IVR (Interactive Voice response) – three letters with emotional impact

Most people are familiar with the seemingly unending menus enabling companies to direct customers to the right division or employee. However, for whom are these systems valuable? The customers or the companies?

The systems may often be an object of hatred and frustration, but with a little thought you can configure an IVR quite eloquently – you might even make your customers happy!

PEBKAC Error?

IVR systems – like any other electronic system – are not inherently prone to errors or possess a special kind of evil. If the systems aren’t working, as they should, attention should be paid to the designers of the system. There is no doubt that for some companies IVR systems have a great potential – you just have to put the right information in the “box”.

A little advice

First of all, ask yourself: for whom is the IVR system designed? And who is supposed to benefit from the system? Then, make sure you follow a few fundamental principles for designing the system. You don’t want your customers to hang up because they get confused by the many options, or by options not fitting the request, or simply out of fear of getting in contact with a “robot” that can’t transfer them to a “real” employee.

No two companies are alike

Nonetheless, I’ve tried to draw up 10 points as a guideline for good IVR design:

- Don’t believe you can transfer calls to all employees – this will result in an endless voice menu structure

- Pick out the areas or divisions that receive the most calls

- Use the language of the customers – not your own internal jargon

- Limit the voice menu to just three options – and never more than five (telling the exact number of options often has a positive effect on customers)

- Limit the depth of the voice menu (“You just pressed 4 – you now have the following five options…”)

- Make it possible for the customer to press any given option at any given time – even before the voice has motioned the option

- Explain the option before announcing it (“To hear our opening hours, press 2”)

- Use the same friendly voice throughout the system

- If you ask the customer to dial his or her shoe-, phone-, or social security number – USE it!

- Make sure at any given time the customer has the option to speak to a person

Other possibilities

You’re probably already somewhat familiar with IVR systems equipped with automatic speech recognition (ASR). It goes without saying: You don’t get an ASR system for free and the configuring and calibration of an ASR is far more complicated than an “ordinary” IVR. My last but one bullet point above refers to companies with so called computer telephony integration (CTI). With a CTI system all relevant information about the customer automatically shows up on the employee’s screen, even before the call is delivered to him. This has – at least for the author of this blog – a very positive impact and often makes the company appear professional – provided the system is updated and calibrated!

For whom are the systems designed?

The above is an expression of my personal beliefs. However, practical experience from companies using IVR systems show that up to 15% of all customers hearing an IVR menu hang up the phone. Our investigations show that customers have different reasons for hanging up, but summarized the results indicate that companies often “forget” about the customers when the IVR system is designed. I therefore claim that most IVR systems are for the sake of the companies and not the customers.

By Søren Lybye, CEO, Telemind.