With the current pandemic crises in the world, businesses ponder how they can resume working amid lockdowns and social distancing. The most favorable option left with businesses is to accelerate their automation strategies. At the same time, many companies have already implemented strategies to automate highly repetitive and routine tasks. Interactive voice response (IVR) is one such service that automates your call-handling process.
Interactive voice response (IVR) becomes the first point of contact with a customer for any business. An Interactive Voice Response system replaces your business receptionist with pre-recorded responses to meet caller needs. IVR capabilities allow businesses to efficiently handle call flow using customized voice recordings, menu selection, routing options, intuitive templates, Interactive voice response scripts, and more. IVR, in many ways, limits human interaction while automating the Call Management process by acting as a self-service platform for callers where callers can find instant solutions to their queries with a press of a button on their devices.
Let us look at using interactive voice response effectively. Here are some areas where you can automate your call process that does not require human intervention.
FAQ responses
Using an Interactive voice response system, businesses can automate the answers to common FAQs. IVR systems will act as a self-service portal for callers. They help in saving time for both the callers as well as agents.
For example, if someone has some troubleshooting issues and needs customer support. With an Interactive voice response system, customers can receive pre-recorded, detailed instructions that will likely fix their issue. If the issue is not solved by these instructions, the IVR system enables the caller to route their issue to the best agent available. This saves time for both the callers as well as agents.
IVR system offers the caller the facility to access customer support resources at any time of the day or night, on weekends, holidays at their own convenience.
Bill payment
The interactive Voice Response system allows easy bill payment without any human intervention, enabling customers to follow automated prompts, select the bill payment option, and pay their bills in no time.
Information retrieval
Interactive voice response offers easy and quick information retrieval, especially in banking, financial services, and insurance. Callers can retrieve information such as account balances, last five transactions, add-on services, report debit/credit card loss and much more.
Push marketing
IVR system can automate the process of making outbound calls to conduct surveys, collect customer feedback, and make bulk marketing calls to promote products with a pre-recorded message.
Intelligent call handling
An Interactive voice response phone system can simultaneously handle incoming calls. IVR system automatically routes calls to the appropriate agent based on skill level, location, question type, or department. This lowers abandon rates, reduces queue times for calls, and more. Additionally, this intelligent call routing system can help create better customer experiences.
Support during Disaster Recovery and busy times
During seasonal peaks or high demand due to emergencies, IVR systems automate notifications and reminder calls such as order status, subscription renewals, due payment dates, and much more.
An IVR can be invaluable during times of disaster recovery. In times of emergency, callers can be routed to a different location or staff working from home during severe weather or pandemic.
Route the caller to the right agent or department
An Interactive voice response menu allows businesses to connect callers to departments like admin, facilities, finance, HR, security, etc. IVR systems route your callers to the most appropriate department, or the agent with Interactive voice response prompts and dial pad interaction cutting down dependencies on personnel and automating the entire process
Properly implemented Interactive Voice Response systems can Increase first contact resolution, customer service efficiency, and agent productivity, Reduce operational costs, increase customer satisfaction, and more.
READ MORE: How can One Install an IVR Service to a Mobile Number?
