A lot has been going on in the interactive voice response (IVR) space. From new releases to the latest trends and insights, this is all of the most interesting IVR-related news of the week!

This week, Eckoh, the U.K.’s leading provider of speech recognition services, revealed that it has renewed a three-year contract with Vue Entertainment, the U.K.’s leading developer/operator of cinemas. The agreement – which will last until October 2015 – will work so that Eckoh provides speech recognition telephony services and a live contact center to Vue Cinemas, with increased provisioning including social media monitoring and broader customer interaction to make the most of Eckoh’s multi-channel service offerings.

In a statement, Nik Philpot, CEO at Eckoh, explained how the renewal is one the company is pleased about, describing Vue as a “dominant player in the UK cinema sector.” Philpot goes on to say, “Collectively, we share the same passion for innovation and progression, broadening the way we interact with the end customer. Our shared commitment to service excellence and regulatory compliance will provide us with new opportunities to leverage our multi-channel expertise over the next three years."

In other news, natural speech software continues to show improvements to IVR as well as help save businesses from losing customers. One reason customers typically stop calling into traditional hotlines or call centers is due to frustrations associated with more archaic types of IVR solutions. One technology review writer, Rachel Metz, claims that natural speech software can save individuals from the dreaded “automated customer support hell.”

With this new software, users no longer have to go through an “interminable series of push-button choices,” and neither must they be confined to practically yelling out overly simple verbal commands which somehow ironically remain indistinguishable. Rather, they speak like they would to a human agent, and as Metz shockingly expresses, “it actually works.”

Click here to check out the article in full.

Wrapping up this week is news circulating around the topic of cloud-based IVR systems. In a recent company blog, Nuance (News - Alert), a leader in voice recognition software and the powerhouse behind famous voice assistant Siri, explains that for a mid-sized bank, even one percent of callers who go around the automated voice option in favor of a live one can raise its customer care by $2-3 million. To avoid these burdening costs as well as increase customer satisfaction, companies are quickly realizing that they need to implement a better IVR solution focusing on customer convenience.

The answer is found in a more conversational IVR system that’s designed to be more convenient for customers – or in other words – avoids as many “zero-outs” as humanly possible. An IVR system which embraces an open flow of communication, or in other words uses the newest and most advanced natural language technologies, will lessen the amount of zeroes pressed because it will be able to understand the caller’s intent immediately and easily.

That’ll do it this week for the latest IVR news. To see what’s new next week, be sure to check back in same time, same place – only here at TMCnet.