Yes, the benefits of using an IVR system are many; it will help you route calls to the right department, reduce the cost per transaction, improve first call resolution and make your business seem larger. But that doesn’t mean having an IVR system is enough to deliver better service to your customers. Unless you use your automated system with care, it’s quite possible you’ll end up rubbing your customers the wrong way.
In this blog we will look at some of the impediments to a great IVR system-
Overly Long Recordings
Customers call you for quick resolutions and listening to a 30 odd second pitch is the last thing they want to hear from your end. This might seem like a lengthy imposition to them and push their patience to breaking point. Hence make sure your IVR recordings are as crisp as possible to move the call along to a resolution.
Long and/or Unclear Menus
Just like the above case, long and unclear menus will do more harm than good when it comes to your contact center business. Hence follow a general rule of thumb to restrict the main menu options to as less as five or below. Also make sure that the most popular selections are listed first and include self-service options that help callers to resolve issues without the need to speak to an agent. This way you can put the brakes on the common issues of customers automatically selecting the ‘speak to the representative’ option, thereby freeing up your resources to handle more serious calls.
Options that Don’t Match Customer Needs
When an IVR script fails to prop up an option that is relevant to the customer, they often end up going through several button-mashing trips. Such top-to-bottom trips which take them nowhere can infuriate customers and propel them to completely cut ties with your business.
Keep your IVR options simple and proactively tie up these options with the most common reasons that the customers call your contact center.
Confusing, Wordy Scripts
Adding words just for the sake of adding can be helpful while writing history exams, but it is not helpful while providing customer service. This way you will just add to the level of complexity and make it difficult for customers to understand the menu options. This means that they will be forced to go through all the menu options from the beginning once again and waste precious time decoding what you are trying to convey through these options. Hence avoid this unnecessary complication by keeping your IVR script as simple and crisp as possible.
How We Can Help
We are one of the premium IVR service providers in the industry with tons of experience in serving some of the biggest companies across the world. Leveraging this experience we provide end-to-end IVR solutions that are fully customized to meet your unique needs.
