Interactive Voice Response (IVR
) systems have come under criticism for being too complex and poorly designed, thus defeating the purpose for which they’re intended. But a “personalized” approach to IVR can overcome the previous notions on IVR, according to Angel.Com vice president of client service Steve Brown.
“There is the perception that people are frustrated with IVR, which is historically true,” said Brown in an interview with TMCnet. “Most systems make it difficult to create these applications, which can push user-friendliness to the back burner.”
Brown traces the stigma surrounding IVRs to the approach companies have used to create them—namely, using a corporate IT department.
“Many months and hundreds of thousands of dollars are poured into buying hardware and integrating it into the back-end IT system,” Brown said. Designing around the user experience is only an afterthought. Turning the user experience on its head makes it difficult to deploy applications.”
What results, according to Brown, is too often a cold, impersonal IVR system that frustrates users and paints a poor image of the company deploying it.
“Traditionally, these applications don’t take into account data about the call flow to tailor to the app,” Brown said. “We need to get data from the user, to shorten the call duration, and save the business money. This is only possible when emphasis is on the caller experience.”
All too often, IVR systems using traditional approaches create an impersonal call flow in which callers simply press buttons to get routed to the department or person they think will answer their questions, according to Brown. But instead of making callers simply wait on hold, a personalized IVR system would try to gather information on what users are calling about. This would help route the caller to the department or person that can best answer his or her question, saving call time and aggravation for both the company and their customers.
A hosted IVR solution from Angel.com would not only enable the user to deploy a personalized IVR system for his or her business, it would require no costly investment, according to Brown.
“Because the IVR solution decisions are not based on IT, the focus can be on optimizing the caller experience,” Brown said.
One distinguishing feature of Angel.com’s hosted IVR solution is the fact the user can easily formulate the design of the solution through a point-and-click tool that leverages the knowledge a call center or business has of their caller’s common questions and likely responses.
“Call center managers have a good feel for why callers are calling—and what the answers are. Using the popular 80/20 rule, most managers will find that 80% of inquires can be handled with automation,” Brown said.
What’s more, Angel.com’s hosted solution can be used by businesses of almost any size, giving even the small business a professional-sounding IVR system. The solution offers templates applicable to both large and small businesses.
Brown noted that Angel.com’s hosted IVR system is suited for applications not normally thought of as candidates for IVR usage. This includes service businesses where field technicians need to check in to get messages and report on location and even cultural institutions where audio tour content is loaded into an IVR solution.
In short, Angel.com’s hosted IVR solution can give many businesses a cost-efficient, personalized approach to IVR with none of the technology’s misconceptions.
Brian Solomon is a Web Editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To see more of his articles, please visit Brian Solomon’s columnist page.
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Interactive Voice Response (IVR) | X |
| A hardware- or software-based computer system that enables incoming callers to interact with voice prompts or verbal commands....more |
Internet Protocol (IP) | X |
| IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more |
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