What is IVR and 6 Benefits of Using One In Your Call Center

We are all familiar with that lovely voice telling us to “Press 1 for Sales”, but many managers, entrepreneurs and CEOs don’t understand the value that this simple tool will bring to their company. In this blog, we explain what IVR software is and how it can benefit your contact center customer experience.

What is IVR?

Interactive Voice Response is a telephony menu system that enables the dial pad for identification, segmentation and routing of callers to the most appropriate agent within your team. It is a simple and effective and will significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency within any company.

Functionalities of an IVR System

Configure a personalized IVR message and prompts

IVRs allow you to record customized greetings, messages and prompts so that when your customers call your company, they will have a more personalized experience. “Press 1 for Sales” taken to a whole new level.

Use pre-recorded IVR messages

If you prefer to not use your own voice on the IVR, you can use pre-recorded IVR messages. Professionalism made easy.

Collect information about your callers

IVRs collect information about your customer’s needs and will transfer calls to the most appropriate agent or department depending on their IVR input. When calls are directed to agents using technology, the probability that the caller will be transferred to the wrong agent or department will be significantly reduced.

Automate customer support

IVR systems allow your customers to solve their own problems and obtain the information they are searching for without speaking with an agent. Automated customer service made simple.

Prioritize calls based on value

IVRs allow you to prioritize calls based on the caller’s value. When a high-value customer calls, the IVR will route them to the agent who is most qualified to meet their needs. If all of your agents are busy, they will be directed to the front of the waiting queue. Your team will never lose a high-value customer due to poor customer service or a slow answer time.

Route the caller to the right agent or department

IVRs will route your callers to the most appropriate department or the agent that is most qualified to meet their needs.

Thrive with high call volumes

IVR systems allow companies to easily handle high call volumes. Callers will automatically be directed to the agent or department that is most capable of meeting their needs or will wait in a queue when all agents are busy. Some IVR systems allow the caller the option of having an agent return their call rather than wait in a queue.

Improve your company’s image

Startups and smaller companies can use IVRs to make it appear that their company is larger than it actually is. If you only have a few people in your company, you can configure IVR prompts that allow callers to talk to sales, support, marketing or technical support, etc. Regardless of what department the caller choses, they will be routed to the person on your team assigned to answer all of the calls. With an IVR your customers will be impressed with your company’s professionalism.

A Typical IVR Scenario

In a typical scenario of a company that uses an IVR, a caller is first greeted by the IVR. After the greeting they are asked to choose from a series of prompts (e.g. “Press 1 for Sales”). Based on the button they pressed, the caller is routed to the most appropriate agent or department. If all agents are busy when the caller contacts the company, the caller will wait in a queue.

Benefits of using an IVR system

Here is a list of a few benefits of using an IVR:

• Increase first contact resolution
  IVR significantly increases first contact resolution because callers are always directed to the agent who is most capable of meeting their needs or the most appropriate department. The agent who receives the call will be more qualified to answer the caller’s question and will be less likely to transfer the call to another agent.

• Increase customer service efficiency 
  Agents who work in a company that uses an IVR are more proficient at solving specific problems and meeting specific needs of the customers that they are assigned. The result is an increase in customer service efficiency.

• Increase agent and company efficiency
  Agents who work in a company with an IVR are more skilled at addressing specific issues, are less likely to consult with colleagues or a manager and are also less likely to transfer the call to another agent. This results in a significant increase in agent and company efficiency.

• Reduce operational costs 
  IVR systems will replace a receptionist or a customer service agent who answers calls and directs calls to agents. They are also very affordable, will increase efficiency and will reduce operational costs, so the ROI is huge.

• Increase professionalism 
  You can use an IVR system to greet your customers in a very professional manner and to make it appear that you have more departments and employees than you actually have.

• Increase customer satisfaction
  When your IVR is easy to use and reliable, customers will never be routed to the wrong department, or to an agent who cannot solve their problems.

Learn more in our IVR Ebook

In our Ebook, How To Optimize Your IVR Configuration, we share how you can use IVR to:

• Enrich, extract and filter data to instantly identify and route callers to both the channel and agent with the highest likelihood to achieve first-call resolution
• Improve your routing strategies with the automated application of data insights
• Enable users to create call flows simply and without any coding expertise