The Power of IVR: Why Your Contact Center Needs a Smart IVR System?

I remember reading this piece on Dilbert many years ago.

Receptionist: How may I disconnect you?

Caller: What options do I have?

Receptionist: The options are:

• You would be put on hold endlessly till you disconnect
• You will be transferred from one extension to another till you disconnect
• We would play lobby music till you disconnect

Caller: I would go with option C.

You get the drift right. Metaphorically, most call centers function this way even today.

In the recent past, I had to wait anywhere between 12 and 35 minutes to reach an agent across verticals for various reasons. That is the amount of time it takes to reach an agent.

Besides these, when you have to move through an IVR (Interactive Voice Response), it throws up confusing menu options.

These can be really frustrating for customers.

What if you are greeted by an intuitive system that quickly understands your needs and directs you to the most appropriate agent to resolve your queries instantly?

That is the power of a well-designed Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

IVR isn’t about just pressing buttons, but it is about efficiency, cost savings, and customer satisfaction.

Studies show that self-service options like IVR can reduce call handling time by up to 40% and increase first-call resolution rates by 25%.

Let us take a moment to define an IVR system.

What Is an IVR System?

IVR system is an automated phone system that interacts with callers, gathers information, and directs calls to the appropriate department or agent.

For example, when you call your bank’s customer service, the IVR says:

• Press ‘1’ for information about your bank account
• Press ‘2’ for information about your credit cards
• Press ‘3’ for account balance
• Press ‘4’ for loan inquiries
• Press ‘5’ to speak to a representative

Based on your selection, the system routes you to the right service without needing a live agent.

A well-designed IVR eliminates unnecessary hold times, reduces agent workload, and enhances customer experience.

How Does an IVR Work?

It is more like a virtual receptionist, and this is how it typically works.

• The caller dials in, and the IVR system after greeting the caller, provides a menu of options.
• The caller responds using voice commands or keypad selection
• Based on the input, the IVR intelligently routes the call to a live agent and handles it automatically with pre-programmed logic
• Advanced IVRs can pull data from CRMs or databases to provide personalized responses.

Look at this example.

You call your airline. The IVR is able to recognize you from your number, and it responds thus. Hi Vikram, your flight to New Delhi is on time. Would you like to check in now?

This would make it really easy for customers to interact and get their queries resolved quickly.

Despite the many advantages that IVR systems offer, many contact centers still struggle with outdated, clunky IVR setups.

What Does a Clunky IVR Setup Look Like?

While IVRS is meant to streamline customer interactions, many businesses implement overly complex, outdated, or poorly designed IVR systems that cause more frustration than convenience.

What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

1. Too many menu layers

If customers have to go through five levels of menus before speaking to someone, they’ll most likely hang up.

2. Robotic or confusing prompts

A cold, monotone voice or unclear options can make navigation frustrating.

3. Lack of a human option

How often have IVRs trapped you in an endless loop with no way to reach a real person? Would you believe that I googled for hacks to reach a human agent with my mobile service provider?

4. No context awareness

A system that does not recognize returning customers or previous interactions wastes time.

Let me give you an example.

I recently called my Internet Service Provider to report an outage issue. The IVR forced me through a seven-layer menu, asked for my 16-digit account number twice, and still did not provide me an option to reach a human agent.

That’s a frustrating experience. That was the day I started looking for an alternate service provider.

A clunky IVR like this hurts your brand reputation irreversibly.

Why IVR Is a Must for a Busy Contact Center?

IVR has numerous features that a contact center can take advantage of.

What Is the Biggest Issue for Human Agents?

Their load keeps increasing in the absence of IVRs. About 80% of the queries are routine and transactional, which a self-service system like IVR can easily handle. This would free up the agents to work on complex queries.

Immediate Resolutions

Most customers want immediate resolutions to their needs. For instance, if I need to pay a bill for one of the utility services I use, I don’t want to get connected to an agent to make the payment. I can easily access the IVR menu to make payments, and this happens in a few clicks.

How Do You Staff Your Contact Center Outside of Business Hours?

IVRs can function 24×7 without the need for you to staff your contact center extensively outside business hours. Even if the IVR system is not able to resolve your query, it can register the complaint and give you a ticket number outside business hours easily.

How About the Cost Savings?

Every IVR-handled call saves your contact center about $5 per call, reducing operational expenses significantly.

Look at this example.

A healthcare provider’s IVR lets patients schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments effectively without the need to speak to a receptionist. It saves both time and resources for the customers as well as the healthcare provider.

How Do You Improve the Functioning of an IVR?

While IVR has a number of advantages, how do you make them work in favor of customers at all times?

Here are a few pointers to ensure a better customer experience.

• Keep menus simple – stick to 3-5 options max per level and don’t have more than three levels.
• Enable Natural Language Processing (NLP) – you want your customers to provide voice commands and not just key presses. All advanced IVRs have this feature today.
• Offer call-backs – if a customer wants to speak to an agent, and all the agents are busy attending to other callers, don’t make them wait. Instead, provide them an offer to receive a call back as soon as an agent gets free.
• Ensure context-aware interactions – ensure that you link your IVR to your CRM and other best-of-breed systems to provide context and personalization.
• Option to reach an agent – always provide an easy choice for customers to reach a human agent at any time during their interaction.

Let me give you an example.

I have been a customer of my bank for the past 20 years now. I am considered one of the privileged customers of my bank. So, whenever I call, I am always connected to a live agent right after the greeting without having to go through the menu options.

How Does ClearTouch Help You with Your IVR Needs?

ClearTouch is a full-service cloud contact center solution provider with all the bells and whistles, and IVR is one of the important components of our implementations.

Here’s how we tailor our IVR to your needs:

• Drag and drop interface to create IVR workflows easily
• Enables natural voice interactions and not just key presses
• Use real-time analytics to identify IVR drop-offs and optimize in real-time
• IVR connects seamlessly with chat, email, SMS, mobile, web, and social for a truly unified customer experience
• Ability to record, store, and change scripts easily

ClearTouch has implemented IVR for thousands of customers worldwide, and we have delivered a lot of benefits to our customers, from reducing average handling time (AHT), improving first call resolution (FCR), improving customer satisfaction (CSAT) score and net promoter scores (NPS).

Think of IVR as your first impression with your customers. A smooth, intuitive IVR experience will make your customers heard, valued, respected, and efficiently served.

A poorly designed one is a sure way to frustrate your customers.

If your IVR isn’t helping your customers help themselves, then it is time to rethink your IVR strategy.

So, every time you get stuck in a frustrating IVR loop when you call any business, ask yourself this question:

Is my business doing this better?