The term IVR is short for Interactive Voice Response, which is a telephony technology that allows callers to interact with a telephone system to acquire or enter information into a database. More and more businesses are turning to IVR to help reduce the cost of common sales, service, collections, inquiry and support calls to and from their business.
Interactive Voice Response or IVR is one of the most common telephone features in use in the business community and is capable of delivering remarkable benefits to your business. IVR systems allow 24-hour access to a company of its clients through its telephone system. In today’s busy modern world, most callers expect their first contact with a business to be handled through some form of auto attendant or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. This method of call handling is generally accepted as long as the caller has the opportunity to opt out of the IVR system and speak to a live agent.
IVR systems offer a cost-effective and economical way to handle customer calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Handling routine telephone information requests can consume a substantial amount of company resources and ultimately money. Interactive voice response systems, tailored to a business’s requirements, can provide virtually the same information as a live operator at a fraction of the cost, both in terms of finances and resources. To put things at their simplest, IVR systems allow callers to interact with your business through your phone system.
IVR systems greatly reduce customer call handling costs and can be introduced into your business environment in a number of ways. The most basic IVR systems simply allow you to record a message that is played when a customer presses the appropriate number on the phone’s keypad. The most advanced interactive voice response systems allow callers to interact with a business on a much larger scale. For example, you could configure an IVR to retrieve specific account information that is transmitted to the caller through the implementation of text-to-speech recognition technology. This technology allows IVR systems to read specific information from a database and then relate that information to the customer in spoken format.
Typical IVR Interactive Voice Response System Applications
The potential applications for IVR systems are virtually endless. IVR systems can be used to automate a wide range of services and information requests. By combining input from a caller with custom scripts, IVR systems allow callers to call an IVR business or hosting company using a touch-tone telephone and then interact with the system in real time. Below is a list of sample IVR applications:
- Automated bill payment systems.
- Customer account information
- Banking service for account balance transfer information
- Customer market surveys
- emergency-notifications
- virtual receptionists
- call center automation
- Order status and tracking
- parcel tracking
- virtual switchboards
- voice mail services
- instant voice messaging
- bill reminder
- bill collection
- telesales
- virtual agents
- automatic attendants
- call routing
- Call recording solutions
- More many, many more
Benefits of IVR systems
- Integrated voice response systems can be extremely beneficial to businesses by reducing live call handling time, saving money and allowing staff to focus on other areas of business.
- IVR systems can benefit callers by allowing access to personalized information or by directing them to the correct department or through a combination of multiple input types and selections through menu options involving phone keypad input and the speech recognition.
- IVR systems allow callers to quickly retrieve or access information with or without additional human assistance.
- Integrated voice response systems allow businesses to easily extend their business hours, without the need for live operators to be available. This allows callers to call at their convenience and still be able to perform a multitude of tasks automatically.
- Queue times for calls to departments within a company can be drastically reduced. With IVR systems, calls can be transferred to the appropriate departments through the menu selection process.
- IVR systems allow business representatives to experience lower call volumes through the automation of repetitive tasks. This allows these representatives to manage their calls more efficiently and allows them to focus on more important matters.
- Through the implementation of a good Integrated Voice Response System, companies can really expand their call capacity and respond to higher volumes of calls through the correct management and routing of all incoming calls, reducing the cost of handling. by calling relationship.
- For businesses that accept payments over the phone, IVR systems can fully automate this task, allowing them to process transactions any time of the day, any day of the week.
- For when call volume is high, IVR systems allow businesses to highlight new products, updates or product information, etc., while the caller is on hold.
- Businesses can monitor the progress of calls and transactions by using daily call activity reports.
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) IVR or Hosted IVR The choice is yours
CPE – This is equipment that a customer buys or leases and then locates, hosts, and maintains at the customer’s site. For most businesses, this is an expensive way to harness the power that a good IVR system can bring to any business due to the initial hardware cost and installation work that would be required. For those companies that have the necessary financing for CPE, there are, of course, advantages and disadvantages. CPE allows you to take full control of your IVR system and will also allow for future business expansion, although many hosted IVR solutions allow this as well. The main drawback of CPE IVR systems is that you will need ongoing technical support and maintenance, either from your own in-house staff or outsourced to the IVR system provider.
IVR Hosting – If a customer prefers not to host an IVR system on their premises, is restricted by location, lacks IT support, or simply cannot bear the initial financial outlay required for full purchase, then a remote IVR hosting solution can be adapt to the requirements of a company. could be the answer. This option is particularly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses that want to take advantage of a full-featured interactive voice response system, with a greatly reduced initial capital outlay, as well as eradicate the need for system maintenance and IT support.
Whichever form of IVR system you decide to implement, it’s best to seek expert advice before going ahead and purchasing any hardware or signing any form of lease. A good IVR system provider or IVR hosting company will take the time to sit down with you and discuss your requirements in detail before helping you make a decision on which type of system to opt for.
Thank you for reading.