When we think of interactive voice response (IVR) solutions, we largely think of call routing. It’s a way to save money and manpower by ensuring that incoming calls are directed to the right departments, eliminating the need for humans to pick up and quality calls, routing them to the best possible resource to meet their needs.
Most companies use some type of IVR. While once upon a time the technology was available to only the largest of companies –or those willing to maintain a cumbersome box that was tricky to set up and maintain – cloud-based solutions have taken the IVR and flipped it around 180 degrees, providing easy-to-use Web-based solutions that can be built and changed by people with no particular tech skills.
IVR systems are popular for many reasons. They are an important self-service interaction because they give customers more freedom to interact the way they prefer, wrote TMCnet’s Susan Campbell in a recent article. IVR in the call center is gaining more attention as it not only improves customer service, but can reduce cost per call by 12 times that of the traditional live-agent call center model.
But we often forget that IVR technology can be used for more than simply routing calls. Outbound IVR technology has a number of uses, as well. It can confirm appointments, call customers or patients with reminders, inform buyers that their orders are ready or gather opinions.
While surveying customers is one of the most helpful things companies can do to better understand their products, services and customer relationships, many companies still skip this important step. One reason is that they may not be able to afford the traditional services of third-party quality and survey providers.
This is where the IVR becomes more than a simple call routing tool. Using an IVR for surveying is an excellent option, particularly for smaller companies, and it can offer fast results. It’s also readily available and mobile to meet the modern “need it now generation,” and the questions can be set to achieve precisely what businesses want to know, balanced with what the respondents want to say, according to a recent blog on Newsmaker, an Australian News Syndication service.
Thanks to cloud-based IVR solutions, more companies today are extending their messaging service to include an IVR survey portal designed to meet the needs of customer-facing companies by incorporating a range of question formats that can collect the precise data that companies need to improve operations and customer service.
IVR surveying can be both inbound (often, consumers are asked to run through a short survey after they complete a transaction with a call center they called for help), or outbound, when used in conjunction with a dialer. Not only can IVR surveys be easily designed to collect data from closed-ended questions (yes or no questions, for example), it’s also possible to allow participants to contribute responses to open ended questions by recording their vocal responses.
There are few technologies more important to a customer-facing business than the IVR. But by using it for call routing only, companies may be missing out on opportunities to maximize the value of this critical technology.
Edited by Rich Steeves