Choosing an IVR software: What buyers need to know

Choosing the right Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software for your business depends on your contact needs, operational goals, and customer expectations. What works for one company may not work for another. The best IVR solution should meet your current needs, integrate with your existing systems, and scale with your business.

This blog will help you understand the key features to consider when choosing an IVR system that improves efficiency, offers flexibility, and enhances customer satisfaction.

What is IVR software?

IVR software is used in customer support to automate inbound and outbound customer calls. If you’ve ever contacted a brand’s contact center, it’s likely you will have used one of the following types of IVR software.

Touch-tone: Callers are guided through a preset menu of options (press one for this, press two for that) and select the option that is most closely related to their issue using the keypad on their phone.

Keyword-driven solutions: These systems allow callers to use one word or a short phrase to explain their query and the department they want to speak to.

Advancements in speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language understanding (NLU) now allow customers to interact with IVR systems more conversationally while enabling organizations to automate high-volume, routine queries at scale.

What features should you look for in an IVR solution?

We live in an on-demand world where convenience is king. Customers expect immediate answers and informed guidance, as highlighted in the PolyAI AI in customer service trends report 2025. In the report, we found that:

• 75% of CX and contact center leaders said customers expect instant responses.
• 75% also reported that customers demand more knowledge and guidance from advisors.

If you plan to automate customer interactions over the phone effectively, you need an IVR solution with the right features. Here’s what to consider.

Personalized IVR to get customers to the right place faster

Customers don’t want to be bounced between different support teams, repeating their personal information and explaining their issues repeatedly. A good IVR solution should accurately understand customer needs and route them to the right department without long delays.

To make this process seamless, customer support teams need access to the context of the conversation before the customer is handed off. This enables agents to pick up where the IVR left off and resolve the issue without asking the customer to repeat themselves.

An effective IVR recognizes returning customers, handles more than simple one-word responses, and allows for clarifying questions. This level of personalization saves time and makes the entire support experience smoother.

Integrations to the tools you already use

When selecting an IVR solution, prioritize one that integrates with your existing systems like your CRM or customer database. This integration enables the IVR to access customer information, including details about past interactions quickly.

By streamlining processes like identity & verification (ID&V) and providing essential context for each interaction, your team can resolve issues efficiently without needing customers to repeat themselves.

24/7 customer support without the wait

Customer problems don’t always happen during normal contact center hours. Even if you’ve invested in digital self-service channels, customers still prefer to pick up the phone, whether it’s out of habit, urgency, or feeling that speaking to someone will resolve their issue faster.

To keep customers satisfied, choose an IVR that can reliably handle routine queries without an agent. For more complex issues, select a solution that collects key information, forwards it to an agent, or provides customers with helpful direct links to online resources via SMS or email while they wait for further assistance.

Let customers speak naturally, not robotically

Because customer inquiries vary, some callers need to share more details than others. That’s why customers expect to be greeted by “Hi, how can I help?” rather than “Please say in a few words the reason for your call…”

Instead of relying on an IVR system that forces customers to use specific keywords, choose a solution with high-accuracy automatic speech recognition (ASR) and NLU designed for natural conversation. This technology enables voice assistants to listen, understand, and respond to customer questions with accuracy.

Uses data analytics to learn and improve from every call

Traditional IVRs that force callers to navigate through rigid menus or provide one-word responses might solve short-term issues but won’t generate the data you need to optimize long-term CX strategies.

An effective IVR solution should let customers speak freely. This openness transforms your contact center into a goldmine of actionable insights, revealing:

• Upsell opportunities: Share potential leads with your sales team for better-targeted efforts.
• Customer experience gaps: Identify friction points on your website or app and share them with your digital team.
• Campaign feedback: Gather customer sentiments on promotions to refine marketing strategies.

The right IVR system doesn’t just provide a better experience for your callers; it actively works to improve your business processes. Look for solutions that combine advanced speech recognition with data analytics to turn raw data from customer interactions into structured, actionable insights.

The questions to ask before choosing an IVR software or alternative

In addition to the essential features covered above, these questions will help you evaluate your options and choose the right IVR solution for your business.
What security features and compliance measures are in place to protect customer data?

Protecting customer information is critical. Make sure the IVR software meets industry standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS and includes features like encryption and secure authentication.

Does the solution scale to meet future needs?

Your business and customer demands will grow or change over time. Traditional systems like keyword-driven IVRs often rely on scripted, linear “if-this-then-that” decision trees. While they might seem simple, they quickly become complex and unmanageable when customers deviate from the expected conversation flow or when business requirements change.

When business changes happen, like a new policy or product, modifying workflows can be costly and time-consuming due to the ripple effect across the entire decision tree. Make sure to check if the IVR system can scale up, support additional features, or adapt to new technologies as needed.

Does it support multiple languages?

If your customers speak different languages, the IVR should be able to accommodate them. This ensures everyone can use the system without confusion.
Can customers reach a live agent anytime if they prefer speaking to someone directly?

While IVRs can handle many routine queries, some customers will want to talk to a person. An IVR should allow for an easy transition to a live agent easily, which means it needs to be able to:

• Choose the right time: Transfer calls when needed, but give customers a chance to try the AI first. Pass collected info to agents for faster resolution.
• Handle silence well: Use empathetic prompts to re-engage silent customers or transfer them if needed.
• Clarify requests: The system should ask clear follow-up questions to gather details and avoid forcing the customer to repeat themselves.

How does the system handle call transfers to ensure agents have all the context they need?

Poorly executed transfers frustrate customers and waste time. You’ll need to know if the IVR can:

Use partial automation: Collect basic details before handing them off to an agent to save time.

Share context with agents: Ensure the IVR can pass all relevant details to the agent to reduce back-and-forth.

When agents have access to relevant details, like caller history and issue context, they can resolve issues more quickly.

Alternative IVR solutions in 2025

Conversational AI has changed how customers interact with brands. Early versions of this technology felt robotic, but solutions like AI agents allow for more natural communication, like talking to a person.

With the rise of generative AI, customer-facing applications can now handle more complex customer queries and create smoother, more human-like conversations, moving away from older methods, like touch-tone and keyword-driven IVRs, to provide more flexible and natural interactions.

With thousands of vendors offering conversational AI solutions, we’ve divided the voice AI marketplace into the following categories to help find the right solution for your business.

CCAAS providers for a basic solution

CCaaS providers offer a complete suite of software solutions for contact centers, including call routing, customer relationship management, and analytics. In recent years, these providers have added automation and AI capabilities, such as conversational AI and
chatbots, into their product offerings.

CCaaS providers offer conversational AI quality similar to big cloud providers. They have low-code tools for building simple voice apps like conversational IVRs, where callers state a keyword to trigger a handoff to an agent. These systems struggle with complex transactional call flows, so if you need a voice assistant that handles calls fully, they may not be the best option. If a robotic IVR-like experience is for you, it’s worth considering, but adding advanced features later is unlikely.

Enterprise cloud providers for a low-code solution

Providers like Google and Amazon offer their own low-code tools for building conversational assistants. These platforms mainly work with chat use cases, they only support limited voice-centric features. Their models are not built with the voice experience in mind, meaning they can struggle with handling accents, dialects, silences, and short responses.

While many cloud providers handle the underlying NLP and speech algorithms, this usually comes at the cost of control. You’ll become locked into using a single supplier for every piece of the tech stack, which prevents you from choosing the best-in-class technology in each area.

Voice AI for automating powerful customer interactions

PolyAI offers the world’s most lifelike voice assistants for enterprise customer service and delivers high-quality, human-like conversations optimized for customer engagement at scale. We help enterprises be the best versions of themselves in every customer call by consistently delivering the best brand experience, achieving accurate resolution, and uncovering data-driven business opportunities.

The world’s most lifelike voice AI

Our industry-leading voice platform is engineered specifically for spoken conversations over the phone. It enables our AI agents to understand what callers say, however they speak and guide callers through business logic to complete transactions and respond appropriately in an engaging tone.

Advanced technology for better conversations

PolyAI incorporate machine learning, high-accuracy automatic speech recognition, and NLU optimized for spoken language. This technology enables AI agents to listen, comprehend, and respond accurately to customer queries.

Clear insights from every conversation

As customers speak freely, PolyAI’s AI agents transform conversational data into structured insights, revealing what callers want, when they call, and how they respond to various questions. These insights empower contact centers to continuously improve their operations, hit key metrics like first-contact resolutions, and deliver an end-to-end experience that enhances customer satisfactionn

Modern solutions to outdated IVR challenges

For over 50 years, traditional IVRs have limited automation capabilities, leading to poor customer experiences, long wait times, misrouted calls, and frequent misunderstandings. PolyAI’s advanced AI agents provide a modern solution, overcoming these limitations and significantly enhancing the overall customer experience.

Discover how PolyAI can help you deliver effortless CX at scale and supercharge your contact center efficiency.