It’s that time of year when movie theaters undergo a transformation. Gone are the action-packed summer blockbusters like The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man. In their place are Oscar-worthy movies like Argo and Les Miserables. The keys to creating an award-winning movie: --a strong script, a solid tone and point of view, and great acting – are also the elements that businesses must keep in mind when they are transforming one of the most important elements of their contact centers: their IVR systems.

A recent blog post by contact center transformation and IVR system specialist West Interactive spoke about this very topic. The key, of course, is to match up the tone, mood and style of the IVR system with the type of business it serves. If you are the Walt Disney (News - Alert) Corporation, for example, you’ll want a light, fun and family-friendly voice on the other end of the line (or, based on recent developments, perhaps a Jedi Master or a Sith Lord). On the other hand, if your company sells skateboards, you would want an IVR voice that is a bit hopper and edgier.

Like any good feature film, your IVR needs to start with a strong script. Whoever is designing the dialogue for the IVR system must stay in character the whole time, creating a script that has a consistent tone to it. Then, when choosing a voice for the IVR, the team must keep in mind the tone, speed, inflection, gender, dialect age and pitch of the speaker, choosing wisely to match the desired tone. It’s just like casting a feature film. If you cast the best actor for the job, half of your work is done for you, as any Hollywood Director, from Christopher Nolan to Martin Scorcese, will tell you.

The rest of the battle, then, is making sure your actor puts in the type of performance you want to see onscreen – or making sure your IVR script is spoken in the tone you want to capture. After all, if you go through the process of transforming your contact center, you want to make sure you have a blockbuster hit on your hands, not a straight-to-video clunker.