Interactive Voice Response

What is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?

If you’ve ever called up an organization and had an automated voice walk you through your menu options, you’ve interacted with an Interactive Voice Response system or IVR. IVR is a touchpad or voice-activated input system that routes calls and empowers customers to take a “self-service” approach when interacting with your organization.

Here’s what to know about IVR and how it can help your business.

What to Know about IVR

IVR puts callers in the driver’s seat, allowing them to identify their needs and take action toward solving an issue by responding to specific menu prompts. IVR can also be used as a way to inform customers about organizational updates or changes or even to share information, such as whether a call is being recorded.

While IVR began as a simple “routing” tool, today, it can be used for many administrative tasks such as checking balances, transferring funds, changing account information, or looking up product information. IVR technology can also be connected with a variety of third-party services, expanding your options around serving your customers. And with natural language processing reaching new heights, you can also integrate voice recognition technology into your IVR for a more natural, conversational experience.

How IVR Can Improve the Customer Experience

There are numerous benefits to integrating IVR into your customer contact experience. They include:

  • Efficient routing. Callers can identify the best path of action and elect to be put in a relevant call queue – reducing wait times and agent load. IVR is also associated with much lower human error, meaning any routing issues typically have to do with the caller, not your own staff.
  • Self-service options. Customers can easily perform simple tasks without needing to interact with an agent, allowing them to take control of the interaction. This makes performing basic tasks seamless, resulting in improved customer sentiment. Additionally, your agents will be freed up to focus on higher-level tasks.
  • Highly personalized. IVR is highly customizable, allowing you to deliver a personalized experience to your customers – and adapt and adjust as your needs change. By integrating IVR with a customer contact database, you can offer additional personalization, such as the use of a customer’s name or recognition of key personal data.
  • More professional. An IVR is associated with large, professional organizations and can help you project an air of efficiency and professionalism. But today’s cloud-based solutions, such as ACD Direct’s platform, are no longer out of the reach of smaller organizations. You’ll get an enterprise-level experience at an affordable entry point.
  • Always on. Get work done outside the 9-5. An IVR can handle calls at any hour of the day, allowing customers to handle basic tasks and queries even if your team is offline. For more complex or time-critical tasks, you can program your system to request customers to call back during working hours or route them to an on-demand agent through ACD Direct’s agent pool.

Talk to ACD Direct About Your IVR Options

IVR can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. At ACD, we offer an all-in-one integrated customer contact platform featuring customizable IVR so that you can achieve maximum efficiency while retaining full control over the customer experience. We also work with companies and organizations to “connect” our cloud-based solution to your existing infrastructure. If you’re ready to streamline your customer contact solution – and improve your overall customer experience – talk to ACD Direct today.

 

 

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