Introduction to IVR & its Importance in VoIP Communications
Since the beginning of its mass adoption, the VoIP sector has provided several businesses with creative and affordable communication options. Over the years, several incredible and ground-breaking ideas have revolutionized businesses while multiple concepts have phased out due to the shifting trends. The IVR system, however, is one solution that has consistently been in demand. We’ll go into more detail about the IVR phone system and how crucial it is in a VoIP communication solution.
What is IVR?
It is a really crucial solution and frequently functions as a key component of many VoIP solutions. Interactive Voice Response is known as IVR. With the help of the custom IVR software development services provided by VoIP companies, any business can obtain it. Once the IVR solution development process is complete, it can be integrated into the business's telecom system, which may use VoIP or a more conventional PSTN-based telecom system. The IVR will function as an auto attendant once it has been integrated.
How IVR works?
The IVR system will answer incoming calls for your business or organization automatically. A predetermined welcome message will play as soon as the phone is answered, followed by another voice prompt that will contain a menu. The caller can select any one item by speaking the choice aloud or pressing a number on his phone's dialpad. The IVR system will either play another message or allow him to take the final action once an option has been selected. In this case, the action could be anything, like,
● Reaching to a person of a specific department
● Registering a complaint
● Scheduling an appointment
● Paying a bill
● Getting some information
● Making a booking
● Giving a feedback and many more
Vindaloo Softtech offers the best Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution available in the market, which guarantees effective caller interaction. They can identify, categorize, and route calls to the right recipient thanks to this system.
Why is the IVR system essential to businesses?
When used properly, an IVR system can handle the majority of crucial customer involvement and dialogue. Here are a few factors that may make IVR crucial for businesses:
● Real-time interaction with clients: Clients are given a sense of importance when business services are provided to them in real-time. Customers feel more invested in a firm when it offers a menu with alternatives they can choose from.
● Redirects with minimal hold time: Calls are routed to the appropriate department or agent thanks to an IVR system, which lets callers connect with the relevant person. When a client is successfully directed to the intended destination, this earns positive customer support points.
● Handles a high amount of calls: An IVR system aids in improving the agents' capacity to handle high call volumes. Customers may not even need to speak with an agent in many of the systems; they may rapidly resolve a query by using the IVR system themselves.
● Increases customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction can be affected by a number of factors, including the time customers take to ask a question and the time it takes for agents or the IVR to respond. IVR, on the other hand, functions as a self-help tool to provide customers with solutions without them even speaking to a live agent.
IVR Features that Benefit a Contact Center
● Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is a telephone tool that routes calls to the call center representatives you designate.
● Using a service called "Skill-Based Routing," incoming calls are routed to the most qualified agent.
● Call centers work in different shifts according to business hours or time-based routing. Morning shifts (8am–5pm), mid shifts (11am–7pm), evening shifts (9pm–6am), and graveyard shifts are examples of this (12pm–8am). Having an IVR system that is accessible for self-service twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, will aid clients in finding quick and pertinent information.
● Inbound calls are queued and then directed to a particular person or department based on pre-established rules and criteria in call routing, a call management tool for phone systems.
Benefits of IVR Systems
Improved Call Resolution
IVRs offer the fundamental benefit of automated filtering as its main selling point. Agents anticipate the sort of problem they'll be solving before they answer the phone rather than always digging into a grab bag. This kind of call is determined by the menu options the caller chooses.
The caller gains by interacting with an agent who is prepared to address their queries in the meantime. Bypassing the tedious and time-consuming process of manually being transferred by agents from one department to another, you can speak with a helpful person right away.
The customer doesn't have to wait on hold more than once during the same call, and your company doesn't incur the high costs related to unnecessarily lengthy call handling times. In other words, it’s the ultimate win-win.
Promotes Self-Service Customer Service
Speaking of consistency, you can still provide customer service even when there aren't any agents on duty by using an IVR. Your phone number and an IVR menu can be used by callers to get basic information outside of usual business hours or while agents are occupied with other calls.
Answers to frequent consumer questions can be found on a well-designed menu.
This is a useful feature of IVR because it handles more unimportant calls on its own, giving agents more time to handle complex requests. Without the help of a live agent, you can do anything from make an appointment to acknowledge the caller's birthday.
Intelligent Data Gathering
The success of your business depends on the data you collect about your clientele.
The benefit of having your clients contact a computer before they talk to a human person is that computers are designed to gather, process, and store a lot of data. In addition to being useful for your business strategies generally, the information your IVR gathers about caller inquiries can be used to continuously enhance your IVR setup.
IVR systems add to market research while cutting costs by removing the need to hire additional agents. IVRs reduce the amount of time it takes to handle calls, which saves even more money.
Best Practices for Implementing IVR
IVR systems that are poorly implemented might result in high call abandonment rates and dissatisfied customers. Businesses should be careful when implementing IVR solutions since low customer service satisfaction can damage a brand through unfavorable reviews and complaints from the general public on social media. Following these guidelines can help you deploy an IVR system effectively:
● Research your audience: In order to uncover IVR platform improvements, do audience research. Determine which clients are most likely to use the automation features while creating your company personas. This will let you create them in a way that successfully satisfies their self-service requirements.
● Avoid over-complicated IVR menu selections: Although IVR technology can improve contact center efficiency, if the automated message system is overly complicated, callers may become frustrated. Lower customer satisfaction may occur from long pre-recorded announcements that make callers wait excessively to pick their desired option.
● Reduce hold times: Long wait times on many IVR systems continue to be an issue despite technological advancements. Callback capabilities can reduce annoyance since they allow callers to carry on with their daily activities until a customer service agent is available to handle their request.
Wrapping Up
Everything will work out nicely for your business when your clients have a good experience. With Vindaloo Softtech, you can create a smooth interface between contact center software and modern IVR technology.
For more information, please visit: https://blog.vindaloosofttech.com/ivr-phonesystem-basics/
Author Bio
Sandip Patel – BDE
Author works as BDE at Vindaloo Softtech since 2016. Sandip has 10+years of work experience in VoIP Software Development Industry. Vindaloo Softtech is software development and solutions provider that offers FreeSWITCH, Kamailio, OpenSIP, WebRTC and Asterisk Development.