IVR Condescension

Anyone familiar with IVR knows that despite all of the positive attributes, there can be frustrating aspects to the technology.  Whether it's substandard speech recognition software or a menu option that creates an endless loop, there are many sources of frustration for users that are preventable with a good design.  One very important and often overlooked source of frustration can be derived from the IVR system's "tone of voice."  Despite the fact that the voices behind IVR systems are human beings, they are still disembodied recordings which cannot necessarily adjust to the mood or demeanor of the user. 

In a typical conversation, the parties can usually pick-up on each others mood and adjust the volume, inflection and tone their voices to empathize and/or convey emotions.  Common computer systems employed in IVR cannot efficiently detect and process such information.  Oftentimes, users find IVR instructions and prompts sterile at best and condescending at worst.  A recent story on CNN.com discussed what users perceive as condescending voices that give directions on most GPS devices.  This problem is identical to what can happen in IVR prompts.  In an ideal world, IVR systems would be capable of interacting with users in an appropriate tone at all times, but the systems are not equipped to detect the wide range of human emotion in voices let alone be prepared to respond appropriately.

Although it is unrealistic to record voice actors responding to every possible customer reaction, one way to avoid a condescending tone is to carefully review the script and attempt to predict user reactions.  Another possibility is to run focus groups and studies that simulate the IVR environment and use the feedback to improve the script's verbiage.  Avoiding concatenation of sentences is also recommended as such a practice only further de-humanizes the IVR prompts for the user.  Finally, although it is impractical to record prompts across the gamut of human emotion, several takes of each prompt could be recorded and tested in beta versions of the IVR systems to improve before general release.  Until computers are capable of seamless interactions with humans, script design and testing is key to avoid creating a "condescending" IVR system.