How to Improve Your IVR System Business
We've got some great deals going on right now exclusively for our online customers... chat now to hear more! How to improve your IVR system,Author: Rose de Fremery,When customers call a business for help, their first conversation is usually with an interactive voice response system (IVR system). IVR systems can help make it easier for customers to connect with a qualified agent, but only if it has been properly designed. If an IVR tool prevents a customer from speaking to a human or strands them in an endless menu of options, none of which are relevant, they may quickly give up. With a few design improvements and IVR best practices, however, your business can give customers the speedy service they seek and ensure they come away from their calls feeling satisfied. What is IVR?,IVR is an automated system that interacts with callers, gathers information and routes calls to the appropriate recipients without an agent's involvement. If you haven't run across this term before, you've almost certainly encountered the technology itself. Any time you call a customer service line and the automated greeting asks you to choose an option from a menu to properly direct your call, you're engaging with an IVR system. Businesses often use IVR to improve the customer service they provide. According to a study from Airkit, the average customer , with 6.5% of customers waiting over 30 minutes. Reducing hold times, therefore, can benefit both businesses and customers alike. Your business can use IVR to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, while customers can use it to get help faster than they otherwise would. Challenges arise, however, when customers become lost in poorly designed IVR system menus and can't find a way to talk with a fellow human. Even once they're able to connect with an actual agent, customers may still have to repeat their information from scratch. As they become steadily more frustrated, they may simply abandon their calls—and the business may lose valuable customers it could have otherwise retained. Common IVR system design flaws,How can your business avoid unintentionally frustrating its customers in this way? The answer lies in improving your IVR design. Left unaddressed, can hamper your company's ability to serve its customers. These design flaws include:,No option to speak with a human,When customers are blocked from speaking with human agents, they may perceive that the company is engaging in cost-cutting strategies at their expense. One survey found at least 60% of respondents said they would prefer to . Inaccurate routing,While customers want to speak to agents, they also want to speak to the right one. One survey revealed that 33% of respondents consider to be an important factor in good customer service. Endless loops and dead ends,IVR system menus shouldn't accidentally create loops that force customers to keep making endless selections or present them with dead ends. Zendesk research found 68% of customers become . Lengthy main menu options,If the prerecorded message for the main menu option takes longer than 30 seconds to play, customers may become annoyed at having to wait until it completes. Lost customer information,Customers often have to provide IVR systems with a fair amount of information, yet they end up having to repeat it upon connecting with a human agent. According to Salesforce, 65% of consumers say they . A robotic-sounding voice,Some prerecorded voices sound more warm and approachable, while others come across as artificial and impersonal. Customers find a conversational IVR dialogue flow feel more . Customers can't interrupt,Some IVR systems won't allow customers to issue voice commands until a message has finished playing. This unnecessarily lengthens the time required to connect with an agent. How to improve your IVR system design,When IVR systems are properly designed, they can efficiently route customer calls to the most suitable agents available while also guaranteeing that customers don't get lost in labyrinthine mazes or hang up. Here are a few IVR best practices that improve IVR design and enhance the customer experience. IVR best practices to follow,One of the most effective steps you can take to improve your IVR system is to give your customers choices. This way, they feel they have some control over how to handle the call and manage their time. With that in mind, here are six IVR best practices that will put your customers back in the driver's seat and make them feel like your business cares about giving them good service. How to improve your IVR system further with modern technology,In addition to implementing the above design improvements and best practices, you can modernize your IVR even further by connecting it to customer relationship management (CRM) and automated call distribution (ACD) systems. CRM integration allows your human agents to access detailed information about the customer so they can give prompt and personalized care. By , you can help customers reach qualified agents faster and better balance contact center volume across various teams in your organization. (CIVR) goes even further, leveraging the combined power of speech recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) to give customers an even more natural, conversational experience. Instead of shoehorning themselves into predefined numeric menu choices, customers can simply say what they're calling about in their own words. From there, the IVR system can interpret what they've said and guide them to the right resource. CIVR becomes more proficient in gauging caller intent over time, steadily enhancing the quality of the service you provide. Improve your IVR and satisfy your customers,IVR is a bedrock technology for today's , but it must be properly designed to meet your customers' needs. By improving your IVR design and implementing a few IVR best practices, you can make sure your customers feel good about their interactions with your contact center. Advanced solutions like CIVR can enhance your customer experience even further, enabling the natural conversational give-and-take that customers expect and value. Discover how Verizon's delivers faster, more intuitive customer service. Airkit, , page 6. Salesforce, , page 16. If you'd like to receive new articles, solutions briefs, whitepapers and more—just let us know. . * Indicates a required field. We will follow up from your contact request using the information provided. Choose your country to view contact details. 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