Recently, Plum Voice blogged about the two clear-cut customer scenarios that come into play considering interactive voice response (IVR) technology, citing Justin Lemrow of CRM Magazine, who essentially says that IVR applications are pretty black and white in that they either work in favor of or against your company’s brand image and bottom line. Clearly, the last place you want to be is on the latter half of this heavy accusation.

The first entails the customer calling into an IVR application, only to eventually become aggravated with the fact that they can’t reach their desired destination, thus getting caught in the infamous, sticky spider Web of confusing, entangled menu options.

The reason why this is so frustrating is because on average, a call is placed to find a specific piece of information, not to hear regurgitated general information that we already know. Due to this, the second situation consists of a much more pleasant outcome, where the customer calls seeking a specific bit of information and is in fact able to seamlessly navigate through the application via both vocal direction and touchtone keypad entry. This fast and efficient type of caller experience is ideal, leaving the customer thoroughly satisfied with their experience.

“Which category does your IVR service fall into, and what does it say about your brand?” poses Plum in its blog.

The blog continues by citing Lemrow, who explains that “customer experience stories – both good and bad – can spread all over the world in no time, thanks to social media.” The guy makes a good point, too. With the advent of social media came a new way to unabashedly and anonymously ruin companies’ reputations in seconds. “Social media sites and the Internet enable anyone and everyone to review and disseminate their thoughts and feelings about a brand or an experience immediately,” Plum adds.

In other words, when your IVR system is faltering, it could rob you of a positive customer interaction, which ultimately costs you business continuity. The goal at the end of the day is to try to improve and streamline customer interactions with the use of IVR, but what are some of the critical features you need to ensure your IVR application has to guarantee a positive customer experience?

Stay tuned for part two to see the rest of this story!