help you?" A pleasant and friendly enough prompt, but how is the caller supposed to answer it? The safest bet is to avoid making assumptions about the caller's familiarity with the system and to always explicitly prompt them for what you expect them to say.
- Make sure that you don't have endless loops. Another killer VUI mistake that novice Voice application designers and developers make is to leave endless loops in their voice applications. An example of an endless loop would be a path that takes the caller to the beginning of an application on a final no match somewhere in the application. Few things frustrate and anger callers more than having to go back to the beginning and start from scratch when the application fails to understand what the caller said (no match) or fails to give them proper directions on what to do (no input).
- Don't use text to speech unless you have to. No matter how good a text to speech (TTS) engine may be, it can never beat the human voice. TTS is meant to be used in one of the following two situations: (1) For rapid development of your Voice Site so that you can build your call flow, call it and test it, and feel comfortable that the voice application is doing what you need it to do. The expectation is that once the call flow is complete, all prompts will be recorded in human voice. (2) For situations where the information you need to give back to the caller is dynamic: for instance, you are querying a database for an address that you want to read back.
There are seven more VUI No No’s! Find out what they are by reading the full article in the Angel.com Resource Center: http://www.angel.com/resource-center/vui-design/vui-101.jsp
Access white papers, webinars, and other articles by visiting: http://www.angel.com/resource-center/ivr-university.jsp
Product Focus
Surveys
Quickly capture and analyze survey responses from your callers with Angel.com. Our highly flexible platform enables us to deploy virtually any type of phone-based survey including customer satisfaction, market research, and employee feedback in a matter of days.
Phone Survey Highlights:
- Solution can typically be deployed in 48 hours or less
- Survey can be easily maintained and modified in real-time via the Web
- Supports both touch tone and speech recognition responses
- Results can be integrated with your existing reporting tools
- Survey can be both Inbound and Outbound
- Minimal setup costs versus traditional IVR providers
For more information about Angel.com survey solutions or other Angel.com applications, please visit our website or call us at 888-MyAngel and ask for “Sales.”
Customer Spotlight
MedApps
MedApps is a medical technology company specializing in remote patient monitoring systems. Its“Healthcare Anywhere”™ system integrates FDA-cleared medical devices, wireless and cellular telephone communications, enterprise-level IVR and intelligent call routing to create a nurse alert system. Through this advanced telemedicine system, MedApps aims to help patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, lead more active lifestyles by seamlessly integrating patient monitoring into their daily activities.
Challenge: In a telemedicine environment, unreliable or inconsistent communication between patient and caregiver can pose a significant barrier to effective patient monitoring and overall patient health. In addition, incomplete patient information or the inability to contact a suffering patient is exacerbated in a life-saving situation where every second is precious. Even in non-life threatening situations, an ineffective telemedicine system can result in declining health, increased doctor’s visits and higher overall healthcare costs.
Solution: To facilitate the seamless communication between patient and caregiver in the company’s “Healthcare Anywhere”™ system, MedApps President Kent Dicks selected Angel.com for an enterprise-level IVR (interactive voice response) and intelligent call routing solution. With Angel.com, MedApps was able to build a solution using the Angel.com web-based Site Builder interface and deploy the application in a single weekend.
Results: Dicks said the Angel.com IVR and call-routing system has performed as expected, allowing MedApps healthcare professionals to monitor patient health status more closely than ever.
Read the full success story or view other case studies by visiting: http://www.angel.com/customers/
Want to know more about how Angel.com voice solutions can help you better manage your field data collection? Contact us online or call 888-MyAngel to speak with an Angel.com representative.
Ask Angel.com
Q: What is a Transaction Page?
A: Angel.com Voice Pages are used to help you build and direct your call flow. Each page represents a new action in call flow- and none require any coding or technical experience. Transaction Pages define the integration and data transfer to remote servers. Use Transaction Pages to link the Angel.com system to your own Web infrastructure.
To find out more about Angel.com solutions and how they can integrate with your database, please contact call 1888-MyAngel and ask for “Sales”.
Events
Join CEO Mike Zirngibl in Boston
Angel.com CEO Mike Zirngibl has been on the road over the last few months speaking at several industry events. Next up is Boston for the Boston Connect Conference. We’d love to see you there!
Boston Connect Conference
October 2-3, 2007-- The Colonnade Hotel
http://www.nmscommunications.com/Connect2007/Americas/default.htm
“Mashups: Web Meets Telco “Tuesday October 2, 3-4pm ET
Defined as a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience, Mashups are a hot topic. While web developers work towards inspiring derivative third party applications based on their application, something they do by providing rich public API's to their applications, the Telco world works in a much more silo'ed fashion. Now, as we move towards Web 2.0, the obvious question is how we enable web developers to cross over to the mobile world. Join a panel of web and mobile experts to discuss the current realities and benefits for web/Telco Mashup.
