Your Callers Are Dropping Off. Here's Why.

It's not your imagination.

Callers are disengaging from your company's IVR and moving on.

They are encountering unprecedented obstacles to service whenever they call most companies. A maze of choices, worry over selecting the wrong choice (and having to go through the entire process all over again), and the sinking, desolate feeling that their time is being wasted.

Because it is.

My mission -- as a voice talent who voices IVR systems all day, every day -- is to educate clients on the idea that their IVR is not only being used ineffectively; it's actually causing caller drop-off and general discontent.

How?

1. Most IVRs Are a Maze

Perhaps unintentionally designed as such; IVRs are often a nasty, complicated set of obstacles which callers are expected to navigate through. Too many choices. choices which sound too similar, asking for the information from the caller multiple times (banks with multiple pin number verifications come to mind) and expecting the callers to drill down into too many submenus all works towards customer frustration.

2. The Caller's Time is Bring Wasted -- and They Know It

You can't expect to subject the caller to everything in point #1 without admitting that the caller's time -- all too often -- is disregarded, devaled, and unacknowledged. If you bear in mind that the caller's time -- just like yours -- it as a premium, and that patience is in short supply, you will be well on your way to building an IVR which is efficient, streamlined, and ultimately: considerate of the caller's time.

3. Callers Never Feel Like the IVR is for Them

Yes, the IVR is for your company to "sort" the callers into various "streams" in order to utilize *your* employees more effectively. But what if the experience of using your IVR actually involvced the caller; encouraged then participate in the process, and empowered them? I'm happy to say, it's being done more and more often. Call flows which praise callers (in a non-obsequious way) for starting the process by calling in; acknowledging that -- if they're calling -- they likely have a highly specialized question which wasn't readily available on your website; even alluding to the fact that there's a good chance that they're unhappy if they've carved out time to call a company -- and that you're sensitive to that.

It's a bit of a paradigm shift to re-work the way your IVR is percieved -- and it may not be an easy transition. But what if service started the minute clients call in? What if the IVR set the tone for what it will be like to interact with the company? And dare I pose the question: what if an IVR was memorable and left vapor-trail feelings of not just an inoffensive experience -- it actually leaves behind a positive perception of the company?

Allison Smith is a professional telephone voice, who can be heard on platforms for Verizon, Bell Canada, Vonage, and the Asterisk Open Source PBX.  Her website is www.thetheivrvoice.com, and you can connect with her on Twitter: @voicegal