"Press 1 for this....." or "For this, press 1...."

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Permalink Reply by Dean Marks on June 17, 2009 at 6:51pm

It's a very good question. Outside of my VO work, I manage a large multi-site corporate phone network having a fair amount of integrated technologies used by a lot of different client types. From experience, I can tell you that the question is best answered by gauging your client's need. In my network, both are used, but the trend seems to be toward offering information first, then a required action next. By example, your "To do this, press 1, to do that - press 2, ...." scenario seems to be more widely used. If the client has no preference, I use the info/action scenario. If the script is to be used in a utility-type application the caller uses frequently and is accustomed to hearing, then your "Press 1...." is a better fit. The IVR doesn't care as its internal sound/audio cards are conditioned to react to the caller-keyed DTMF input either way, and the script takes the caller to the next operational step, or completes the call to the selected endpoint. Best of luck... I hope this helps a bit!

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Permalink Reply by Alex Patsko on June 18, 2009 at 4:27am

hi Dean,

Great thanks, it does help - good to have the opinion of the experienced professional.

It looks like we have 2 cases in our service: The information service & the utility-type menu ("service menu") where set of options will be all the same. For the second one we use Action/info schema, while for the first one - Info/Action.

Thanks again for your reply - it definitely helps!

Best,
Alex

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Permalink Reply by steve hammill on June 22, 2009 at 6:56pm

I've been thinking about this too because I hate IVR phone systems and hope to get a few of these clients.

Why not: sales 1, support 2, billing 3...and so on? Good lord, these systems have been in play a long time...we're all trained and know to press the button. Correct?

Phone systems don't give me warm fuzzies; I'm doing business. Once I reach my destination in the phone tree, you can entertain and inform me while I'm on hold, but until then...cut to the chase alright already!

I'll concede the "touch or say" systems for now. ...and, of course, until someone asks me to design a phone tree...I'll read the script I'm given. :)

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