Customer relationship management is everywhere these days. It’s online, it’s social, and it’s in the queues of an IVR. With all of the vast and various ways companies can keep in touch with their customers comes many vast and various ways in which they can also mess up the one relationship that matters to their business. That’s why it’s important that companies keep tabs on what they’re using and stay consistent with their customers.
It can be overwhelming, naturally. With so many channels to maintain, it seems rather daunting to tailor the customer experience, regardless of the medium, working from their perspective, notes a recent blog post by Angel on the matter.
Companies have one relationship with their customer, so that means that all of these technological tools shouldn’t be ways in which companies can seriously mess up that relationship. The key is making it work cohesively, putting the customer at the very center of all the planning.
This raises a rather interesting dilemma companies might face when using one particular tool in their customer contact methods – the IVR.
Among the more common challenges when implementing an interactive voice response system are customer acceptance, technological issues and a good script with easy-to-navigate menus.
A nightmare of endless numbered menus stands out in consumers' minds as one turnoff, especially when they’re calling for something rather simple and easy. While companies view an IVR as the magic solution to their call volume problems, not implementing it properly can be the death knell for past, present and future customer relations.
Call centers need to take the time to maximize their IVR investment and try to be the customer when navigating their own systems.
It's no question that IVR is helping businesses maintain their customer base. In addition to savings, IVR functionality eliminates the need for extraneous services while providing added time and a boost to workforce productivity.
However, like the aforementioned post says, there are many ways a business can maintain customer relationships and only one way to damage them. IVR shouldn’t be one of those ways.
IVR technology enables call and contact centers to be more productive and to provide a better service to callers. When implemented correctly, callers get through to the right agents more quickly and agents are deployed efficiently.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli