Customer service is critical to a thriving company. Therefore, investing in the right customer care tools can lead to more revenue, higher conversions, and cheaper customer retention.
One popular tool for supporting customers is the interactive voice response system. How can IVR solutions support your efforts to improve customer service?
Briefly review how IVR works, its primary benefits, and where you can find the best IVR solutions for your company.
Key Takeaways:
- IVR solutions are automated software that accepts and routes an organization’s calls.
- IVR improves customer service by offering 24/7 availability and speeding up support resolution times with advanced routing.
- IVR saves businesses money, boosts productivity, and is easy to set up with the right provider.
- The top features of IVR include simple drag-and-drop menu creation, CRM integration, call information, multilingual support, and more.
What Are IVR Solutions?
IVR is an automated system that accepts calls, interacts with callers, and gathers information. The system allows the caller to quickly complete self-service transactions. If a situation is more complex, IVR routes callers to an appropriate agent for additional assistance.
“IVR solutions” can refer to IVR software from a contact center provider. The phrase can also mean the specific features of a particular software. You can discover the best of both here.
How Do IVR Software Solutions Work?
IVR software is a virtual assistant that allows you to offer round-the-clock support to your customers. Callers have the option to enter responses with their phone touchpad or to speak a response to the system.
In the past, companies had to set up extensive onsite communications equipment and servers to use IVR. Now, your business can access IVR solutions as a feature of a hosted contact center.
How Does IVR Solve Common Customer Service Issues?
When you use IVR solutions, you can vastly improve the customer experience. Quick responses are more important than ever to busy customers. Long wait times can lead to caller complaints and loss of business.
An IVR system doesn’t allow the phone to ring endlessly. The caller gets a quick answer any time of day, something you likely won’t be able to provide if you only use human attendants and operators.
The caller starts by submitting information that will be useful to the eventual agent. If the query is something simple, such as verifying account information or making a payment, the automated system can handle it without involving a person.
Also, an IVR that connects to customer relationship management software can help the system quickly classify a caller and match the person to a suitable agent.
What Are Other Benefits of IVR Solutions?
IVR solutions bring many other advantages to your business.
Cost Savings
While you have to make a modest initial investment to acquire an IVR system, the system eventually pays for itself.
With an automated system, you don’t need to pay an employee as a receptionist to do the same job. The system’s efficiency brings down your cost per call significantly.
You may even be able to reduce the number of agents you need on hand because the system processes simple requests. Plus, when your customer service improves, you’ll issue fewer refunds to irate callers and improve your customer retention rates.
Higher Productivity
Since your IVR solutions collect a substantial portion of critical data from callers, you can avoid human error in data entry. The caller can input and verify details that a receptionist or agent might miskey.
You also minimize the number of calls going to the wrong agent, saving you time and money. Your system’s administrative features allow you to quickly identify and correct any issues with your IVR menu.
How Do You Set Up an IVR Solution?
Setting up IVR solutions is easier than ever. First, you need to subscribe to a contact center as a service if you don’t already have one. Your provider should have seamless onboarding and migration at no additional charge.
Since hosted contact centers keep all the necessary equipment and hardware offline, you can run everything through devices you already own. Use the provided application to create your menu, and you’re on your way!
What Are the Top Features of the Best IVR Solutions?
You can only boost your customer service, productivity, and savings if your IVR solutions contain the right features, such as the ones below:
- Easy drag-and-drop interfaces to create your IVR menu
- Multilingual support that allows you to set up one call flow for multiple languages
- Private data collection for secure payments
- CRM integration to supply agents with vital customer data from the IVR
- Outbound notifications for callbacks to customers at their preferred time
With these features, your IVR system helps you give the best service to your customers around the clock.
Which Companies Have the Top IVR Solutions?
You can find workable IVR solutions from popular providers. Below is a list of the top five in the industry now.
- Intermedia Contact Center: The best all-around solution for IVR, with award-winning support and easy setup
- Five9: A possible option for small and mid-sized businesses with some reviews mentioning difficult setup and trouble with connections
- RingCentral: A major name in the industry with a large reach that various reviewers describe as having some challenges with usability, scalability, and support
- Dialpad: Another well-known company with a standard solution that lacks the customizability of other products
- Ringba: A good platform for analytics of pay-per-call campaigns but lacking full unified communications features
Intermedia outdoes the competition, particularly due to its customer support and robust set of features. Fortunately, you can test how well the product works for your organization with a 30-day trial.
Ready To Set Up IVR Solutions?
You can get the best IVR solutions through Intermedia Contact Center. Talk to the Intermedia team to learn about plans and pricing and find the right package for you.
Mariel Santos
Mariel Santos is the Director of Marketing Communications at Intermedia
May 16, 2023
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