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The unmistakably robotic voice of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems has greeted customers calling the contact center since the 1970s.
There’s a high chance you’ve interacted with an IVR, and if you’ve ever shouted ‘Agent!’ into your phone during this interaction, you’re not alone.
Despite improvements in speech recognition and Natural Language Understanding (NLU), IVR automation continues to fail contact centers and customers, resulting in misrouted calls, increased wait times, and frustrating customer experiences.
In this post, we’ll look at why IVR automation fails and how you can overcome these IVR issues by focusing on delivering customer-led experiences.
What is IVR automation?
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) automation refers to the use of automated systems by call centers to manage incoming and outgoing calls. These systems can process a variety of caller requests by providing pre-recorded responses or using text-to-speech technology, letting callers interact with systems through voice commands or keypad inputs.
Why IVR automation is failing you
Traditional IVR systems often fall short of meeting customer expectations, and many businesses find themselves grappling with outdated call routing systems and call deflection processes that hinder efficient communication and resolution.
As a result, it’s crucial to understand why IVR automation might not be delivering the desired outcomes and how more advanced solutions can bridge these gaps.
1. Callers are restricted to using keywords
How a person speaks differs from how they type or text. When we use a search engine or a chatbot, we are more concise with our queries, but when we talk, we tell long stories and ask clarifying questions at any point in the conversation.
Because of the varied nature of customer inquiries, some callers need to share more detail than others, and there are multiple departments to direct callers to resolve their issues. That is why customers expect to be greeted by “Hi, how can I help?”, not “Please say in a few words the reason for your call…”.
Conversational IVRs rely on callers to say specific keywords to move the conversation along. Instead of encouraging free-flowing conversation, customers must select an option regardless of how closely it relates to their problem.
Customers aren’t always sure how to talk about their issues, especially if they’re related to something technical. Without the freedom to explain in detail, callers are often directed to the wrong department, causing more frequent routings, longer call handle time, and high call abandonment rates.
Customer story: How a multinational automotive manufacturer contained 38% of calls with a customer-led voice assistant
The company’s IVR system misrouted hundreds of calls ranging from simple to complex customer queries.
The complexity of car-related issues meant callers used unpredictable phrasing, such as “my car is making a clunking noise it shouldn’t,” or telling drawn-out stories that were difficult for the IVR to understand. As a result, customers were directed to the wrong department.
Unreliable data and limited insight into why customers were calling meant the company needed a better understanding of caller intents that would enable them to save costs and automate processes more effectively.
PolyAI deployed a voice assistant capable of guiding callers to a resolution, including sending customers further information and useful links via SMS. This proactive approach reduced the need for the customer to speak to a center agent and bridged the gap between the phone channel and the company’s online resources, resulting in the containment of 38% of calls.
The voice assistant automatically turns unstructured data, such as call transcripts, into structured data. With these insights, the company better understands why customers are calling and identifies where there is friction in the customer journey.
2. IVRs expect trust, but don’t earn it
Because of poor user experiences in the past, most customers don’t trust voice technologies. Voice assistants need to earn the customer’s trust to deliver genuinely helpful support. This trust comes from understanding callers, whatever they say, and however they say it.
When an IVR responds with, “Sorry, I didn’t quite get that” (we’ve all been there), the customer’s trust in the system is lost immediately, leading them to try and bypass the system by shouting “Agent!” repeatedly hitting “0”, or abandoning the call altogether.
Earning a caller’s trust means showing them that you understand their problem and are capable of solving it. Is a robotic voice that fails to understand callers really the first interaction you want customers to have with your brand?
3. Data is limited and unreliable
Gathering structured conversational data, such as when and why customers are calling, is fundamental to a contact center operating at optimal efficiency.
Insights into customer behavior enable companies to identify new revenue opportunities, remove friction from the customer journey and enhance products and services.
The restrictive nature of IVRs impacts the quality of customer data gathered. With predetermined menu options, customers can’t ask questions or provide feedback that would give more insight into their needs. A customer might select the wrong number from the IVR menu, or the system may misunderstand the customer’s response, leading to inaccurate data capture.
A lack of structured data limits the contact center’s ability to draw conclusions from customer insights, such as – 20% of calls are about billing, and 90% of questions on a Monday are about support — insights like this help to resource the right teams so the contact center can run more efficiently.
Overcome poor IVR experiences with PolyAI’s customer-led voice assistants
Delivering genuinely helpful automated support requires best-in-class customer-led voice assistants focused on the unique challenges of spoken language over the phone.
PolyAI’s voice assistants drive customer-led conversations by removing preset menus and allowing customers to speak naturally, regardless of the complexity of their issues. This eliminates the frustration of needing to repeatedly shout “Agent!” for assistance.
To provide freedom and confidence, PolyAI’s solutions incorporate high-accuracy automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU) optimized for spoken language. This technology enables voice assistants to listen, comprehend, and respond accurately to customer queries.
As customers speak freely, PolyAI’s voice assistants 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 and enhance customer satisfaction.
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 voice assistants provide a modern solution, overcoming these limitations and significantly enhancing the overall customer experience.
IVR automation FAQs
Some of the top best practices for integrating automated IVR technologies:
- API utilization. Using APIs for seamless integration with other software.
- Consistent data synchronization. Ensuring real-time data updates across systems.
- Vendor collaboration. Working closely with IVR and other software vendors for smooth integration.
To increase customer satisfaction, it is important to handle complaints and frustrations with IVR applications. Here are some of the best ways to handle these customer frustrations:
- Human assistance. Providing easy access to live agents when needed.
- Feedback mechanisms. Allowing customers to leave feedback about their IVR experience for self-service functionality.
- Continuous improvement. Regularly updating and refining the IVR system based on user feedback.
Security concerns in IVR automation are significant, especially when handling sensitive customer data. Key concerns include:
- Data breaches. IVR systems are potential targets for cyberattacks, which could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive customer information. To mitigate this, it’s essential to implement strong encryption protocols for all data in transit and at rest.
- Identity verification. Weak authentication methods can allow unauthorized users to access customer accounts. Secure authentication techniques, such as voice biometrics or multi-factor authentication, are crucial to verify user identities accurately.
- Regulatory compliance. Non-compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR or CCPA can lead to severe penalties. Ensuring your IVR system is compliant with relevant regulations is essential to avoid legal risks.
- Vulnerability exploitation. IVR systems can have vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit, leading to service disruptions or data theft. Regular security audits and timely updates can help identify and fix these vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
