What is a Phrase?

In call center terminology, the term "phrase" is typically associated with interactive voice response (IVR) systems, especially those that use speech recognition as a method of menu interaction. As an example, directed dialog is a menu type that is enabled by speech recognition. It allows callers to speak their menu selections, but only by using very narrowly defined phrases. The IVR might say, "Do you want to file a claim? Say yes or no." The IVR is expecting either of two phrases - yes or no. If the caller uses a phrase other than yes or no, it's likely that the IVR won't know how to process it.

Directed dialog is useful when the menu is simple. Plus, it's easy to implement because only a small set of phrases needs to be programmed. Once programmed, phrases are stored in an IVR system's grammar file.