If you're scared of replacing or updating your existing interactive voice response (IVR) solution because you remember the days when doing so took about the same amount of time and effort as settling the national debt, it's no surprise that you're hesitant. On the flip side, poorly designed or outdated IVR solutions are not only failing to meet your current needs, but they may actually be alienating your customers and negatively affecting your operations, customer satisfaction and sales. Most consumers confess to hating IVRs. They don't – not really – it's poorly designed IVR systems they hate.
Like it or not, it's time to update the IVR. The good news is that most of the pain you're anticipating has gone the same way of the giant box-server IVR. Gone for good.
With newer inbound and outbound IVR solutions, today's solutions providers such as Angel.com (News - Alert) can help you combine the power of the telephone, your data and the Web to generate information-driven communications and transactions – whether they be inbound callers or outbound dialing campaigns. Well-designed interactive voice technology can essentially drive the efficiency of every call, improving business productivity and enhancing caller satisfaction at the same time.
The best point is that many of today's best IVR solutions are offered on-demand, meaning that someone else hosts it, maintains it, updates it, fixes it and generally takes care of it. Angel.com's IVR technology is available on-demand, making it easy to create and deploy the kind of business voice applications you thought you'd couldn't afford to purchase or maintain through a simple Web interface. Best of all, it can be deployed in as little as one day (not the eight to twelve weeks your last IVR took).
Today's IVR solutions can help you drive a more personalized and interactive call experience by using cutting-edge contact center technologies such as speech-to-text and name and address capture. To manage the solution, all you need is a Web connection. Easy to use Site Builder toolkits help you build high-quality IVR systems from your desktop, with the click of a mouse. Best of all, there is little by way of upfront investment involved, no giant boxes gathering dust, no software to maintain and no risk that you'll get stuck with more solution than you need.
Many of these newer IVR systems are more than just “press one” call routing (like your current system). They can automate your basic business functions with advanced IVR functionality and call routing, at the same time helping you reduce costs and improve service levels.
Best of all, your customers will stop hating you for inflicting your old-fashioned and badly designed IVR on them.
For more information about Angel's on-demand IVR solution, visit www.angel.com/solutions/ivr-solutions.jsp.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Chris DiMarco