Selecting your IVR host is like buying a car

Often times when you set out to buy that shiny new or used car, things don’t go exactly as planned.  In the same way, finding the right IVR hosting partner can be a tricky business.  Like buying a car, if you walk into the IVR world without doing your research, you could get a lemon. It’s very important to understand some of the tricks that some IVR vendors use to get you to BUY NOW. Don’t get me wrong, not all IVR hosts are unscrupulous and not all are trying to take you to the cleaners. In fact, among all the hosts, many are really trustworthy. With that being said, the potential for a rip-off is still ever present. Some of the practices I have seen over the last eight years in this business justify some of the suspicions people have when it comes to IVR.

If you catch a whiff of any of the practices below, it would be wise to be on the alert. Armed with a little IVR knowledge, you should be able to detect and avoid some common pitfalls.

Here are a few car dealer tricks that are applicable to the IVR hosting world.

Trade In Value:
Auto Industry: People are attached to their old cars and often times they are set on getting a good deal on the trade-in.  The car dealer will take your beater but then they will inflate either the monthly payments or the down payment. Let’s be honest, your cherry red Fiero (The Red Dragon) wasn’t very cool in 1989, let alone 2009! I know how hard it is to say goodbye…my 84 Rabbit still haunts me to this day.

IVR Industry:  Old IVR applications are often pretty beat up (poor VUI design, not VXML compliant, the voice recordings sound like they were recorded in a Dr. Pepper can, etc.) Customers feel attached to these old systems because they paid a lot of money to have them built or even built the apps themselves.  Many IVR hosts don’t provide professional services and aren’t interested in improving the performance of your application.

MTI: Despite a recent program introduced in the Auto industry, we are not going to give you $3500 bucks because your current IVR system is a gas-guzzling road hog. What we will do is provide you with our expert VUI design and professional services team with over 20+ years of experience in the industry. If your old application is great and it is VXML compliant, by all means bring it over and run it on our platform. If it’s not so great, our professional services team will work with your team to design a system that meets all of your needs. MTI has two models:

1. We turnkey the whole process and build the apps for you.

2. We allow our partners to build their own applications and host them on our platform.

Upgrades and extras:
Auto Industry:  Car mats, Upgraded Stereo Equipment, License Plate Holders, Paint and Fabric protectors, Navigation, Kitty Litter box, etc. The list goes on and on, but in the end the unlucky consumer ends up a few thousand over budget.

IVR Industry:  Scalability, ASR and TTS resources are a few of the add-ons that will quickly blow any budget. Many hosts will charge per-use fees for features that should be included with your base service. Some “low-cost” hosts charge more for enterprise grade technology but they will allow you to use the in-house ASR or TTS for a lower price. Don’t settle for inferior technology or service.

MTI: Any enterprises interested in IVR should choose a hosting provider that is driven by performance and doesn’t nickel and dime you for basic services. MTI strives to become a true partner. We know it is in our best interest to create lasting relationships with our customers. We provide fair pricing that is easy to understand. It is our philosophy that customers deserve best-of-breed technology with full redundancy and automated failover, a 24/7 Network Operations Center, a disaster recovery plan, and the scalability to absorb spikes in call volume. Did I mention that your IVR host should be standards-based (VXML 2.0 2.1, SIP, etc)? You wouldn’t buy a car that some guy pieced together from some parts he found at the junkyard, would you?

Bait And Switch (We’re giving away cars, it’s FREE, blowout sale, 12 months same as cash):
Auto Industry:  We’ve all seen the meathead on TV urging you to come down to the dealership and take advantage of X promotion. You’re bored and you like free stuff so you head down to the dealer to pick up your FREE car but you leave the lot with $40,000 of debt.

IVR Industry:  Cars aren’t free, neither is IVR. You may be able to sign up for free or you may be able to download a fancy platform that you can run in your basement, but just remember: you get what you pay for.

Once you go for the bait, they set the hook. In the beginning you have this great little platform that takes ten calls a day and you don’t have any problems. Here is where they get you - when it comes time to deploy the application with real call volume, you suddenly realize that your free IVR platform does not scale, is not very reliable, and your monthly invoice goes from $39.95 to $3995.00. How did this happen? Well…when you signed up for your free or cheap account, you didn’t notice that those add-on fees and the per-port or per-minute rates were ridiculously high. These platforms are great for developers, not for enterprises. I could go on and on about this one, the bottom line is – be careful.

MTI: We allow prospective customers to fully test their applications in our sandbox environment before they sign a service agreement. No hidden fees or tricks. Before you decide to become a customer of MTI, you will have a clear understanding of how the billing works and, if you know your call volumes, then you will have a good idea of your monthly invoice.

Bottom line: If you are shopping for IVR, know your facts and know what you are looking for. If that is developing a partnership with a company that offers a great platform with exemplary service, you should give us a call.

If you’re not careful when you choose your host, you may end up with Sal the IVR guy with his pinky ring and Velcro shoes.

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