Used across industries, virtual number services today ensure the superior customer experience. Not only can you boost customer relationship but also can reduce human involvement.
Cloud-based IVR solutions make it easier for you to interact with your customers and resolve issues in no time.
Without adding to the operational cost, IVR services help your customers to reach the most qualified agent in minutes.
In this article, you will get to know about 7 best practices followed in the IVR service industry. In addition, you will be receiving a free IVR Basics Guide.
- What is IVR?
- 7 Best Practices In Virtual Number Services
- Free IVR Basics Guide
What Is IVR?
IVR is more than technology. If you already know the basics, it will be easier for you. If not, no need to worry.
Automating various tasks, IVR helps your customer to get his or her problems resolved.
Three basic things that any IVR would do include interacting with callers, gathering information, and routing calls.
Functioning in compliance with a combination of voice input and keypad input, IVR helps you to redefine customer support.
The presence of prerecorded menus in IVR helps the customer in reaching the most qualified agent.
Here, you can read more on how the modern banking industry is leveraging the Interactive Voice Response to deal with customer issues.
7 Best Practices In Virtual Number Services
Helping you to maximize productivity, the best virtual phone number provider will help you to address challenges in the most effective manner possible.
As you look forward to implementing IVR services, you must implement these practices to be successful:
1) Support Multiple Channels
Having multi-channel support for end-users is the biggest asset you can have today. Some of the most used channels today include voice calls, text messages, emails, etc.
As customers are more focused on getting their problems solved, you have to ensure that their preferred channel is available. This is why your IVR should support multiple channels.
Your IVR should provide customers with options such as communication with live agents and self-help. Adding flexibility to the customer’s choice of communication channels will take your customer experience to the next level.
2) Easy Self-service Options
In the digital age, customers want to get their problems solved without speaking to an agent. With IVR, your customer can obtain relevant information in seconds.
Eliminating the need to talk to an agent, self-service options allow you to reduce the caller queue as well. However, you will need to ensure that you provide your customers with a maximum number of four options.
In addition, what helps you to win the customer experience game is crisp and easy-to-remember instructions.
3) Personalized Customer Experience
Today you can’t survive without offering personalized customer experience. You must have been storing customer data since the first day of business.
Your IVR should be capable enough to capture information such as name, address, and contact number.
The biggest benefit of this is that you will be able to serve your customers better in the future without asking for information. Based on the information captured, you can keep improving your offers and services.
4) Keeping The Data Secure
Today we live in an age where data security concerns us more than anything. As your IVR keeps collecting data, you must ensure that your data is secure.
Keeping data consistently secure is one of the best practices that you can ever adopt. The biggest advantage of using a cloud-based IVR system is that it can keep your data safe in compliance with data security practices.
Another benefit of this is that you get to keep a backup of your data which means you will never have to face the trouble of losing data.
5) Seamless Channel Integration
If you are looking forward to integrating IVR with your CRM and ERP systems, you should definitely work with reputed IVR service providers in India i.e. Corefactors.
With Teleduce, you will be able to look at the recent interactions while talking to your customers. This means that your customer service agents will not have to ask the same questions.
Delivering omnichannel service is also possible as you integrate your IVR with emails, texts, and chats.
6) Direct Agent Communication
Even though you should focus on self-service options, you must include an option using which your customers can directly talk to an agent.
Despite the self-service option, many customers might want to communicate directly with an agent. This is why it is imperative that your IVR service has clear instructions on how to get connected to a live agent.
Many successful companies let their customers connect with agents upon pressing 0 or #. With this feature, you get rid of all the expensive IT infrastructure needs that you will have otherwise.
7) Real-time IVR Testing
The best IVR service providers like Corefactors will let you run real-time testing with IVR. This means that you will be able to understand the precision with which the IVR tool works.
Before opting for a service, you must go for such testing for the sake of understanding if the IVR is able to meet your needs or not. Once you have reliable results, you can go for deployment.
Even if some minor glitch is found, that can be easily taken care of by the technical experts.
Free IVR Basics Guide
Using the free IVR basics guide, you will be able to familiarise yourself with possible scenarios that can be solved with IVR. In this guide, you will get to know about the following:
- Single-level and Multi-level IVR: How Do They Work?
- Why Do You Need Interactive Voice Response?
- What Are The Things That You Should Remember While Designing IVR?
Single-level and Multi-level IVR: How Do They Work?
While single-level IVR comes with one layer of options, multi-level IVR comes with many.
Businesses with a limited number of departments can use single-level IVR to serve their customers. On the other hand.
Multi-level IVR is often used by companies with greater strength and more number of departments.
Multi-level IVR can handle ‘n’ number of levels at ease.
Why Do You Need Interactive Voice Response?
With Interactive Voice Response, you will be able to handle a larger volume of inbound calls while making the process error-free. Here are 5 reasons why you need to use IVR now:
Increased Call Handling Capacity
With IVR, you can handle increased call capacity at ease. While manual receptionists can’t handle high-volume calls, they might miss calls too. IVR lets you answer all the calls and resolve customer issues in no time. With IVR, you can sell more as well. Read our extensive guide on tools that you need to succeed in sales.
Get Established As A Brand
IVR helps you to establish your brand identity. Depending on the size of your company, you will be able to greet inbound callers with a professional greeting. This Interactive Voice Response, in this way, provides you with an edge over the competition.
Error-free Process
Since there is no human involvement, IVR embraces you with a process free from errors. As it automates the routing and answering calls, it is not affected by increased flow in call volume.
Time-saving
Besides saving your dollars, IVR can help you to save money as well. While hiring professional receptionists can cost you more, using IVR comes at a lower IVR system cost.
Call Data Analysis
With Interactive Voice Response, you will get call data analytics. This helps you to get the much-needed insights into your customers and serve them better.
What Are The Things That You Should Remember While Designing IVR?
There are certain things that you should remember while designing IVR. While many continue to incorporate more than 4 menus, your IVR should never have more than 4 options.
There are best practices like these that need to be remembered and here are some of them:
Not More Than 4 Options
More than 4 options might leave your customer overwhelmed. You can categorize these options according to your business requirements, products, services, etc.
Message Before The Option
To help the customer understand the message properly, you must put the message before the keypress. For example, your IVR should ideally say, Press 1 to know more about products. The problem of saying the keypress before is that people might not remember it.
No Promotion
If a customer has called you, he or she is communicating to get some issues resolved. Please refrain from putting promotional messages as you go on to use IVR marketing. You might use it to welcome the customers but not at every point.
Minimize Waiting Time
You yourself wouldn’t like it if you were asked to be on hold for some time. And, that’s why your IVR shouldn’t put your customers in the queue.
Did you know 60% of the customer will become unhappy if you put them on hold for more than a minute? You must ensure that your IVR is transferring calls to appropriate agents and routing them in the right direction.
While you want to provide the best customer experience, your customers want to be self-sufficient. With IVR, you will be able to resolve the problems of the customers in no time.
With this guide and the best practices, you should be able to excel at meeting the expectations of your customers.
Want to get your IVR designed by our IVR solution experts? Give us a missed call at 080-67335533 to see how we can help you to master the art of customer experience.
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