What do you do when your credit card gets stolen? If your house catches fire and is about to get burnt down to the ground? Or someone in your family is suffering from a serious medical emergency? You CALL for immediate assistance!

We don’t send an email or post a comment on social media when a situation is critical or life-altering. We expect the immediate assurance and assistance of a person who can guide us and show us how to move forward and resolve the issue.
Calling is like a life-line to all customers that are facing serious situations, hence as a business owner or a key decision-maker in your organization, you must ensure that your calling processes are seamless and that your customers experience minimal resistance while trying to connect with you.
There may be instances where matters are so trivial that connecting to a support agent to resolve an issue would equal to a major financial gaffe in the long run. Greater the time your agents spend on something petty, lesser would be the long term returns for your organization. As a shrewd business owner, then, it becomes your responsibility to focus your resources on affairs that benefit your business the most.
This is the very reason why most businesses nowadays prefer using IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) to streamline all their processes. IVRs are known to increase customer satisfaction significantly and improve ROI for all businesses by increasing First Call Resolution rate FCR and reducing Agent Handle Time (AHT).

What is IVR?

An Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) is a call center solution feature that gathers customer information by enabling customers to choose from a menu of options and effectively routing them to the most appropriate agent in minimal time. In short, an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is that pleasant voice which guides you to the right support agent when you need it the most. IVRs simplify the work of your agents and reduces the frustration of your customers.

Automate simple processes:

Some things do not need your exclusive attention. There are many such things that can be easily taken care of with the help of an IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system).
Information such as the location of a particular store, or the balance of your bank account can be easily retrieved from an IVR system, simplifying the efforts of your agents, as well as all your customers. An IVR system automates small processes so that your agents can focus on more important tasks at hand.

24/7 Assistance:

As much as we would like our agents to always be there for our customers, it isn’t very practical. There may be times when your agents are taking a break, or are on leaves. Such are the times when an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) comes in handy. An IVR system solves trivial queries of your customers so that they don’t have to wait on your agents. If there is a situation that demands the intervention of your agents, the customers are given a choice of dropping a message and notifying the necessary support agent of the required assistance. The 24/7 availability of an IVR (Interactive Voice Response), simplifies the work of your agents and ensures uninterrupted services for your customers.

Reduce overhead costs:

IVRs will help increase your ROI by many folds. Hiring a bigger staff and maintaining them can be a major task, especially if your business is growing and is at its initial phases. An IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) can automate all simple tasks and ensure that your agents have the bandwidth to handle tasks that matter the most. IVR systems can help reduce your overall investments and make your business appear more professional. Basically, it helps you save money – something that you will genuinely require during the initial phases of your venture.

Prioritize your calls:

Imagine a guy calling to ask the price of a product, without having any intention of buying it and on the other hand you are about to close a deal that will change your business for good. There are some things that are more important than others! There will be times when your call inflow would be so high that you would not be able to manage it, and your agents will get overwhelmed. At such times, focusing your resources in the right direction is crucial. An IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) helps route your high priority customers to the right agent without delay. This will help you give your valuable customers the attention that they deserve.

Route it to the right agent:

When calls are routed to the wrong agent, it can add to the frustration of both the agents and the customers. When a call is routed to the agent who does not specialize in that particular subject, it ends up pointlessly consuming their time. This distracts them from the work that they are assigned to do, and as a result, it can significantly decrease the productivity of that agent.
With the help of an IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system), your First Call Resolution (FCR) rate will increase and your Agent Handle Time (AHT) will decrease. Thus, your ROI will increase, and your customer satisfaction rating will eventually spike up.

Feedback:

Deliberately seeking feedback is a practice that every great organization follows. Continuous improvement, no matter where you stand in the game, is the only way to grow and become more successful. Receiving proper feedback can make a huge impact and improve the overall productivity of your organization. Quality feedback can help you get a fresh perspective and aid you in crucial decision-making; decisions that can determine the future of your organization.
The issue that most organizations face is that customers are reluctant to give any feedback directly to agents. An IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) can be that neutral and non-judgemental friend who listens to all the qualms of your customers and gives your business the perspective that it most needs. After the end of every call, the IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) requests customers to share their feedback about the quality of the call and the overall experience.

Improving your IVR system:

An IVR system (Interactive Voice Response) can turn out to be a blessing for your organization if designed correctly, but the problem with many organizations is that they end up designing complicated and cumbersome IVRs which end up adding to the frustration of the customers.
How would you feel if you are facing an emergency and the IVR ends up taking you for a ride?
An IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) needs to be designed intelligently to positively contribute to the organization. If an IVR system (Interactive Voice Response system) is designed smartly, customers will be directed to the right agent in minimal time, adding to the overall customer satisfaction, if designed poorly, your customers will get lost in an IVR maze – something that most customers loathe. On the agent’s point of view, if designed right, they will be able to address customer queries immediately, if not, multiple agents will lose their valuable time and this will consequently incur losses to your business.

While designing multi-level IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response system) the complications must be minimum and businesses must ensure that they do not make IVR systems that are deeper than 3 levels. This will ensure that your customers do not get lost in an IVR maze. Having hold music will help your customers to have a less frustrating experience while waiting for your agents to respond. Such small things can ensure that the ‘IVR experience’ is soothing for your customers, and subsequently more profitable for your business. The IVR system of Intalk.io has all the above features and more, to ensure that your business always has smooth and efficient operations.