“Please listen carefully, as our options have recently changed…”
Ugh! Hearing these words makes my eyes roll. I don’t mean to complain, but…well, it’s just that it’s a big pet peeve of mine to get stuck in a complicated maze of options…Press 2 for this, Press 10 for that. If it goes on for too long, I inevitably lose track and must start over. Am I the only one who desperately presses “0” in hopes of skipping the madness and speaking to someone for (hopefully!) faster service? To be honest, I breathe a little sigh of relief whenever I get to avoid that kind of old-school experience, don’t you?At its most basic, an interactive voice response (IVR) is an automated system that answers incoming calls and provides instructions to customers. Most contact centers have some sort of IVR system in place that typically serves to route calls. It’s been a key part of the contact center toolkit for many years. Some IVRs offer a means of self-serving simple calling needs, such as getting general information or accessing account balances, but the latest consumer research has me wondering whether that’s enough to keep customers satisfied.What consumers think of your old-school IVR
According to customers surveyed worldwide, maybe it’s not enough. If callers frequently hang up on your IVR, don’t take it personally but here’s something worth noting: recent CX research found that over 25% of consumers report dissatisfaction with automated phone menus – yet over one-third of businesses believe their customers love it. Hmmm… apparently, not so! In other words, customers may not be as delighted about navigating your IVR system as you think. And we all know, when customers are not happy, you risk losing their business. In the case of a frustrating IVR experience, it might mean they may hang up or decide to give up on doing business with you altogether, or worse, they start the conversation with your agent yelling at him/her. Yikes!But what if your IVR could sing?
With customer service such an integral part of an organization’s success, businesses are beginning to recognize the value of implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technology in their contact centers.The latest business projections are predicting that the global artificial intelligence market will reach $99 billion in 2023, so it’s no surprise that the wave of new transformative technologies is still going strong. With the success and popularity of Apple’s Siri and Amazon Alexa, conversational AI has become all the rage in customer experience innovation. In another post, I talked about consumers driving the demand for self-service options that just didn’t exist a few years ago. “Consumers don’t care where they get answers… they just want answers. Organizations that assume their customers only want to talk to their agents are getting left in the dust.” (Read more in “Contact Center Automation: From Nice-to-Have to Necessity”)Investing in new technology is all about the value-add. When it comes to IVR, conversational AI is poised to fill the need with advanced voice interfaces, such as voice bots that use natural language understanding (NLU) to recognize what a caller is saying and respond with appropriate options. It means a better customer service experience and faster service.What is conversational IVR and why businesses should care
Conversational IVR is advanced contact center software that understands natural language (vs a series of commands). It takes auto-attendants and IVRs to the next level by enabling more human-like interactions with natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence, and machine learning (ML). With AI-powered conversational IVR, customers can interact with speech-enabled voice self-service when they call a company.
