Posts Tagged Digium Asterisk World
Conference Call Etiquette
Polycom, one of the premier listings in AsteriskExchange.com, recently shared a helpful guide to conference call etiquette. Here are their Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of a Conference Call:
Do’s
- Watch the clock. Make good use of everyone’s time.
- Come to the call with an agenda, clear objectives, and role expectations.
- Make sure to provide a quick overview at the start of the call as well as a quick summary at the end of the call.
- Introduce all parties on the call. Always introduce participants to each other and acknowledge new attendees as they join the call.
- Ensure participants are following along. When referring to slides during a presentation, number the slides and clarify as you move from one slide to the next so that all callers can easily follow along.
- Pay attention. This may seem to be a given, but it’s not always that easy to do.
- When you’re on a conference call at your desk, it’s often very tempting to check e-mail, work on documents or do other personal work. Typing on a keyboard is disruptive, however, and callers can hear you. In addition, you may miss the flow of conversation and progress in the meeting.
- When you’re in a conference room, avoid using your mobile device to check e-mail during the conference call.
- Forward incoming calls to voicemail. When joining the conference call from your desk, be sure other incoming calls will not cause a disruption.
- Turn off your cell phone ringer, pager, etc.
- Speak using a ‘normal’ tone of voice. Today’s conference phones offer excellent acoustic clarity. Yelling or speaking too quietly is distracting.
Don’ts
- Don’t put the call on hold. If you have to step away, use mute hold because music is very disruptive to others on a call.
- Don’t interrupt. Give others a chance to finish what they are saying before speaking.
- Don’t have side conversations. They are a distraction to those listening from the other end.
From phones to software to complete business communication solutions, the Asterisk Exchange showcases solutions that extend the power of Asterisk. To find conference phones that are certified to work well with Asterisk, visit the Polycom listing on AsteriskExchange.com.
The IVR Clinic — with Allison Smith
Allison Smith, The Asterisk Voice
The 15 Commandments of IVR
I am not an engineer of IVR systems; I do not write code, and I certainly don’t program or implement IVR systems. I am a professional voice talent who specializes in voicing IVR and auto-attendant systems — I have voiced platforms for large telcos and independent companies and organizations internationally; and I am probably best known for my work voicing the prompts for Asterisk, practically since its inception. Thanks to Asterisk, my voice can likely be heard — somewhere around the world — at any given moment of the day or night. I have been approached by Digium to blog directly on their site about the “science” of IVR — what makes a good IVR system flow; and conversely — what makes a system clunky and awkward to navigate around.
As I’ve alluded to: I’m no technical expert.
But from my experience in voicing IVR systems each and every day, I’ve acquired a bit of a working knowledge about the common pitfalls, and aspects which can radically improve the flow of an IVR. Through trial and error — and making the most out of badly written scripts while rejoicing in well-written ones — I can tell you what works and what likely won’t. I have arrived at a “Top Ten” list (well, actually, 15) of common pitfalls which I perceive to be the biggest barriers that get in the way of well-meaning companies just wanting to have an efficient method in which to guide their customers around their company’s structure, and their clients — who only want the path of least resistance (and least frustration) to interacting with the company. A point of clarification — and this was big watershed moment when this was pointed out to me by noted Asterisk guru Jim Van Meggelen: “IVR” seems to be a catch-all term which (we think) applies to a device which automatically transfers the caller to an extension without the intervention of an operator — this is actually an “Auto Attendant”. IVR — or Interactive Voice Response — is a technology that allows a computer to detect voice and DTMF keypad inputs or by speech recognition. In the telephony industry, “IVR” has come to be a generic term which has taken on the meaning of “Those Automated Prompts Which Guide You Around a Telephone Tree” (I’m guilty of genericizing that, too — my domain is theIVRvoice.com
– but to hedge my bets, I also immediately purchased theautoattendantvoice.com after Mr. Van Meggelen set me straight. I’m not taking any chances.) For the interest of simplicity, and the universality of its use, I will continue to use “IVR” as the catchall term which describes the automated nature of a telephony system. Even though it may be perpetuating a misnomer.
So on with that “Top 15 List”: If I had to narrow down the most common mistakes in writing and executing IVR scripts, I could probably boil them down into fifteen major “commandments” which should be broken only at your own peril (and only if you goal is to create a frustrating experience for your customer base):
1. Don’t Overestimate Your Listener’s Attention Span
2. Thou Shalt Not Create Fake Mailboxes
3. Keep Things Simple
4. Always Give Callers an Opt-”In”
5. Front-Load Important Information
6. Understand What Constitutes a “Prompt”
7. Understand The Effects of Proper Punctuation in Concatenation
8. Thou Shalt Not Give Directions To Your Office/Facility
9. Give a Pronunciation Guide for Proper Names and Place Names
10. Name Your Company Something That Needs No Special Instruction
11 Don’t Go Overboard with Niceties
12. Read The Copy Out Loud
13. Be Clear on Your Company’s Vision/Image — And Be Able To Explain That To Me
14. Don’t Front-Load Too Much Information in The Opening Greeting
15. Write in a Conversational Tone
Each Blog, I’ll spotlight one of these aspects, and explain in detail why following the above points will ensure a less-frazzled clientele, and you will enjoy the bonus of calls coming in following a nicely organized structure and being dealt with in a timely manner. Bliss!
A win-win for everyone!
Next blog, I’ll plant the all-important seed about attention spans. It’s by far the most pivotal of all the points. If you master this, your IVR karma will be impenetrable.
