Six Things to Get Right in Your IVR

Here are some key insights from Bill Price, Driva Solutions:

Keep IVR menus short and simple. Don’t have more than 3 options in a menu.

Our short term memory is limited in capacity. Be mindful and respectful of your customer and don’t overwhelm them with too many choices.

Only play messages when they are needed.

Your customer has a mission: to get what they need as quickly as painlessly as possible. Superfluous messages are distracting and confusing. Make sure that you only play what your customer absolutely needs to hear.

Always provide an option to exit to an operator.

Your IVR should not be a maze with dead-end paths. Make sure there’s an escape route available in every path in your IVR.

Make it clear how the customer can repeat options or get help.

Tell ‘em once, and then tell ‘em again at each level of the IVR.

Allow the customer time to act: – build in pauses.

If you are too aggressive in setting time limits for response, you will end up with higher abandonment rates and heavier loads on your customer service staff.

Provide touch-tone (DTMF) options.

Voice responses are not appropriate for all callers. High levels of ambient noise can confuse voice recognition systems and frustrate your callers. They may also not be comfortable speaking their personal information if they are making their call in a public space.

Keep the same voice across the IVR and in your ACD

Invest the effort to present a consistent voice to your customer for the entire time that they are interacting with electronic call control. Complement your use of the IVR/ACD by investing in professional voiceover artists and you will impress your callers with your professional treatment.