Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers

Learn the strategies that will allow you to develop an effective interactive voice response (IVR) framework that supports self-service and improves customer experience.

• Today’s customers expect a top-tier experience when interacting with businesses.
• The advancements in IVR technology mean that IT departments are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for a top-tier IVR approach.
• Implementing best practices and the right enabling technology stack is critical to supporting world-class customer experience through IVR.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

• Don’t assume that contact centers and IVR systems are relics of the past. Customers still look to phone calls as being the most effective way to get a fast answer.
• Tailor your IVR system for your customers. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach – understand your key customer demographics and support their experience by implementing the most effective strategies for them.
• Don’t buy best of breed, buy best for you. Base your enabling technology selection on your requirements and use cases, not on the latest industry trends and developments.

Impact and Result

• Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a database of common customer pain points and FAQs to act as an outline for the call flow tree.
• Understand and apply operational best practices, such as ensuring proper call menu organization and using self-service applications, to improve IVR metrics and, ultimately, the customer experience.
• Understand emerging technologies and evolving trends in the IVR space, including natural language processing and integrating your IVR with other essential enterprise applications (e.g. customer relationship management platforms).

Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers Research & Tools

1. Transformative IVR Experience Deck – A deck outlining the best strategies and enabling technologies to implement in your IVR approach to improve your customer experience.

This storyboard offers insight into impactful strategies and beneficial enabling technologies to implement in your IVR approach to improve your customers’ experience and to reduce the load on your support staff. This deck outlines IT’s role in the IVR development process, offering insight into how to develop an effective IVR call flow and providing details on relevant enabling technologies to consider implementing to further improve your offering.

2. IVR Call Flow Template – A template designed to help you build an effective call flow tree by providing further insight into how to better understand your customers.

This template demonstrates an ideal IVR approach, outlining a sample call flow for a telecommunications company designed to meet the needs of a curated customer persona. Use this template to gain a better understanding of your own key customers and to construct your own call flow tree.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

15 Average Days Saved

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Testimonial

Atlas World Group

Thomas was very helpful in the IVR topic that I presented. He was able to give me a couple of alternative solutions that I am vetting against the . Read More

Thomas was very helpful in the IVR topic that I presented. He was able to give me a couple of alternative solutions that I am vetting against the Anywhere365 solution I am reviewing. I am appreciative that the meeting was setup within days of my request. It was well worth my hour and saved me many hours doing research on my own Read Less

Cayman Islands Health Services Authority

He is knowledgeable and willing to help. Pleasant to work with and no negatives.

Implement a Transformative IVR Experience That Empowers Your Customers

Learn the strategies that will allow you to develop an effective interactive voice response (IVR) framework that supports self-service and improves customer experience.

Stop! Are you ready for this project?

This Research Is Designed For:

• Business analysts, application directors/managers, and customer service leaders tasked with developing and executing a technology enablement strategy for optimizing their contact center approach.
• Any organization aiming to improve its customer experience by implementing a customer-centric approach to over-the-phone service via an IVR system.

This Research Will Help You:

• Adopt the best strategies for outlining an effective IVR approach and for transforming an existing IVR system.
• Improve customer experience and ultimately customer satisfaction by enabling you to create a more efficient IVR call flow tree.
• Select the proper IVR strategies to focus on based on the maturity level of your organization's call center.
• Review the "art of the possible" and learn of the latest developments in successful IVR execution.
• Learn IT's role in developing a successful IVR system and in developing a technology strategy that optimizes your IVR approach.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• Today's customers expect a top-tier experience when interacting with businesses.
• The advancements in IVR technology mean that IT departments are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for a top-tier IVR approach.
• Implementing best practices and the right enabling technology stack is critical to supporting world-class customer experience through IVR.

Common Obstacles

• Many organizations do not have a clear understanding of customers' drivers for contacting their IVR.
• As many contact centers look to improve the customer experience, the need for an impactful IVR system has markedly increased. The proliferation of recommendations for IVR best practices and related technologies has made it difficult to identify and implement the right approach.
• With a growing number of IVR-related requests, IT must be prepared to speak intelligently about requirements and the "art of the possible."

Info-Tech's Approach

• Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a database of common customer call drivers to act as an outline for the call flow tree.
• Understand and apply operational best practices, such as ensuring proper call menu organization and using self-service applications, to improve IVR metrics and, ultimately, the customer experience.
• Understand evolving trends and emerging technologies in the IVR space, including offering personalized service and using natural language processing/conversational AI.

Info-Tech Insight

Tailor your IVR system specifically for your customers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Understand your key customers and support their experience by implementing the most effective strategies for them.

Voice is still the dominant way in which customers choose to receive support

Despite the contrary beliefs that the preference for phone support and IVR systems is declining, studies have consistently shown that consumers still prefer receiving customer service over the phone.

of customers prefer the "traditional" medium of phone calls to reach customer support agents.

of customers across all age groups generally use the phone to contact customer support, making it the most-used customer service channel.

Your IVR approach can make or break your customers' experience

The feelings that customers are left with after interacting with contact centers and support lines has a major impact on their future purchase decisions

Effective IVR systems provide customers with positive experiences, keeping them happy and satisfied. Poorly executed IVR systems leave customers feeling frustrated and contribute to an overall negative experience. Negative experiences with your IVR system could lead to your customers taking their business elsewhere.

In fact, research by Haptik shows that an average of $262 per customer is lost each year due to poor IVR experiences ("7 Conversational IVR Trends for 2021 and Beyond," Haptik, 2021).

of customers have abandoned their business transactions while dealing with an IVR system.

Source: Vonage, 2020

of customers will abandon a business altogether due to a poor IVR experience.

Source: "7 Remarkable IVR Trends For the Year 2022 And Beyond," Haptik, 2021

IVR systems only improve your customers' experience when done properly

There are many common mistakes that organizations make when implementing their own IVR strategies:

1. Offering too many menu options. IVR systems are supposed to allow customers to resolve their inquiries quickly, so it is integral that you organize your menu effectively. Less is more when it comes to your IVR call flow tree.
2. A lack of self-service capabilities. IVR systems are meant to maximize customer service and improve the customer experience by offering self-service functionality. If resolutions for common issues can't be found through IVR, your return on investment (ROI) is limited.
   
3. Having callers get stuck in an "IVR loop." Customers caught hearing the same information repeatedly will often abandon their call. Don't allow customers to get "tangled" in your call flow tree; always make human contact an option.
   
4. Not offering personalized service. The inability to identify customers by their number or other identifying features leads to poor personalization and time wasted repeating information, contributing to an overall negative experience.
   
5. Not updating the IVR system. By not taking advantage of new developments in IVR technology and by not using customer and employee feedback to upgrade your offering, you are missing out on the potential to improve your customers' experience. Complacency kills, and your organization will be at a competitive disadvantage because of it.

Implement a transformative IVR approach that empowers your customers

Call flow trees don't grow overnight; they require commitment, nurturing, and care

1. Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree
   • Your call flow tree will only grow as strong as the roots allow it; begin beneath the surface by understanding the needs of your customers and the goals of your organization first, before building your initial IVR menu.
2. Allow Customers the Opportunity to Branch Out
   • Empower your customers by directing your call flow tree to self-service applications where possible and to live agents when necessary.
3. Let Your Call Flow Tree Flourish
   • Integrate your IVR with other relevant business applications and apply technological developments that align with the needs of your customers and the goals of your organization.
4. Keep Watering Your Call Flow Tree
   • Don't let your call flow tree die! Elicit feedback from relevant stakeholders and develop an iterative review cycle to identify and implement necessary changes to your call flow tree, ensuring continued growth.

IT plays an integral role in supporting the IVR approach

IT is responsible for providing technology enablement of the IVR strategy

While IT may not be involved in organizing the call flow tree itself, their impact on an organization's IVR approach is undeniable. Not only will IT assist with the implementation and integration of your IVR system, they will also be responsible for maintaining the technology on an ongoing basis. As such, IT should be a part of your organization's software selection team, following Info-Tech's methodology for optimizing your software selection process.

• With an understanding of the organization's customer experience management strategy and business goals, IT should be looked toward to:
• Provide insight into the "art of the possible" with IVR systems.
• Recommend enabling technologies relative to your call center's maturity (e.g. agent assist and natural language processing).
• Outline integration capabilities with your existing application portfolio.
• Highlight any security concerns.
• Assist with vendor engagement.
• Take part in stakeholder feedback groups, consulting with agents about their pain points and attempting to solve their problems.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

Call #1: Introduce the project, scoping customer call drivers and defining metrics of success.

Call #3: Discuss the importance of promoting self-service and how to improve call routing processes, assessing the final tiers of the IVR.

Call #4: Discuss the benefits of integrating your IVR within your existing business architecture and using relevant enabling technologies.

Call #5: Discuss how to elicit feedback from relevant stakeholders and develop an iterative IVR review cycle, wrapping up the project.

Call #2: Begin assessing initial IVR structure.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series

of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 5 to 7 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Phase 1

Focus on the Roots of Your Call Flow Tree

Phase 1

1.1 Understand your customers

1.2 Develop goals for your IVR

1.3 Align goals with KPIs

1.4 Build your initial IVR menu

2.1 Build the second tier of your IVR menu

2.2 Build the third tier of your IVR menu

3.1 Learn the benefits of a personalized IVR

3.2 Review new technology to apply to your IVR

4.1 Gather insights on your IVR's performance

4.2 Create an agile review method

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Building a database of your customers' call drivers
• Developing IVR-related goals and connecting them with your key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Developing the first tier of your IVR menu

This phase involves the following participants:

• Business stakeholders (business analysts, application director/manager, customer service leaders)
• IT project team

Implement a Transformative IVR Approach That Empowers Your Customers

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

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After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

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