Summertime is when families across America take advantage of the nice weather and go on vacation. My family and I have had a terrific summer and vacationed plenty. When we stopped through some of the historical sites and museums I noticed an interesting use of self-service IVRs, the telephone tour guide.
What is a telephone tour guide, you ask? Well, instead of reading a card, or pushing a button that gives you an audio rendition of the display (that never works anyway), a telephone number and a station ID is displayed. I would call the telephone number, enter the station number where I was standing and a terrific recorded message would tell me what I was looking at. In some cases, it would even direct me to other places that I might like based on my interest in the display.
You know what was really cool…people were actually calling the numbers and standing there quietly listening. Everyone was using the service, not just the younger generation, but even the older folks were enjoying the tour from their own telephones. What a terrific use of the self-service telephone technology that we all have doing business for us every day.
Have you caught the telephone tour guide in action this summer? "How was your experience?"
