IVR a barrier or a facilitator?

While rolling out MyOperator We have heard many companies being hesitant about implementing an IVR. Companies perceive an auto call attendant as a hindrance for the caller to speak to an agent directly. So we tried to do a comparative analysis to understand if it is a boon or bane.

We perceive IVR as a better medium to route calls to the desired destination so that customers can talk to the right person without wasting time. An IVR solution has a pre-recorded menus or voice prompts and a touch tone keypad entry in order to record the responses. IVR solutions help in retrieving the information in an organized way so that the call can be routed to the right destination.

Though people assume that an IVR poses a barrier but this is not the case at all. Just imagine a scenario where there is no IVR and all the calls are being answered by a person. Now here come the challenges that one has to face, if someone wants to talk to a person in the tech department and a sales person answers the call then he will manually have to transfer the call. Not just that the customer or a caller will never have an idea about where his call is being directed. An IVR guides the caller to make an informative choice so that he can straight away connect to his desired department without wasting anytime. So if we only visualize IVR as a facilitator then we can realize its true potential.

Interactive Voice Response is a tricky technology, it is not complicated in itself but its use. The success or failure of this technology depends entirely on the way it has been implemented. If a company is unable to present itself as per the client’s perspective and has not thought about the information that customer actually needs then the caller might actually experience a nightmare.

A badly designed IVR can cause rants among the callers and they might leave the company’s services because of a bad service experience. On the other hand a well designed IVR can save customer’s valuable time and help them in skimming through the menu swiftly so that they can talk to their desired department. A smart IVR not only offers an easy interface to the user but also helps the company to project a bigger and a more professional image. Moreover it can also help in increasing the customer’s response.

IVR is not a barrier rather it guides the user to his destination, but the trick lies in how the company uses it. Eventually it all boils down to a fine user experience. You may design a very comprehensive IVR but it might be very confusing to the user, therefore it is imperative to keep the user's convenience in mind.