Interactive Voice Response - Automated solution that directs callers with voice prompts to select from a defined set of choices. Customers normally make choices using the number pad on the telephone, though it is becoming increasingly popular to allow customers to state their choices and allow speech recognition software to determine what they've chosen.

Implementation is everything in IVRs. If the prompts are not set up properly they will cause a great deal of ill will with customers using them. The public perception of IVR systems in general has suffered quite a bit because so many IVR systems have been poorly implemented. If there is one area that extra care, money, and time is justified it is in producing interactive scripts for your IVR.