In a recent Plum Voice blog, the IVR expert suggests that IVR technology is slowly but surely infiltrating the customer service niche. When this technology first hit the scene, it was primarily used in call centers as an auto-attendant and later as a customer service representative, but now, it could be breaking its way into the customer service scene, the company suggests.

“As an auto-attendant, IVR can act as a perfectly respectable receptionist. But IVR has a lot more potential than that because of its direct connection to an organization’s database,” the company details in the post. “Organizations are beginning to see the benefit of IVR as a customer service tool.”

For example, the company mentions that the State of Michigan’s Basic Property insurance program uses its IVR for such related means, as the Michigan Property Insurance Association (MBPIA) is dedicated to ensuring that every resident of the state has access to property insurance at normal rates, regardless of where they happen to live.

Before they invested in IVR, however, the organization resorted to live agents handling their thousands of customers, where they manually fielded calls on a daily basis with the same types of questions.

“But IVRs can do more,” Plum insists. “The MBPIA uses their IVR to field inquiries about individual policies, submitting claims, making payments or initiating refunds. For example, a customer with questions about his or her policy could get answers about their policy status, effective date, expiration date, activity date, coverage and deductibles.”

Bottom line: By implementing an IVR system, organizations can cut costs in their call center by reducing its size, all while improving customer satisfaction through self-service capabilities, which are quick and ever-efficient.

The only way to enjoy these benefits, however, is to invest in a top-notch IVR service provider. Otherwise, all of your hard work and good intentions could go right out the window with your hard earned money. To learn more about the right types of IVR solutions to rely on, click here.

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