Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems serve a great purpose when personalized to serve customers’ needs. When designed and implemented correctly, an IVR system can improve customer experience by 20-30%. Here are a few areas IVR systems can help improve customer experience.
Reduce or Eliminate Hold Times
Consumers no longer want to wait on hold. Immediate gratification is more than desired; it’s expected. IVR systems allow callers to get the services they need without waiting for the next available customer service agent. Deflecting callers with routine queries, like account balances, making payments, service outages, and others get the caller to a rapid solution without any hold time.
Personalized Call Routing
With today’s IVR technology, caller information is just a millisecond away. By utilizing an IVR system to lookup caller information, calls can be instantly personalized. For example, if a caller is responding to a campaign for a home equity line of credit, the IVR can gather customer information, then route the call to a local loan officer.
24x7x365 Customer Service
People are on the go more than ever. So, when they have time to pay a bill, check on account balances, or find a location, it’s often in off-hours. An IVR system can serve as a customer service channel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. Need to find the closest retail store to exchange a malfunctioned Christmas toy on Christmas Eve for your child? An IVR solution with a store locator capability can help.
Consistent Customer Experience
Chick Fila does a great job of training their staff with “my pleasure” and “have a blessed day.” However, it’s hard for most people to program this language into their DNA with 100% accuracy (even for Chick Fila). With IVR automation, you can achieve 100% accuracy with the verbiage you want your customers to hear consistently.
Personalized Incentives
An overlooked portion of the customer journey is the customer growth portion. Customers buy from you for a reason. Don’t be afraid to extend offers to them during calls. Make sure you personalize them and limit the frequency. For example, if you want to make a caller aware of an opportunity to extend their credit line (great offer by the way), offer it no more than once per month. Offering an incentive too often turns people off and can create a worse customer experience.
For more information on IVR systems and how to improve customer experience, visit IVR Technology Group and download our Automation Game Plan eBook or connect with us socially on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.