A pleasant pre-recorded interactive voice response is probably the first interaction your business might make with your customers. But did you know that these IVRs could be the determinant of your relationship with your customer? Often, IVR systems are deemed unpopular with consumers due to their lack of consumer-friendly prompts and delays in placing calls with customer service executives. However, their numerous benefits outweigh their shortcomings. If you are looking forward to engaging an IVR service provider for your business, ensure that they make a concentrated effort to make your communication system simple and less annoying.
Apart from initiating interactions with customers, IVRs are also helpful assistants that guide customers through step-by-step solutions. As a service provider, it is your responsibility to ensure that your IVR system makes it easier for your customers to navigate through the options. It should also deliver messages clearly without delaying responses.
If you want your IVR system to deliver effective performance, listen from India's leading Unified Communication provider, Pulse Unified Communication Service providers. Here, they share six characteristics of IVR that can ensure automatic, seamless, and enjoyable customer service.
IVR solutions aims to guide and assist customers through the exclusive services offered by a business. An efficient IVR is expected to make the interactions and the workflows simple. Along with providing these basic needs, it would be great if the IVR service providers could highlight the brand image of the business they promote.
While choosing an IVR service provider, you must ensure that they have features such as automated responses after office hours, voice recording systems, or holidays services, which can enhance your service's outreach. The choice of your service provider is also vital since an IVR with poor design can wreck your business.
Imagine a scenario where a customer calls your IVR to register a complaint, and your IVR routes the call to sales and promotions. Not only can this harm your reputation with your customers, but it can also degrade your brand image. There are even instances where IVR prompts collect all primary information before routing the call to the executives who might need that information again. Repeated prompts can drain your customers and cause them to stop using your service.
Hence, it is very important to understand the technical aspects of your IVR services. You should ensure that the IVR routes the calls correctly and that the software is programmed efficiently without redundant prompts or instruction broadcasts. Providing convenience should be your primary motto, and you should ensure that your services do not tire out your valuable customers.
With AI developments at their best, IVR services are also treading new paths. Speech recognition is a feature that creates a personalized IVR experience. The voice recognition feature in the IVR solutions simplifies the process of identifying issues and providing solutions. It also lessens the time delay resulting from incorrect routing and poor issue identification.
Voice recognition is considered an important aspect that impacts the choice of IVR services. It would be best if you considered investing in IVRs that recognize more words.
Investing in IVR is not only about offering seamless customer guidance but also about providing personalized assistance. AI and associated technologies have made IVR systems as efficient as customer support executives. In order to provide a personalized experience to customers, an IVR should be able to capture customer information.
Too many menu options in the IVR system can make it difficult to reach the customer support executive. While a series of options can guide you to the right department, it often ends up harassing customers who might have opted for IVR for a quick resolution.
Hence, IVR options must include live interaction with support executives to facilitate faster resolution of customer issues.
Another major drawback of IVRs is the long wait the customers are subjected to while getting connected with the right forum. This delay in issue resolution can be a major turnoff for customers who might avoid using the service the next time.
Interrupting calls with promotional and marketing messages is another serious problem hampering the effectiveness of the IVR. IVR systems should be able to prioritize customer needs and resolve issues that baffle them. Ensure that these issues are carefully handled, as poor services can cause customers to switch to other providers if better service is available elsewhere.
