Voice response processing

1. A system for contact center messaging, comprising:

an IVR unit for executing an IVR script;

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory has program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

tag one or more portions of the IVR script;

associate one or more text messages with the tagged one or more portions;

execute the tagged IVR script during a caller interaction;

transmit the associated text message to the caller when one of the tagged portions of the IVR script is encountered;

turn over the interaction with the caller to a live agent at a station to which the call is routed; wherein the station is a computerized appliance executing a desktop application, and the desktop application provides text messages of choices the live agent may wish to communicate to the caller, and when the live agent encounters a point in the voice interaction where the agent determines to send a choice to the caller, the agent is enabled to select the associated text message and enter the text message destination address of the caller to send the text message.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a session management module for managing which portions of the IVR script may be tagged.

3. A method for operating a contact center, comprising:

tagging, by a processor, one or more individual portions of an IVR (interactive voice response) script;

associating, by the processor, text messages with the one or more individual tagged portions of the IVR script;

executing the tagged IVR script during a caller interaction;

when one of the tagged portions of the IVR script is encountered, transmitting the associated text message to the caller; and

turning over the interaction with the caller to a live agent at a station to which the call is routed; wherein the station is a computerized appliance executing a desktop application, and the desktop application provides text messages of choices the live agent may wish to communicate to the caller, and when the live agent encounters a point in the voice interaction where the agent determines to send a choice to the caller, the agent is enabled to select the associated text message and enter the text message destination address of the caller to send the text message.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising transmitting an audible rendering of at least one tagged portion of the script to the caller.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the associated text message is transmitted prior to transmitting an audible rendering of the at least one tagged portion of the script.

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising querying a caller as to whether text messaging is desired.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein tagging of the IVR script is performed only if a response is received indicating a desire to receive text messages.

8. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining whether an available caller appliance is capable of displaying text messages.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein the text message is an SMS (short message service) message.

10. The method of claim 3 , further comprising parsing the IVR script to determine which portion or portions are to be tagged.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the IVR script comprises a query to determine an address for transmission of text messaging.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the tagged portion corresponds to a point in the script for offering choices to a caller, and the text message provides for a visual representation of the offered choices.

13. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more tagged portions comprises choices to be presented to a caller.

14. The method of claim 3 , wherein tagging comprises using Java tags to tag one or more individual portions of a VXML (voice extensible markup language) application.