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IVR Systems, an Effective Tool for Businesses if Used Correctly
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IVR Systems, an Effective Tool for Businesses if Used Correctly

 
December 27, 2013

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  By Daniel Brecht, Contributing Writer
 


A tool that can be extremely beneficial for businesses (for marketing, sales and support) is the interactive voice response (IVR) system, a fairly new phone technology that allows companies to cut costs by using pre-recorded voice automated phone systems in place of live operators to retrieve and/or provide information or else give responses to queries; the IVR option can “offload” call volume from agents, as per Gartner’s (News - Alert) explanation of IVR on its glossary webpage.


Up to now, IVR has been a means to call into a customer service line and allow a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice or dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) commands, inputted via keypad; users can select the appropriate action / response according to the digit pressed. IVR can have different uses within an organization, from automatically responding to certain customers’ inquiries to logging information from internal departments, to helping route calls to the right people and offices. It can be active 24 hours a day, allowing for a better customer experience.

An IVR system allows callers to reach the company’s host system and access menu options; normally, the caller will interact with the system via the telephone keypad. There are, however, advanced IVR systems that include speech-recognition software, which allows a caller to communicate with a computer using simple voice commands.

The IVR market will continue to grow due to its usefulness especially to SMBs. The ability to automate tasks will keep on attracting a lot of attention and investment dollars to an estimated $2.78 Billion by 2017, as per Global Industry Analysts (GIA). The IVR is seen as a cost-effective solution for making life easier for both companies and customers.

A post at destinationCRM.com, a site relevant to the CRM user marketplace, and a report from GIA, whose role is to publish off-the-shelf market research & investing information, explains some of the most common uses of IVR systems, include the following: “Delivering important notifications, providing proactive and personalized customer service [where an improved self-service model will use big data and smart analytics to develop better call workflows], and expediting collections.”

Lately, companies have been investing in hosted contact centers / SaaS (News - Alert) arrangement or managed service IVR offering solutions in helping boost productivity. In fact, it has been “the fastest, most cost-effective way for organizations to extend self-service and natural language capabilities across multiple channels,” conveyed a post by Nuance Communications (News - Alert), Inc., a company focused on intuitive ways to use one’s voice to take command of information.

IVR systems can be invaluable, but can only be effective if the right system is tailored to the use it needs to be destined to. Businesses must place particular care to choosing the right system (keypad-input based or with voice recognition) for the type of audience it needs to serve and the type of environment where users will be utilizing the tool.

Three variables that are important to consider are the environment in which users operate, mobility and safety requirements, as well as the size of the keyboard users will have available.

The first variable is obvious. Using a voice recognition system with users on the phone or, better using a headset, makes sense. In this kind of condition, accuracy can go up to 98-99 percent. But the same system, used to collect data from operative working inside a factory, would be useless as the amount of background noise would prevent a correct collection of information. In those cases, a DTMF system and a keypad to input data would be an adequate choice.

It is also important to be aware of where the users will be when needing to use the IVR system in terms of mobility and safety. In fact, if the IVR is supposed to be used by potential customers while driving or being on the road, it would make no sense to provide them with a website that they would need to memorize and use at a later time or, worse, look up on their mobile device while driving. It is much better to provide a number to be called (safer option when using a Bluetooth connection) and an IVR that can respond to voice commands.

The size of users’ keyboards should also be considered. With the escalating use of mobile devices, it is safe to believe that the majority of potential customers for a company will be looking up information on their smartphones. Providing a “contact us” form to be filled out by typing on a bite-size keyboard would definitely be less effective than utilizing an IVR system that can be voice-activated. 




Edited by Cassandra Tucker
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