Plum IVR Support

Have a really simple script that works on cell phones, etc., but on desk phones (Aastra, VOIP phone) the prompt begins playing before the phone is answered. I queued it with the "queue single call" form on the developer website.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vxml version="2.0">
<form>
<block>
<prompt bargein="false">
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
</prompt>
</block>
</form>
</vxml>

If I answer on the first ring the first thing I hear is 5. Ring 3 equals 11. The issue doesn't arise when using a cell phone.

Also note the bargeing="false". I did that because on a more complicated script with an input field, it was detecting "2" on phone pickup.

Is there a way to make it a little more picky about pickup detection?

Thanks.

Hi,

The IVR problem you are experiencing occurs for some VOIP phones, where the VOIP phone actually "answers" right away (and thus, the IVR application starts), but then plays audio that sounds like a ring to the callee for the callee to "pick up" the phone.

Have you tried using another type of VOIP phone for testing?

Regards,
Plum Support

Unfortunately, we don't have any other type of VOIP phone in the office to test with. We just recently moved offices, and ended up with the new phones, which brought the issue to our attention.

We've had some customer feedback in the past that messages where being cut off, requests to have messages repeat, and that sort of thing. Now we're beginning to think this might be related. We figure if we can't make it work for our phones, it could be a problem for some of our customers.

Hi,

Do you have any specific IVR examples from your customers?

Some of those IVR issues may be related to your IVR code specifically and we could make some suggestions to help you resolve some of those IVR issues.

Regards,
Plum Support

Well, I just started working on this project, and it's just what I've heard. I'm really more concerned with fixing the problem at hand. Is there any way to tweek the pickup detection, or is there no way to work around it? I mean, we could even have a user settable preference for enabling/disabling a workaround, if that user has problems with the default setting.

I think this problem might be pretty common place with ip phones. I've even received some telemarketer calls at the office that seem to be starting before I pick up. Who knows what system they are using, but it seems to have the same issue.

Hi,

Sorry, but there is no work around to this IVR problem. Our outbound IVR system cannot detect this ringing sound that is played and wait to play the IVR application before the callee actually picks up the phone; the IVR application just begins once the IVR call has successfully connected (in this case, when your IP phone actually answers).

Regards,
Plum Support

You could try, however, to implement an introduction prompt in your IVR script that would repeat and require the user to press 1 to continue. For example, the prompt could be:

"Hello, this is a call from Plum. To continue, press 1."

This would allow the callee to not miss any salient parts of your IVR application.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Plum Support

This means that if "phone" was set to true (or whatever special implementation you are using for phone), it will use creditcardstar.grxml (the grammar that allows the user to enter the star pound key) as the grammar and if "phone" is not true, it will use creditcard.grxml (the grammar that doesn't allow the user to enter the star pound key).