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Can Jacada Mobile Agent Eliminate the Frustration of IVR Service Providers?

By Mini Swamy, TMCnet Contributor

IVR service may seem like a boon to call centers but for the customer, more often than not, it is a pain in the neck and there won't be a great number of dissenters for that one! Jacada (News - Alert) Mobile Agent is trying to eliminate the frustration of the IVR process and reduce it to a form that is acceptable to users.

Patent pending Jacada Mobile Agent, which is in beta availability, is reportedly a new mobile product offering that is directed at improving customer service by simplifying the interaction between businesses and their customers. By leveraging its agile and feature-rich platform, it aims to bridge the gap between self-service and traditional customer service contact channels, allowing business users to reduce service costs and also create mobile customer interactions.

In an IVR system, customers have to provide all the personal details many times over before their question gets attention and then if it is too complex, the IVR just cannot handle it.

Gideon Hollander, CEO at Jacada noted that traditional self-service only works if the problem is easy, but once customer problems become complicated, the user experience breaks down. He further observed that one of the top sources of customer frustration when calling customer care is the IVR, which has become synonymous with poor customer service because it isn't designed to handle complex customer questions

This is where Jacada Mobile Agent promises to be different as it reduces inbound call volume by enabling business users to connect to a live agent, whenever they want to without having to repeat all those details that the IVR system constantly asks for. So, what starts off as a self-service interaction, ends up as a conversation with a live agent.

Richard Snow, vice president and research director at Ventana Research noted that while designing mobile self -service apps, the customer must always be kept in mind and the Jacada Mobile Agent was an example of an app that could well become popular with consumers and organizations.

Jacada Mobile Agent claims to transform customer service strategy by bridging the gap between IVR and self-service by successfully servicing the customer anywhere, anytime in a cost-effective way. It is collaborating with major customers worldwide and expects to be made generally available in the third quarter of 2012.