for Visual Display Phones and Interactive Services
Business and residential telephone subscribers are seeking new ways to use complex communications services, and the traditional telephone is not meeting their needs. Adding a visual interface to traditional audio and keypad telephone capabilities can create many new business opportunities for communications companies, including:
- opening new revenue opportunities for exchange carriers
- increasing the value of telephone service
- making complex transactions and services easy to use
- building market share and customer loyalty
The Demand for Visual Interactive Telephone Services is Rapidly Increasing
The pace at which electronic communication devices and services are evolving today — and the demand for them — is incredible. The telephone is undergoing dramatic changes, while experiencing increased usage throughout the world at the same time. Sophisticated communications are becoming more deeply ingrained in the day-to-day lives of both business and residential subscribers. Both types of subscribers are demanding more and more of telephone communications. Usability tests reveal that consumers are becoming very comfortable making transactions over the telephone. In their quest for faster access, and larger amounts of data and information, subscribers are requiring more complex transactions while insisting on simplicity and convenience.
More Services.... More Complexity....
The amount of new services becoming available on a wide-spread basis is fueling the consumer demand for a telephone with a visual display and memory/storage capabilities. Emerging technology is making complex services and transactions a reality.
The traditional telephone, limited to audio and keypad functionality, is not able to keep up with the demand for complex services, and is frustrating subscribers who are using relatively simple services. For example, studies have revealed that subscribers do not easily remember many services initiated by coded shortcuts such as *66 or *72, and as a result use them far less than they would if they were readily available.
Early Trials for Complex Services and Transactions over the Traditional Telephone
Several industries, such as banking and retail, have attempted to complete complex services over traditional networks. Major banks and brokerage houses have attempted check writing and stock transactions, and retail businesses have tried product and catalog ordering. Constrained to only audio and keypad interactions, these trials have not met with much success. Too quickly, subscribers became overwhelmed. Many Interactive Voice Response (IVR) sessions have become so long, complex, and drawn out that subscribers disregard the electronic options to speak to a service representative, or they become so frustrated that they do not use the services at all.
The Value of Visual Display Capabilities for Businesses and Consumers
Adding visual interaction to audio and keypad capability empowers the standard telephony interface. Visual interaction makes telephony more intuitive, more engaging, more efficient, and more comprehensive. Like adding a small PC to the telephone, equipping telephones with a small display, processing functionality, and storage capabilities which are managed by interfacing software gives screen phones an enormous amount of power and flexibility. Subscribers can quickly and easily step through complex transactions. Longer transactions become more productive because users are more apt to follow through as they are visually prompted throughout the process.
Business Opportunities for Visual Display Phones and Interactive Services