SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Striking a Balance Between the IVR and Agents for a Great Customer Experience

TMCnews


TMCnews Featured Article


July 28, 2011

Striking a Balance Between the IVR and Agents for a Great Customer Experience

By Linda Dobel, TMCnet Contributor


Striking an effective balance between business process automation (BPA) and self-service tools, such as IVR, and live agent interaction is not as elusive as enterprises often think. In fact, the biggest obstacle to achieving this balance may simply be the way enterprises view the value of their technology.


Among the leading BPA and contact center vendors, globally, which possesses a noteworthy track record in helping organizations find this delicate balance is Zeacom. Zeacom (News - Alert) has implemented more than 500 hundred BPA projects across vertical markets – in both the public and private sector – in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

One Zeacom deployment, the Tasman District Council in New Zealand, for example, rolled out an emergency services solution that runs 24x7 without any manual intervention from staff. The Council has fully automated customer service and has provided its residents with a new service that saves lives and helps them protect property and livestock. ROI has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of both customer satisfaction as well as cost savings.

Zeacom President, Ernie Wallerstein (News - Alert), has addressed this topic in many of his industry presentations. He notes that, “For most enterprises public and private, when the idea to implement an IVR solution reaches the table, financial savings is usually the first benefit that comes to mind. However, while IVR deployments do produce considerable savings, it behooves organizations to also focus on the customer experience enhancements they will gain by strategically putting IVR technology to work, in both inbound and outbound capacities.”

It’s best to begin with the common sense notion that different situations and different customer needs will dictate what the balance between self-service and agent-assisted service will look like. For example, the majority of an organization’s customers will be happier with a completely self-service IVR experience for their routine, mundane service needs, as it typically means they can get what they want much more quickly without any hold time. Further, with a speech-based IVR, a customer can quickly find desired information, such as an account balance, payment due date, or delivery status, contained in the company’s online databases and be on their way as soon as the system automatically responds with the information requested using recorded prompts or text-to-speech functionality. The bonus here is that this frees agents from having to handle this caliber of work, which is often repetitive and therefore boring to them, and at the same time, it saves the company money. In addition, when agents are not mired in routine tasks, which often lead to unnecessary errors, they can transition to a proactive sales or up-sell mode and contribute to boosting the bottom line.  

Of course, there are situations in which a customer’s needs can only be addressed by a human agent. Complex, emotional or other situations that require multiple levels of customer verification fall into this category, as do the dwindling number of customers in today’s marketplace who are simply automation phobic and will only deal with a live agent. Nevertheless, the majority of businesses will find that a combination of self-service IVR and agent-assisted service will serve their needs.

One of the ways businesses can strike this optimal balance in the combined use of their self-service and the skills of their agents is to ask their customers to provide feedback about their experience with the IVR/agent configuration and how it affected their experience. This process can be achieved by using the IVR in an outbound mode to survey customers as soon as they have completed a transaction with the company. The feedback received from these outbound IVR-based phone surveys will be essential in determining whether or not the company is providing the desired experience for its customers.

Of course, the IVR in outbound mode can also serve as an excellent resource for businesses that need to broadcast alerts or notifications or reminders. All a company needs to do to set this in motion is to establish the parameters, after which the calling is initiated when certain conditions arise. Keeping customers informed in this manner provides another connection with the company, which can foster allegiance.

The end result for companies that view their investment in IVR technology as an investment in good customer service – and not just a cost savings vehicle – will quickly learn from their customers what automation-human balance is most appealing to them.

Ultimately, by providing a positive customer experience, the reward will be financial gain as well as a higher level of brand loyalty.            

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.


Linda Dobel is a TMCnet Contributor. She has been an editor in the contact center space for more than 25 years, and has the distinction of being the founding editor of Customer Inter@ction Solutions (CIS) magazine. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by John Lahtinen







Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy