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Tips for Planning a Voice Portal
1.7
Tips for Planning a Voice Portal
Callers unfamiliar with your voice portal will have to navigate through the menus
and, using your user guidance, attempt to reach their call destination, obtain infor-
mation or reach a person. The following guidelines should help you design a voice
portal which callers will have no difficulty using.
Keep it brief and clear.
Use (short) sentences that the caller can understand and remember immediately.
Wherever possible, shorten multi-syllabic words, e.g. "Sales" instead of "Sales
Department".
Avoid using foreign or technical jargon which the caller may not understand.
Structure menus simply and clearly.
Only use a few menu levels. (We recommend no more than three such levels.)
Callers must try to find a way through the menus and draw a menu map in their
heads. Too many levels may well disorientate them.
Avoid any complex structuring of a voice portal's menus. Build the menu levels in a
straightforward sequence, one on top of the other.
Help callers to get their bearings quickly.
Allow the caller to listen to the announcement again (action: "Repeat menu")
before moving on to the next menu.
Provide the caller with the option to return to the starting point or to go back a
menu (actions: "Jump to menu" and "Menu back").
Include confirmation messages at the points of your voice portal where callers
could ask themselves whether their last input was correct (e.g. "Your order has
now been taken").
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