Industry insider Steve Chirokas (News - Alert) recentlyoffered some idea on some different options for personalizing customer care available today:

Following are some of the more commonly deployed categories of personalization applicable for telephony-based customer care today:

Caller ID. Identifying the caller via ANI (Automatic Number Identification) lookup provides name and address information. Although basic in nature, identifying the caller via an automated confirmation dialog vs. transferring to an agent for Q&A helps to reduce handle time and needless questions. Some level of personalization is also possible, such as automated routing rules that transfer to agents located in the same geography.

Caller attributes. Other caller attributes can be assigned via integration to corporate databases. Intelligence such as identifying the caller AND the specific product they most recently purchased (without asking questions) offers the ability to immediately route the call to agents familiar with that product. Similar personalized call handling can be achieved without integration to disparate corporate systems.

Preferences or last action. Identifying the caller and then noting a specific preference (again without asking questions) adds an element of personalization. One of the most common is “remembering” that a caller would like an SMS text confirmation for the information they seek every time they call in. Another is identifying what the caller focused on in their last call, and then skipping prompts or agent questions to immediately drive toward a similar point in a customer care interaction.

Context sensitive. Modifying call handling or the presentation of an audio prompt based on what a caller is looking for can be extremely effective. For example, airline callers identified as being “on a trip” are highly likely to want to make a schedule change. An IVR system can thus prioritize this prompt sequence. Cross sell and up sell opportunities also present themselves.

Proactive notification. Many customer care organizations ignore the benefits of proactive communication simply because they are struggling to stay ahead of inbound calls. However, proactive outbound calls and alerts help to improve customer satisfaction as well as in many cases reduce inbound calls. Outbound IVR is particularly useful in automating proactive outreach. Triggers such as account activity (or non-activity) can be included within voice recognition dialogs to create an impression that the organization cares about their customers.