Seven questions to ask your interactive telephony service provider

It wasn't all that long ago when the phrase "interactive service provider" referred to telephony-based companies providing interactive voice response (IVR) services. Today, companies providing Internet-based services are also referred to as interactive service providers. Trade shows that formerly catered to the IVR crowd now attract a majority of Internet-based service providers as exhibitors. So here's unofficial tip No.l: Read your trade show brochures carefully!

For the purposes of this article, I'm defining an interactive service provider as a company providing automated call-processing audiotex using voice-response technology, voice recognition or DTMF (dualtone multi-frequency, a.k.a, touch-tone telephones).

The December 1996 Buyer's Guide issue of this magazine listed 49 interactive teleservice providers, which is fairly sizable when you're charged with finding the best provider for your interactive program. Asking the following questions of your prospective service providers should ease your decision-making process and help you end up with an effective campaign.

1) Do you have the expertise necessary to support my type of campaign? Experience counts in this business. Your first question should always be whether or not a would-be service provider has expertise in your campaign type. Use probing questions to determine what experience they have in handling similar programs, and what companies they have worked with.

Selecting a service provider is a lot like interviewing a prospective employee. More than one candidate will have experience, but some have entry-level skills while others have deeper expertise. Expertise translates into confidence, and you want someone who is confident enough in his or her skills to give you honest advice if you bring a program idea that is less than effective.

If your program is for a company providing financial services, you need to make sure the service provider can meet the necessary security requirements. If your campaign is designed to generate leads, you want a service provider with experience capturing information such as name, address and ZIP Code. If you're taking orders, your service provider should have expertise capturing, authorizing and posting credit card data.

The service provider's ability to process large call volumes may also play a role, depending on the nature of your program. If you're putting together a Super Bowl promotion, only a couple of companies have enough capacity to handle the call spikes this type of program will generate. On the other hand, if you're doing a direct mail campaign, port capacity won't be a big issue.

Scripting is another critical area of expertise. Will the service provider help you design a script for your program? Does the service provider offer scripting and recording capabilities in-house, or do they contract out these services? If they outsource, who do they use and why, and what kinds of turnaround times should you expect?

2) Are your systems and platforms redundant? Redundancy is a buzzword for having plenty of backup. Fault tolerant is a similar catchphrase. Both terms refer to the basic ability to keep your program running if something goes wrong.

You're looking for redundancy in three areas: at the telephone network level, at the operational level, and at the site level. At the telephone level, you want as many opportunities to route around a point of failure as possible if something goes awry in the phone network. The operational level refers to the provider's inhouse systems and platforms. You need to know that the service provider can quickly identify when a unit has failed. At this level, you're also looking for items such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), which provide backup power if there's a general power failure. Site redundancy is equally important in case a natural disaster such as a tornado or fire knocks out one of the facilities.

3) How is your customer service organization structured? This is a critical area. You'll want to know who to call with issues and if 24hour, 7-day support is available. You'll also want to know if they will assign a single point of contact or if you'll be working with several people. If you are assigned a single account manager, find out what kind of backup you'll have in that person's absence. How well will the backup know your program? You also will want to know if your primary contact's absence will affect the ability to quickly handle program or script changes.

4) What kinds of reporting do you provide? Ask what their standard reports look like and whether they will fax or mail you a couple of samples. Most reputable companies have plenty of samples from which to choose. You'll also want to know whether or not they offer customized reporting. If so, find out if it's included as part of your service or if extra charges are involved.

It's also helpful to find out what kinds of formats they offer. Mail and fax are obvious, standard choices. Some companies also offer online access through a BBS (bulletin board service). Others let you use a touch-tone phone and enter a code to access call counts.

5) How flexible and responsive are you? You may have a program that requires constant changes, such as a weekly message from the CEO or an electronic couponing program for frequent retail buyers. You'll want to know how much it costs to make changes once a program has been established, and how quickly the service provider can accomplish your changes. Some service providers let you call in and use a PIN number to make real-time updates to your scripts.

6) How will your platform's features help my campaign? In our industry, expertise applies to systems and platforms as well as people. The list of features you see on a service provider's marketing brochure can offer insight into the company's capabilities. Your prospective service providers should be willing and able to explain how their snazzy feature lists translate to your specific program needs.

For example, you may see an item such as "host interface." Host interface means the service provider can tap into your existing database, thus allowing real-time access to any information contained in that database. This capability lets you perform sophisticated tasks such as identifying whether the caller is a current or prospective customer and routing the call accordingly. Because of the level of technical expertise necessary to properly implement a host interface, make sure you identify a provider who has a great deal of experience in this arena.

Host interface capability is particularly important when discussing fraud prevention applications such as a credit card activation program. When the customer calls to activate the card, he or she is asked to enter personal information such as his or her Social Security number. The interactive platform verifies the information using a host interface to the issuing bank's mainframe computer. Automatic number identification (ANI) is another important feature. ANI is a built-in feature of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) that automatically verifies the caller's phone number. When you combine the host interface capability with ANI, you have a program that's much more secure than one based on using a PIN number.

Voice recognition and transcription capabilities are important if you need to mail out information in response to your calls. The captured voice information is transcribed and entered into a database that you can use to create mailing labels. To minimize the added expense and delays associated with transcription services, look for services such as reverse directory database look-up capability. Based on ANI, this technology supplements the transcription step by providing instant online verification of addresses.

7) Finally, ask for customer references, as basic as that sounds. A company that has done good work for someone else is more than likely to do good work for you. Ask for references who have deployed programs similar to yours. It also doesn't hurt to ask around among your peers.

If you get satisfactory answers to these questions, you will be well on your way to launching a successful interactive teleservices campaign.

Mark Frei is vice president of sales for inbound services for the Interactive Teleservices division of West TeleServices Corporation. He is responsible for all inbound automated- and live-operator shared group services. He was previously director of new business development for the Interactive Teleservices division with responsibilities for identifying new vertical markets and areas of expansion. West's Interactive Teleservices division provides large-volume automated voice response services.

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation May 1997
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