The research described in this thesis reviewed previous uses of Interactive Voice Response (IVR), developed appropriate software, and employed IVR to obtain self-report of sensitive issues in surveys and conduct brief public health interventions. Chapter 1 introduces IVR and describes a systematic critical review of the use of IVR. IVR is a telephone interviewing technique where the human speaker is replaced by a high quality recorded interactive script to which the respondent provides answers by pressing the keys of a touch-telephone (touchphone). IVR has numerous advantages, including: economy, autonomy, confidentiality, access to certain population groups, improved data quality, standardised interviewing, multi-lingual interfaces, and detailed longitudinal assessments. Despite this, there have been few survey applications of IVR compared to alternative methods such as Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI). There has not been any evaluation of the use of IVR for asking sensitive questions in surveys or as a tool for health promotion at the community level. A literature review, described in Chapter 2, was conducted to identify other methods of asking sensitive questions. The literature review identified 19 different methods. Those methods that were most successful were those that provided the greatest degree of anonymity to the respondent. It was suggested that IVR may be a suitable method for community surveys. As described in Chapter 3, a custom software called Generalized Electronic Interviewing System (GEIS) was developed. This provided both CATI and IVR interviewing modes. As described in Chapter 4, it was found that the response rate obtained using IVR was unacceptably low, and an alternative interviewing method, the Hybrid method was developed. In the Hybrid method the interview was initiated by the interviewer but completed using IVR with GEIS. As described in Chapter 5, the IVR, CATI and Hybrid methods were used to investigate self-reported rates of alcohol and drug consumption within a telephone household survey of 2880 households. The self-report rates were compared to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS). Response rates did not differ significantly between the CATI and Hybrid methods, however the response rate for IVR was significantly less than the other methods. The Hybrid and IVR methods obtained significantly higher self-report consumption rates for alcohol and marijuana, and significantly higher hazardous drinking scores using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). In Chapter 6 a pilot of an IVR cervical screening brief advice interface is described. A total of 5000 households were contacted by the IVR system. The system randomly selected an eligible woman aged 18-69 per household and determined her cervical screening status. A total of 661 women listened to the IVR message. The IVR call was shown to be acceptable and inexpensive compared to a mail pamphlet intervention. In Chapter 7 a randomized controlled trial of an IVR cervical screening brief advice involving 17,008 households is described. Cervical screening rate data were obtained from the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) for a period spanning six months before and following the intervention. The cervical screening rate was increased in the intervention postcodes by 0.43% compared to the control postcodes, and the increase was greater for older women at 1.34%. This was a desirable outcome since this group is considered to be an at-risk group. The overall conclusion was that IVR technology could be feasibly used to contact women to deliver brief interventions aimed at increasing cervical screening rates, but the cost per screen was likely to be high. It is suggested that an IVR system could be linked to cervical screening registers to more directly and economically contact women, and provide an efficacious complementary approach to the existing letter reminder system. / PhD Doctorate

Families migrate to improve their outcomes, however the process is very disruptive. My research asks and answers the question can scaffolding communication through technology mitigate the disruption caused to families by migration, and if so, how? In my work I have explored two forms of disruptive family migration—parental migration (where parents and children live in separate countries) and refugee resettlement (resulting from forced migration). In both forms, families are embedded in support networks of individuals they rely on to minimize vulnerabilities faced post-migration and to rebuild a stable family structure. My empirical results revealed barriers (distance, language, literacy and so forth) that render the communication between families and their support network less than effective. Through participatory approaches, I then design and evaluate separately, two systems to mitigate the barriers and improve communication in the various support networks. The end contributions of my work include: i) contributing a nascent agenda on migration for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and related fields through providing an increased understanding of the challenges that limit the livelihoods of migration-separated and refugee families; ii) demonstrating two communication scaffolding systems for transient use by migrants to mitigate communication barriers--- time and distance on one hand (to support transnational home-school communication) and language and literacy on the other (through mediated human-in-the-loop voice translations for everyday interactions with refugees); iii) putting forth a reflection on methods to guide others seeking to work with similar groups and establishing the notion of designing for transient use in the development of systems to scaffold communication.

Title: Artificial Intelligence in Customer Interactions: A Study on Customers' Perceptionsregarding IVR Services in the Banking Industry Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore consumer perspectives on automated IVRcustomer services. Design/methodology/approach: This research paper was conducted qualitatively, where theresearchers developed a framework and a suggested model based on existing research andcollected primary data from eight interviews with open-ended questions. The collected datawas coded so that the researchers could spot patterns in the responses which were thendiscussed in relation to previous studies. Based on the results of the data analysis thedeveloped model was also discussed and revised. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that consumers are skeptical towards IVRtelephone customer service and believe that the service quality would be lower than regulartelephone service. The findings do however show that consumers are willing to try to adjust tonew technology as long as there are alternatives if they are not satisfied. Research implications: Managers should focus on delivering quality service to all of theirconsumers and therefore need to consider how well their services can fulfill the needs of theirconsumers. If the quality of the technology cannot provide the service that is expected there isstill a need for regular telephone customer service or else the company might suffer in thelong run. Originality/value: This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to explore the topic ofcustomers perceptions of AI in customer service. Keywords: IVR, AI, Customer Service, Banking, Customer Satisfaction, Wait time, TAM,Technology Acceptance Model, Sweden

There are analyzed key departments of bank in my thesis, which come in contact with clients and which partake of formation of their relation to the Citibank. This thesis targets the contact center CitiPhone, which serves personal entities of the bank. The theoretical cognizances from the first part of my thesis are applied to the conditions of this contact center in the practical part of it. The topic of my thesis is, on the example of contact center CitiPhone, to show activities, which contact center perform, to point out its critical parts and assess its current position. The assessment of activities of contact center CitiPhone is substantiated by graphs and results from period under consideration, which is first half of the year 2008.