So why not scrap the IVR channel and hire some more agents to make customers happy? The question is rhetorical and the answer is obvious.

According to recent data from Forrester, a live agent costs $6-12 dollars per interaction whereas an automated interaction costs about 25 cents. When implemented properly, self-service IVR allows customers to solve their own problems and obtain the information without speaking to live agent at all. When implemented intelligently, self-service IVR routes customers to the agent who is most appropriate and qualified to meet their needs. Clearly, the ROI on IVR can be huge.

When we consider the significant cost savings and efficiency benefits that self-service systems IVR systems can achieve, it’s well worth the investment and effort to make the IVR customer journey as effective and satisfying as it can be.

NICE IVR Optimization solutions automatically gather and display all IVR-related information in a dynamic mapping sequence of the complete customer journey. Armed with a clear view of flows, containment rates, bottlenecks, drop-offs, and call transfers, agents can analyze the data by demographic factors, identify the success and failure of authentication flows, and take advantage of out-of-the-box reports and dashboards for in-depth analysis. Using NICE IVR Optimization, our customers have achieved millions in annual savings by:

Reducing Repeat Calls: One company mapped all their IVR calls into nearly 400 different caller intents in order to analyze the IVR experience in depth. By clarifying root causes and common IVR journeys for repeat callers, they made critical changes to the IVR process and achieved happier customers and complete ROI in just two months.

Increasing IVR Containment: Using insights from their NICE IVR Optimization, an enterprise eliminated more than 40,000 calls to the contact center per year by adding an ACH (Automated Clearing House) payment option to the IVR menu. Furthermore, each percentage of additional IVR containment they achieve eliminates 980,000 calls to the contact center and more than $5.5 million in operational costs. The value of these savings far surpass their overall technology investment.

Improving Customer Journeys: By drilling down into the data of a specific customer journey, an insurance provider discovered a 30-step process through their IVR system. This long IVR interaction usually ended by sending frustrated customers to a live agent. NICE IVR Optimization revealed problematic flows and operational bottlenecks that helped the provider streamline the journey into far fewer steps and significantly reduce the call transfer rate.

Interactive Voice Response software have used pre-recorded voice prompts and menus to present information and options to callers, and touch-tone telephone keypad entry to gather responses. Modern IVR solutions also enable input and responses to be gathered via spoken words with voice recognition. Enterprises are increasingly looking for an IVR service provider which helps them in managing their Inbound and Outbound call centers to reduce the cost of common sales, service, collections, inquiry and support calls to and from their company.

Take a note of the following business benefits of an IVR system-

• First Call ResolutionCompanies need to implement intelligent call routing to the best-qualified agent to ensure the customer’s query is resolved at the earliest. Do not make your customers wait on the IVR, rather design your IVR flow in a smart manner to minimize customer wait time by expediting the query resolution.
• 24*7 Customer ServiceThe primary purpose of an IVR is to ensure that customers are attended even if the human agents are not available due to time constraints. Smart IVR systems lets you play a pre-recorded message on off-days to allow self-service for the customers.
• Handle High Call VolumeA smart IVR system facilitates designing effective IVR workflows to streamline the calls to enable seamless customer support and reduce customer waiting time to great extent keeping in mind the call center resource availability.
• Handle Multilevel IVRAn intelligent IVR system is one that allows multi-level flow in the IVR. Using multiple pre-recorded messages companies can ensure the customer is routed to the right agent for specific product or process related queries without any need for human assistance.
• Automation of OperationsAn IVR is essential to automate the mundane customer queries resolution to free-up the agents to focus on solving the priority issues. This increases agent productivity and improves customer support and satisfaction.