Let’s face it; customers hate bad interactive voice response (IVR). You’d think it would stand for something along the lines of “idiotic vicious redundancy”, rather than something that is supposed to bolster business continuity and customer satisfaction. The so-called problem, however, continually resides in the fact that IVR is oftentimes not handled as it should be.

One industry, which usually takes the heat for such systems, is banking, where many set up a contact center strategy only to leave as is. By leaving your contact center unpreserved instead of constantly looking for room for improvement, it can seem like a difficult task to optimize the customer experience within the contact center.

Paul Logan likens it to putting together a puzzle. When it comes to running a successful financial institution, you need to have all of the pieces perfectly fit into place. In this case, all of those pieces are customer interaction data from a variety of communication channels, including Web chat, e-mail, phone, website, social media and IVR.

When your puzzle is missing a piece, you’re left with a big gaping hole exposing the raw underside of what couldn’t be adequately put together to see the big picture. “If any channel is ignored, the enterprise misses major pieces of the puzzle determining customer experience and customer service benchmarks,” he explains, adding that one channel in particular which goes unnoticed is IVR.

“IVR remains a high-use service channel for consumers wanting their financial information quickly and as an important first touch on the way to an agent,” he continues. “But, many financial institutions overlook the improvement potential of their IVR programs. IVR is crucial to great customer service; plus, it can save banks a considerable amount of money when it is engaged instead of live agents. In fact, a side-by-side cost comparison shows that calls engaging live agents cost 10 times as much as similar, automated interactions.”

In light of this, Logan provides eight foolproof ways to completely transform your IVR to take it from so-so to go-to.

1. Research – While you may be chomping at the bit to restructure your current IVR, you have to remember that all successful accomplishments are done by taking one step at a time. Usually, the first step in this process is performing thorough research to put a solid plan in place. Logan suggests doing so to mine data from your IVR to identify where customers are spending the most time. This will then help you complete quicker and easier customer interactions.
2. Personalization – It’s one thing to pull up some old information about a caller when they get on the line, but it’s another thing to truly tie your customer data to personalization. “If you are properly tracking each customer interaction, you can blend that with what you know about each customer to personalize future communications with customers in the IVR, [which] leads to an increased in the customer’s preference for automation, which in turn leads to higher automation rates, increased customer satisfaction, and an overall better experience,” Logan insists.
3. Channel Consistency – “Linking the IVR to other service channels can make the service experience more cohesive,” Logan advises. For instance, if a customer checks a balance online and then over the phone, the system should ensure that those numbers are the same. Additionally, the IVR should recognize at the beginning of the call what form of communication the customer is using to resolve a problem, such as if they’re using Web chat, etc.
4. Removing the Fluff – De-cluttering your current IVR system allows more room and flexibility for the caller to more quickly hear menu options, and therefore be more quickly taken care of. So if you have a lonesome menu option that has never or is rarely being used, ditch it or re-work to make it more appropriate. Bottom line: If the IVR is too cluttered, uses jargon that’s not understood or wastes a customer’s time, they will seek an agent, Logan explains in a nutshell.
5. Making the “0” Less Obvious – “Give consumers some credit – they aren’t naïve,” Logan reasons. “They know they are talking to a machine, and by now, most of them know that they can press ‘0’ at any time to reach a live agent.” To avoid the hovering thumbs over that dreaded number, try to have your IVR not remind them too many times. “Callers pressing zero don’t help themselves as much as they think.”
6. Simplify Authentication – “Fear has made many enterprises over-authenticate callers. Without sacrificing security, make authentication as simple and as quick as possible,” says Logan, by using intrinsic information as much as possible, for example.
7. Set an Automation Target (News - Alert) – By setting a realistic improvement goal, you won’t run the risk of forcing too much automation too fast, and thus have your customer suffer as a result. “This continuous improvement approach is important so that you don’t dissuade your customers from increasing their self-service usage, frustrate them, and send them to higher costs channels. Slow and steady wins this race,” Logan says.
8. Don’t Automate Everything – “Neither your IVR, nor your agents can handle everything, so it's important to understand the strengths of each channel,” Logan explains. “If a process is too complicated, automation may not be the best channel to give the customers a positive experience.”

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