The hierarchy of voice messages in an interactive voice response system (IVR). The phone tree is the verbal counterpart to the graphical user interface. Poorly designed phone trees drive everyone ...

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is working on a virtual assistant that would eliminate the phone tree that customers now must navigate when they phone the company's contact centers. The technology is ...

Does this sound familiar? You still have a question about your account with a company after examining your statement, looking at its Web site and e-mailing your cousin, the accountant. You need to ...

Getting in touch with an actual human person to dispute a bad charge or to get tech support for a computer that has burst into flames on your desktop can be pretty difficult. The old rule of thumb to ...

If you've ever had to make the same phone call to more than one person, you'll go ape over this app. It can send e-mails and text messages, too. Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and ...

A mobile phone mast disguised as a pine tree has gone up in Carterton, to the dismay of some local residents. One said the 15ft mast, installed by phone company Orange, looked like "a genetically ...