Manage Voice Prompts

This section explains how to manage voice prompts in Interaction Attendant.

Prompts are recorded using your telephone. Interaction Attendant does not use your PC's sound card to record prompts. However, it does use your sound card and speakers to play prompts when you are working in Attendant.

There are two ways to record voice prompts in Interaction Attendant. You can record prompts using audio controls embedded in forms, or you can use the Prompt Management dialog. The latter displays information about a selected prompt, such as which languages it has been recorded in. This makes it easy to manage prompts at a high level without having to open forms.

Attendant makes it easy to offer prompts in multiple languages. To do this, you need to understand the difference between available languages, the default language, and the current language:

Available Languages

Interaction Attendant lists the names of available languages in audio-related forms and dialogs, so that you can record or play back a prompt in a particular language. The names of supported languages (e.g. English, Spanish, etc.) are defined outside of Interaction Attendant, using Interaction Administrator. If you need to record prompts in a language that Interaction Attendant does not support, you can configure CIC to support additional languages.

When an additional language is defined, CIC creates a folder on the server to store prompts for that language. Since voice prompts are stored in language-specific directories, the same filename is used to refer to a prompt, regardless of the language it is recorded in. For example, you might record greeting.wav in English, Spanish, and French. The same name is used to refer to all versions of the file. For more information about language folders, read where files are stored. Attendant makes it easy to record a prompt in different languages, using a simple set of audio controls.

Default language

When you record a new prompt, Attendant assumes that you are recording in the default language defined for the server. The default language is defined outside of Interaction Attendant, using Interaction Administrator (on the Languages page of the System Configuration container). CIC supports multiple languages, but one language is configured to be used by default. Callers hear prompts in the default language unless you configure Attendant to change the current language.

Current Language

The language used to play prompts at runtime is known as the current language. The current language tells Attendant which directory to play a prompt from. You can control the language that Attendant uses in several ways:

• By specifying a specific language in a profile form. Profile forms filter incoming calls by examining a range of incoming call characteristics. For example, you can create a profile that plays voice prompts in Spanish when a specific number is called (DNIS), or when preferred Spanish-speaking customers call from known telephone numbers (ANI). Profiles make it easy to select a language based upon the line, line group, or number that was dialed (DNIS) or by examining the telephone number that was called (ANI).

• By allowing callers to choose the language used to play back prompts. You can use Language Selection operations to create menus that prompt callers to select a preferred language. This allows callers to dynamically choose the language used to play back prompts in other menus.

When you configure an IVR interaction in Attendant, you can preset the current language or allow callers to choose a preferred language. The current language is also evaluated when text is converted to speech.

For example, suppose that a caller's preferred language is Spanish based upon a profile form or based upon the caller's language selection. Attendant plays greeting.wav from the Spanish language directory on the server. When Attendant needs to play the same prompt to an English-speaking caller, it plays the file found in its English language directory.