7 Signs You Need an IVR Service Right Now

Interactive voice response systems have now been a feature of contact centers for decades. While the technology has helped thousands of businesses manage incoming calls, some have avoided using it.

In an effort to offer a personalized experience to your clientele, you may resist automating certain features of your business, including your communications. However, you could be missing out on key benefits and opportunities for you and your customers.

Key Takeaways:

• You should get an IVR service if you want to save money on operations and improve your customer analytics. 
• An IVR system also helps you improve the customer experience and makes your team more productive. 
• IVR software can even make your company appear more professional.

7 Signs It’s Time To Set Up an IVR Service

You could probably find many more reasons to use an IVR service, but these are seven of the top ones.

1. You’re Looking for Ways To Decrease Operational Costs

An IVR service means you don’t need to hire receptionists. This expense can really add up if you need to accept and forward calls 24/7 because you have customers worldwide. 

In contrast, your IVR system is often a standard feature of your contact center as a service software. Also, user-friendly dashboards make programming your IVR setup easier than ever, so you don’t need to hire a programmer or technician.

2. Your Team Needs Better Customer Analytics

Data has become one of the most valuable commodities for a business. In fact, The Economist famously stated that data is now worth more than oil. 

The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve them. An IVR service is an effective tool for collecting analytics that enlightens you about your customers as a whole and gives you more granular insights about individuals. 

For example, you’ll track customer satisfaction and abandonment rates automatically. You can also create IVR surveys that allow your callers to give you direct feedback. With this information, you can improve your operations and provide more value to your clients.

3. You’d Like To Offer Self-Service To Ensure Privacy During Calls

Data privacy and security is a concern for everyone. Customers need the confidence that they can either provide or receive sensitive information without anyone else hearing it. An IVR service does this by allowing callers to enter PINs and passwords manually or hear confidential details from an automated system.

For example, financial institutions can share account details using IVR and an automated attendant. Likewise, patients can receive test results from a health care facility without the embarrassment of discussing the matter with someone. This option can make customers more willing to interact with your services and subtly build brand loyalty.

However, people often claim that they don’t want to talk to a machine. It’s more likely that they simply don’t want to use automation that is clunky and takes longer to process queries. 

Studies show that customers appreciate seamless self-service options that don’t involve constantly repeating themselves or going to the wrong person for help. When you set up an IVR service with a practical menu tree, customers can access information and resolve issues on their own while spending less time on the phone. 

4. You’re Trying To Boost Agent Efficiency and Engagement

When you use an IVR service to automate the routine tasks of call forwarding and prioritization, you allow your agents to focus on more complex customer issues. For starters, your IVR system can gather important details about the caller and share them with agents before they answer calls. 

As an example of this, a caller can supply details about who they are and the challenges they’re facing before speaking to a human agent. The agent can then prepare for the conversation and have potential solutions in mind for a higher first-contact resolution rate. 

An additional benefit of boosting efficiency is increased employee engagement. Focusing on higher-level tasks can give your agents a greater sense of accomplishment. It also permits more upskilling and cross-skilling for stronger contact center teams with higher retention rates and lower hiring costs.

5. You Want To Prioritize Your Best Customers

An IVR service works alongside automatic call distribution to get customers to an agent quickly. However, you can also assign rules to the system to move your VIP clients to the top of the queue. 

When you integrate your customer relationship management software with your contact center, your agents can promptly access those customers’ details to offer a warm greeting and premium service. The extra attention helps you retain these valuable customers and presents additional upselling opportunities. 

6. You Need To Reduce Errors

As much as you and your team hate transfer errors, your customers probably hate them even more. The frustration could send those callers running to your competitors. An IVR service reduces the odds of a caller ending up with the wrong person or, even worse, staying on hold indefinitely.

7. You Desire a More Professional Appearance

An IVR service actually makes your company look more professional because you can be more responsive and pick up calls at all hours. Unlike the robotic answering services of years ago, you can personally record the messages or hire a professional voice actor to do so. Even text-to-speech technology is more pleasing and natural than in the past. 

Furthermore, IVR services are now using natural language processing to have more conversational interactions with callers. Customers don’t have to limit themselves to a few core words or phrases for the system to understand them. They can simply speak naturally to the system to handle queries.

Intermedia’s IVR Service Makes It Easy To Get Started

Are you ready to use a top-rated communications platform with an excellent IVR service? Discover why Intermedia Contact Center has everything you need. 

Rob Oscanyan

Robert Oscanyan is a Senior Director of Product Marketing at Intermedia, where he focuses on helping businesses improve their customer experience using Intermedia's award-winning cloud communications solutions. Rob has over a decade of experience spanning market research, messaging, and elevating the voice of the customer. In his free time, he constantly creating new adventures with his wife, seven kids, and a small army of pets.