Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System are applications that integrates a company’s telephone and the computer system to harmonize a CTI (Computer Telephony Interface) that transforms the caller’s telephone into a terminal capable of directly accessing information and services. Customer calls on a telephone number; the IVR System answers the call, and prompts for instructions via spoken menu. In response to the caller's commands, database information may be retrieved or service requests are executed.

Now-a-days IVRs are used in many areas of business for providing valuable information on products, services and other public utilities through automated system. One main advantage of using an IVR is that a caller can avail the service 24 hours a day, 365 days an year (366 days in leap year!). Let us see how it works in different scenarios.