The global marketplace is constantly evolving, and while it appears that we are making our way out of the deep recession, companies still have to deal with intense competition, globalization and the volatile economic climate. As such, these companies are re-evaluating how they manage their customer interactions.
Customer expectations today are higher than ever before, yet budgets are also much tighter than they have been in the past. Companies are seeking every opportunity to improve the customer experience, while also ensuring customer satisfaction. Within this mix of higher expectations, competitive intensities and productivity demands, a company’s voice application, or IVR, has been firmly established as an important asset in determining a competitive advantage.
Companies have found that when they implement top-performing IVR applications, they tend to have more satisfied customers, lower overall costs and higher revenue per customer. Achieving these results is not a given, however. The organization must be committed to rigorously tracking and analyzing key metrics within the voice application, such as hourly call volumes, speech error rates and task completion.
An increasingly valuable strategy for data analysis is business intelligence analytics and reporting. This process allows for a deeper understanding of what is taking place within the IVR. Companies on the leading edge have found that using BI analytics to examine voice interactions from a holistic approach, which includes the experience prior to reaching an agent and the experience of callers who will self-serve, provides a true picture of the total experience. As a result, the company gains considerable visibility into the overall experience for the caller, providing a predictive indicator of both customer loyalty and total cost per call.
Too many companies today have an IVR solution in place, yet they lack the voice application data necessary to protect the customer experience. Even when standard voice application reports are in place, these will still only list the basic information on performance. What is lacking is the key information necessary to capture customers’ experiences and behaviors. It is important that the IVR is used to truly understand what is happening and how customers are being treated.
When business intelligence is integrated into your IVR platform, you can identify trends and patterns in customer behavior to better understand the impact that every interaction can have on costs, retention, profitability, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. When the enterprise creates invisible guidelines, the customer feels their experience is both personal and unique to them, driving the ultimate in customer satisfaction. This satisfaction leads to long-term loyalty and returning revenues.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Rich Steeves