If you have ever called any customer service office you have surely heard an automatic response saying something similar to “your have called X customer service, please tell us the department you want to speak to…” because this is what it is all about. Interactive Voice Response. Today we tell you what IVR is and why it is essential to incorporate it into customer service.
What is an IVR?
The word IVR comes from the acronym Interactive Voice Response or also known as Interactive Voice Response in Spanish. It is a technology that allows you to interact with customers, with an automated telephone system through the use of voice and tones from the mobile phone keypad.
Customers respond to prompts from the IVR system using voice commands or by pressing phone keys. For example, the system can say “press 1 to speak to human resources” and the user can respond, walking through different options offered by the IVR system. They are used to automate customer interactions allowing companies to handle large volumes of calls without direct human intervention. Therefore, it is very common to see it in call centers, banks, telecommunications and many other industries.
It has existed since almost the beginning of customer service, but thank to IP telephony it has been evolving and improving broadly, being able to customize many aspects of the system, for example currently, Interactive Voice Response systems can be integrated with company processes, dealing with customer identification, consulting orders, telephone appointments, etc.
How does the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) work?
The IVR greets the callers and offers them a menu of options. When you press a button on the phone keypad, the system sends a signal to customer service and responds according to the indicated option, this can be taking another action (select another digit), receiving a recorded automatic response or transferring you to the agent and most appropriate department taking into account the user’s selection.
All this is possible thanks to the tone dialing system, in this way the system responds to the tone of the key pressed and acts accordingly with the selected option. Also, other technologies implemented together with the IVR is voice recognition, which helps expand the possibilities of IVR systems since they understand what the user is asking of them.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) benefits
The IVR system presents important benefits for clients and companies such as call centers or contact centers, it is a profitable investment for any customer service since it achieves:
- Better user experience: The IVR system offers completely personalized and effective customer service, in addition to reducing your waiting time, since you will be assisted directly by the person you need.
- Reduce costs: by having the IVR service activated, you will be anle to provide customer service at any time without the need to have 24-hour staff, therefore, users who call obtain information thanks to the automation of processes even if the office is closed.
- Increase team productivity: connect the right agents to each user based on the option they choose, thus optimizing each employee’s service time and providing first-contact resolutions.
- The IVR can be implemented in the cloud. The cloud telephony solution provides savings in the cost of calls and physical infrastructure. IVR can be adapted to any business with the excellent tools and techniques that virtual telephony offers. With all this you will be able to manage customer service in a faster and more precise way.
How to implement an IVR system in your business.
Implementing an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system can be a huge improvement for your business. And how do we implement this system in our company? In the case of Megacall, launching this system is very simple and is done from the free virtual switchboard.
With the IVR in the Megacall virtual switchboard, you will have different functions that will allow you to interact and improve your company’s customer service. Such as call routing, depending on the option selected by the customer, the IVR directs incoming calls to the appropriate department. Call forwarding or voicemail when the agent is not available. Menu navigation, customers follow the prompts on a menu using the phone keypad to select different options. With the voice recognition, they understand and respond to user requests in real time. They can also queue calls for users and give approximate wait times. Megacall’s IVR can also personalize interactions and provide a more personalized experience to customers. It is possible to create different IVR menus at various levels, very useful when greetings and information are needed in different languages, adapting to each situation and language.
The use cases for an IVR system can be:
- Respond to questions or requests.
- Direct people to the appropriate department.
- Callers have a call back.
- Greet customers with welcome messages and collect customer data.
They can also answer the most frequently asked questions and record responses, such as for holiday hours, peak hours or for product launches during waiting times. All of this can be achieved with Megacall, offering this assistance to ensure that your customers are kept informed about the current schedule or new changes can make the customer feel less frustrated when not getting a response from an agent.
This system is a necessary asset for customer service in a company, so if you do not yet have an IVR service, you have our free virtual switchboard so you can try all its functions including Interactive Voice Response.
