Is your business inundated with calls day in, day out? The overwhelming volume inevitably leads to your agents being swamped and frustrated customers facing long waiting times. An interactive voice response (IVR) system could be the answer.
62% of best-in-class companies use IVR platforms to deliver great customer service (Aberdeen Group). Here’s 5 ways a business IVR can work for you:
1. Quick and easy
82% of customers say fast service is the number one factor to a great customer experience (LivePerson). When customers engage with your IVR they can either solve their own issues or connect to an agent making the process much simpler. Also by connecting with the right department the first time around it reduces call times, freeing up your agents to have quality conversations with more customers.
2. In your customers’ hands
In the last five years the number of consumers that prefer automated self service has doubled to 55% (Convergys). With this in mind giving your customers an option to self serve is crucial to keeping them happy. An IVR gives the best of both worlds – they have the freedom to solve their own problems, but have the reassurance that they can connect with an agent.
3. Reduce costs, improve efficiency
An effective IVR platform will help you to automate certain engagements so your customers don’t need to be on the phone with an agent to make a payment, receive balance updates or make a request. This ultimately means less calls into your contact centre helping to ease queues and save costs.
4. Never turn off
You don’t need to have someone constantly manning the phone to make sure you never miss a call. An IVR is 24/7 so customers will have options to self serve or can even leave a voice message out of business hours.
5. It’s the future
Get ahead of the game – by 2020 customers will manage 85% of their relationship with organisations without interacting with a human (Gartner). An interactive voice response service feels personal but doesn’t require interaction with an agent, unless they choose to.
To break the cycle of inefficiency once and for all implement an IVR to see your costs reduced, more efficient processes and most importantly happier customers!
