Evaluate your IVR by asking these 4 questions

Customers develop a perception of your brand based on their experience with your IVR. 

Your IVR is one of the many faces of your brand and a significant component of your customer experience. However, many companies neglect to keep tabs on how their system is operating. That’s really not surprising. After all, how often do you call and engage with your own IVR system for customer service functions? Probably never.

 

Your customers, however, are calling into your IVR all the time — and what you don’t know can definitely hurt you. We’ve all heard the stat that an estimated 50% of individuals have switched providers due to poor customer service, and of those, nearly two-thirds have switched more than once. Those numbers reinforce two points:

 

1) Customer experience is imperative to your company’s success and

2) Your speech technology is vital to the success of your customer experience.

 

So, how do you know if your IVR is providing the level of service your customers need? And how do you determine when or if you should update your existing application or upgrade to something new? Here are four areas to consider.

 

1. How old is your existing hardware? If your company relies on outdated technology to manage your inbound and outbound calls or it’s frustrating for your internal team to manage due to constant malfunctions  that’s indicative of hardware that is lagging behind. 
2. How is your IVR application performing? Your system should be swift, modern, intuitive, and easy for your team to manage. For example, your speech solution should operate smoothly, be able to accurately understand the intent of your callers and efficiently assist in resolving inquiries.
3. Are your calls dropping, your customers opting out of self-service and complaints rising? If your customers break containment and zero out of your system repeatedly, or your calls are constantly being dropped, that usually means that there are flaws within your system that require a tune-up. Other indicators your system needs attention:

• • Complaints from customers about their wait time, menu navigation, or ability to communicate with the automated system
  • Challenges with the system, such as improperly routed calls, hang-ups before connection or low call volume
  • Agents encountering a high number of frustrated customers after they’ve been routed through the system
  • An unexplained loss of customers

4. Are your agents spending a lot of time answering the same questions? Two ways to uncover this are to listen to the calls, or better yet, talk to a few of your most experienced agents. Ask about the top reason callers are contacting you and what 10 tasks they would like the IVR to handle. Agents can provide great insight into how to best improve customer satisfaction.
   
   

 

While many IVRs can be optimized with a tune-up, there will be occasions where it’s simply better to replace it. If after evaluating the four areas above you’re still unsure which path is right for you, contacting an IVR specialist for an evaluation and IVR assessment is a helpful next step.

If you’re thinking about upgrading your IVR and are curious about the true advantages of conversational AI, talk to us today and learn how brands are utilizing AI to increase CSAT and lower their service costs.