Do customers love or hate IVR? This week, Fonolo’s (News - Alert) marketing manager, Chris Zaibak, published an article on CustomerThink.com suggesting that all customers despise IVR systems and that voice response should be replaced with Web or mobile interfaces.

Interaction Corporation found that customers who have negative IVR experiences will not only shun the company that delivered the terrible experience but also will share those experiences with friends and family. Customers still rely on the technology, however, because the IVR is the gateway to reaching a live customer service agent, which is their preferred form of interacting with companies.

According to Interaction, the problem isn’t a contact center problem; it’s a customer experience problem. To find out more information about their IVR experiences survey, click here.

In an article entitled “3 Horrible IVR System Practices That are Dragging You Down,” TMCnet editor Allison Boccamozzo pointed out that the problem isn’t with IVR itself. “The problem with IVR systems is that it’s hard to design a good one and easy to design a bad one.” She reviewed three IVR practices that could be dragging your organization down.

One ineffective practice includes developing long and complex menus. No menu, for example, should exceed four choices. Also, the amount of information required from customers should be kept to an absolute minimum. Finally, companies should ensure that voice prompts are easy to understand and should shell out to hire real voice talent to make sure they are satisfying their customers.

For more information on IVR practices to avoid, click here.

IVR can actually help customers making certain types of transactions to avoid concerns about human error. When making credit card transactions, IVR combined with voice biometrics and a PIN ensures that customer information is transmitted accurately and protected. Also, when fraud does take place, David Baker, the VP of Sales for Servion, suggests that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the call center manager’s friend.

For more of Baker’s analysis and information on how IVR prevents fraud in the call center, click here.

Fortunately, the world of IVR wasn’t all about hand-wringing and navel-gazing this week. Two companies released some exciting new services. Cyara released an updated IVR performance and testing suite, while Radish took Chris Zaibak’s advice and released an API for Visual IVR that allowed visual menus and visual input as well as data and photo input.

You’ll never have to “Press or Say ‘1’” when you tune into TMCnet’s IVR Community. The latest information on IVR for any week is just a click away with TMCnet’s comprehensive industry reporting.

With this, we conclude our IVR Community Week in Review. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next week!

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