Posters used to promote the Amplify IVR prototype are hung in Gurgaon.

WHAT IS IVR?

Integrated Voice Response (IVR) is a flexible

phone-based technology that can be deployed

in communities with low literacy and limited

or no Internet usage as a method for creating

alternative social networks and disseminating

information. Facilitators of these systems (usually

local nonprofit organizations) post information

to a central server and allow the public to call

into a local number to hear announcements,

ask questions, and participate in asynchronous

(not live) discussions. All information is recorded

and saved into the IVR system with the aid

of a live moderator, who monitors incoming

calls for quality control. IVR systems are low-

cost and can be rapidly deployed using simple

technology accessible to many low-income

communities around the world.

BENEFITS TO AMPLIFY

Amplify seeks to redefine international aid by

directly including low-income communities

around the world—traditionally recipients of

aid—in the process of designing solutions to

a range of global issues. Amplify engages its

audience through the website OpenIDEO.com,

which has a user base of over 50,000 people.

This website, however, relies on access to high-

speed Internet as a prerequisite for effective

participation. As many communities in our

target population do not have regular Internet

access, they have no route to participation on

OpenIDEO. IVR offers a means of expanding

the Amplify audience base to anyone with a

basic feature phone. The system can also be

programmed through a “missed call” system to

ensure that all calls into the system are free of

cost for users.

IVR has the potential to radically lower the

barriers to participation for low-income

communities with lived experience on the

issues Amplify is tackling, and to create a

diverse base of users across countries that

OpenIDEO has so far been unable to reach in

large numbers.

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 2

EXTENDING THE REACH OF AMPLIFY

In April 2014, the Amplify program explored the

use of Integrated Voice Response (IVR) as a means

of engaging local communities in the collaborative

innovation process. The experiment included

explorations of various IVR technologies and two live

prototypes in India.

AMPLIFY CHALLENGE ONE: IVR Prototyping

Woman in Gurgaon shares her thoughts on the GKA radio programming.

HOW THE IVR SYSTEM WORKS

IVR systems function much like customer

service phone trees. With a missed-call system

in place, a caller calls a local phone number,

and the server hangs up on the caller after one

ring (thereby avoiding any cost to the caller).

The telephone server then returns the call and

plays a pre-recorded introduction to the IVR

system. The user is then given the choice of

several menu options. Basic options include a

way to listen to entries other users have posted

and a way to record and post a new entry

to the system. Each entry is monitored by a

moderator who uploads all usable entries to the

system for callers to hear (while also eliminating

entries which are unintelligible). Each published

entry is then added to the queue of recordings

that users hear when calling in. Callers are

instructed to press a certain number to skip

between entries, and another number to leave

a comment on something they hear. On more

sophisticated systems, callers can receive SMS

notifications if someone comments on their

entry, and those comments are the first things

a caller hears the next time they call in to the

system.

PROMOTION AND ENGAGEMENT

IVR systems are paired with a variety of

promotional tools that attract potential users,

including:

Radio: By airing promotional ads,

dramatizations, call-in programs, or other

relevant content, radio can provide context

and funnel users to an IVR system. Community

radio stations are particularly well-suited for

this type of partnership, as they have a more

restricted geographic focus and are more

visible in the community (due to local outreach

programs) than commercial stations. Air time

is also vastly less expensive on community

stations and their programming tends to be

more flexible.

Mobile Outreach: SMS blasts or direct mobile

phone outreach can be very effective, and has

the benefit of using the same technology from

a user’s perspective as the IVR system itself (a

mobile phone).

Analog Communications: Community

meetings, promotional posters, and murals are

common methods of exchanging information

across the developing world.

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 3

EXTENDING THE REACH OF AMPLIFY

A female driver is interviewed on a radio show promoting the Gurgaon campaign.

PROTOTYPE ONE: GURGAON

Primary Partner: Gurgaon ki Avaaz (GKA) GKA

is a community radio station serving the peri-

urban population of Gurgaon—roughly 2 mil-

lion people. They have an active listener base of

low-income residents, with programming that

includes traditional music, comedy, and call-in

shows on topics relevant to the community

(e.g. health).

Tech Implementer: GramvaaniGramvaani is a technology company special-

izing in IVR and mobile phone-based applica-

tions, with a strong presence throughout India.

Gramvaani has also built IVR systems in other

South Asian and African countries.

“IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHANGE THE COLOR OF ‘WOMENS’S ONLY’ TEMPOS [SHARED VEHICLES]...THIS WAY IT BECOMES EASIER TO DIFFERENTIATE EVEN IN THE DARK.”

– NIRANJAN Gurgaon | April 23

Campaign Promotion:• Four 1-minute commercials broadcast

throughout the campaign on GKA, each depict-

ing a common safety issue and encouraging

listeners to call the IVR system

• Three 45-minute live shows on GKA (with

three rebroadcasts), each featuring live guests

and inviting listeners to share their views on-air.

• 19 posters distributed throughout one of Gur-

gaon’s informal slums

Results: • 45 calls, of which 17 were of usable quality

• Overall call quality: Moderate

• Callers were very passionate about the topic,

but gave little detail in responses and seemed

confused by the task of giving feedback.

• Callers were nearly all male

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 4

LIVE PROTOTYPING

LIVE PROTOTYPING

We ran two live IVR prototypes, testing various

methods of attracting users to the IVR system. The

two systems were nearly identical, each playing a

series of 2-minute summaries of ideas submitted to

the OpenIDEO platform and prompting callers to leave

comments or share their own ideas.

Women’s group in Gurgaon discusses the challenges of accessing the IVR

“IN MY OPINION, THE NUMBER OF FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS SHOULD BE INCREASED IN ALL STATIONS.”

– NITIN Delhi | May 2

PROTOTYPE TWO: DELHI

Primary Partner: Breakthrough A nonprofit media organization based in Delhi,

Breakthrough produces multimedia campaigns

to raise awareness about violence against

women around the world.

Tech Implementer: GramvaaniSee description for Prototype #1.

Campaign Promotion (week one):• A 30-second radio jingle aired on BigFM,

one of Delhi’s most popular commercial radio

staions (especially with commuters).

• Social media posts by Breakthrough

Results: • 15 calls, none of which were usable quality

• Commercial radio proved to be a highly

ineffective tool for promoting IVR. Drivers are

not typically able to make a call in the moment

or capture the number, and the incentive to

participate is lowered without the community

tie-in.

Campaign Promotion (week two):• A series of SMS messages sent to 8,000

people in the Delhi area on Breakthrough’s

contact list, via SMS GupShup, an India-based

mobile technology company.

Results: • 179 calls, of which 11 were of usable quality

• Overall call quality: High

• Callers were more inclined to provide their

own ideas than to leave feedback on others’

posts.

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 5

LIVE PROTOTYPING

SETTING UP THE SYSTEM

• IVR technology is easy and inexpensive to

set up quickly, but requires a partner who can

establish a local phone line to manage the

system—ideally an NGO based in the target

country.

• It is critical to have a team on the ground to

work directly with local partners in preparation

for launch because systems are difficult to

test remotely; a local presence is crucial

for galvanizing those partners to action and

troubleshooting.

• 3-4 days on the ground for pre-launch work

is insufficient to handle all of the necessary

preparation. A block of 8-10 pre-launch days

would be more appropriate.

• While working with local partners who share

a passion and mission for the specific IVR

subject matter is important, it is equally crucial

to find partners who have the bandwidth and

enthusiasm to take on the project. Subject-

matter expertise is less important than a reliable

technical and/or promotional partner.

• Lack of a direct connection with

implementing organizations like radio stations

and tech companies can create bottlenecks

for changes to the system. Partnering directly

with a tech implementer and promotional

partner (like a community radio station) is most

efficient.

• Slow progression on contracts is a risk to

the project as it can take time to negotiate

contracts with international IVR partners.

It’s best to start this process early and with

sufficient lead time that it doesn’t interfere with

the prototype.

MANAGING THE SYSTEM

• IVR providers can give real-time data on

participation and usage, making it fairly easy

to monitor techical successes and make

changes in the early days of a campaign. Once

established, IVR systems can be monitored

remotely with relative ease.

• Using a live moderator is crucial to success

of an IVR system linked back to OpenIDEO for

both quality control and effective transcription/

translation.

• High call volume for future prototypes will

limit the amount of content that gets heard; it

may be useful to categorize the comments to

personalize the experience for each user.

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 6

INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS FROM LIVE PROTOTYPES

Based on the experience and results of our two

prototypes, we gained the following insights into

the use of IVR as it relates to the Amplify program.

• Gramvaani currently has no way to automate

the IVR interface so that pre-recorded ideas

or comments are the first thing callers hear;

callers instead hear all comments in the order

they were posted unless a moderator manually

moves the pre-recordings to the top of the

queue. This limitation makes it difficult to use

IVR to get feedback on specific pre-recorded

items, since they will quickly fall to the bottom

of the queue and will not be heard.

• Mobile networks in target countries often

have low call fidelity and frequent loss of

service mid-call. We should explore system

capabilities to do multiple call-backs if the

network is not working.

ENGAGING USERS

• Callers into the system are engaged and eager

to talk, and want to find a way to help. The IVR

system can be valuable not just for capturing

content initially through recordings, but also

for identifying engaged community members.

This finding echoes previous learnings from the

IDEO.org #crapmap project in Ghana.

• Callers are used to the format of IVR as a way

to lend their voices to a social network; the

specific subject of the IVR campaign is often of

secondary importance. A single IVR line could

be used across several Amplify challenges

to build repeat participation, or linked to

another organization’s existing IVR system (e.g.

Jharkand Mobile Vaani).

• Live radio shows that dig into relevant content

are more successful at engaging users and

driving call-in behavior than promotional ads.

• Motivation for people to use the IVR system

to critique others’ ideas isn’t very strong—this

kind of feedback takes coaching and in-depth

conversation. An easier value proposition would

be asking callers to share personal stories

related to the topic (e.g. during the Research

phase of a challenge).

• Callers have little incentive to remain engaged

with the IVR system over time without a clear

two-way feedback loop. The ultimate goal of

the IVR system should be to create a true social

network, with the ability for callers to share

their thoughts with a broader community and

receive responses.

• Listening to the radio and calling into an IVR

system is a leisure activity. IVR prompts should

feel less like a survey or chore, and more like

an active social community you’d want to visit

repeatedly.

• Callers are unlikely to listen to lengthy

90-second recordings. All future content

should be in clips of 30 seconds or less.

REACH & AUDIENCE

• Women in many low-income areas of India

are unable to call in because they have no

credit on their mobile phones. We should

test the effect of offering small credits to

prospective female callers.

• Although we initially believed commercial

radio would provide visibility for the IVR system

to a much larger population, most of those

listeners are drivers who can’t immediately

capture a phone number or make calls.

Community radio, which has smaller but

more engaged audiences, is more effective in

spreading the word.

• Online social networks (Facebook and Twitter)

are ineffective in garnering participation, as

many of those users are already have access to

OpenIDEO directly.

Migrant families, especially women, generally

have no home radio; men often listen to the

radio while they work as taxi or rickshaw

drivers.

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 7

INSIGHTS

CHALLENGE TWO: ROADMAP

PROPOSED STEPS

• Daily SMS digest of the system, which

highlights activity on their stories

• Moderator to review calls

• A custom SMS when a comment is left

on that user’s content

Other levers to test:

• Provide small amounts of mobile credit

to female target users as a way to

ensure accessibility of the system

• Try hiring a small subset of local

“super users” who encourage community

members to participate in the system

• Experiment with small-scale translation

and transcription program with a group

of active OpenIDEO users

• Test simple methods of getting IVR

responses onto OpenIDEO (text-only

posts of transcriptions to start)

Create a marketing plan with promotional

partner, with a mix of spoken and written

media (live radio shows, 30-second

recorded promos, and simple posters).

Co-create campaign content.

Work with partners to ensure local

relevance.

Arrive in country 8-10 days prior to launch

to test all aspects of the campaign on the

ground with partners.

Record any remaining prompts and identify

a live moderator to assist with quality

control, translation, and transcription.

Monitor placement of written promotions

around relevant community public spaces.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Find a local technology partner.

Begin contract work early to ensure

timeliness. See Appendix 1 for a list of

potential technology partners in Kenya, India

and Tanzania.

Recruit community radio station with an

active listener base as promotional partner.

See Appendix 1.

Work with tech partner to identify an

IVR system that maximizes two-way

communication.

If necessary, find a secondary partner

to build in SMS functionality for direct

feedback.

Our goal is to create a social network that

incentivizes repeat use. An ideal system

would utilize an existing phone number

with an active community. In lieue of

this, a system should use return calls and

targeted SMS blasts to encourage repeat

engagement.

Features of the ideal ground-up IVR system:

• Simple IVR call-in number

• Missed call system with double call back

to assist with bad networks

• Menu with the following choices:

1. Share your story

2. Listen to other peoples’ stories

3. Comment on someone’s story

4. “Like” someone else’s story

• Simple beeps before and after recording

stories, and ability to review one’s

idea before posting

• SMS follow-up to thank caller

AMPLIFY: CHALLENGE ONE

WWW.IDEO.ORG/AMPLIFY 8