Here are a few benefits of IVR:
Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 4:57 am
With IVR, everything’s automated—until the last step. Enter the human! And when they do, they’ll already know the problem, thanks to prompts handed over by the IVR.
It saves time (and money). Automation frees up your team’s time to focus on problems the automation can’t solve.
It improves the customer experience. Seriously, who likes to wait? The IVR streamlines everything—and may even solve the issue without support. (For example, when a customer calls to clear a balance and the system handles the payment.)
It circumvents internal transfers and related chaos.
It’s scale-friendly. Your company can grow, grow, grow, handling more calls without (necessarily) adding more staff.
But as with most tech, IVR has its drawbacks, too. (It’s an automated robot answering customer calls, after all.):
It can’t show empathy or improvise. The IVR simply ukraine telegram data operates according to preset prompts and rules. This might rub customers the wrong way, and by the time they are routed to a human, tempers can be … elevated.
It might fail to meet expectations. IVRs can be great on paper, and not-so-great in practice—if they’re not set up properly. Over 40 percent of customers say repeating themselves is the most frustrating part of bad customer service, which is one common pitfall with a poorly programmed IVR.
It might make customer interactions too complicated. IVRs narrow down customer queries and route them to the right people. But some IVRs are complicated, and ask customers to choose multiple options before they reach someone.
So, IVRs … bueno or no bueno?
Here's our take. IVRs can never replace the human interaction your customers need, especially if the problem or question is complex. But for starting the process, and not leaving customers on hold while they wait for the right human—it's a great tool.
It saves time (and money). Automation frees up your team’s time to focus on problems the automation can’t solve.
It improves the customer experience. Seriously, who likes to wait? The IVR streamlines everything—and may even solve the issue without support. (For example, when a customer calls to clear a balance and the system handles the payment.)
It circumvents internal transfers and related chaos.
It’s scale-friendly. Your company can grow, grow, grow, handling more calls without (necessarily) adding more staff.
But as with most tech, IVR has its drawbacks, too. (It’s an automated robot answering customer calls, after all.):
It can’t show empathy or improvise. The IVR simply ukraine telegram data operates according to preset prompts and rules. This might rub customers the wrong way, and by the time they are routed to a human, tempers can be … elevated.
It might fail to meet expectations. IVRs can be great on paper, and not-so-great in practice—if they’re not set up properly. Over 40 percent of customers say repeating themselves is the most frustrating part of bad customer service, which is one common pitfall with a poorly programmed IVR.
It might make customer interactions too complicated. IVRs narrow down customer queries and route them to the right people. But some IVRs are complicated, and ask customers to choose multiple options before they reach someone.
So, IVRs … bueno or no bueno?
Here's our take. IVRs can never replace the human interaction your customers need, especially if the problem or question is complex. But for starting the process, and not leaving customers on hold while they wait for the right human—it's a great tool.