Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Creates the Perfect Customer Service Solution

TCN is your IT department “In the Cloud” for all your IVR needs. An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system is usually an automated customer service solution that uses pre-recorded responses to meet caller needs that make your call center rock-n-roll. A good IVR can save your business a ton of money.

When you’re managing a call center, you face a series of unique challenges. Call center work requires a great deal of flexibility due to an often shifting workload and high employee turnover. These challenges are precisely why it’s vital to implement an interactive voice response (IVR) solution that can help route calls effectively while tracking both caller and traffic patterns.

Cloud IVR solutions offer critical insight and control to call center managers responsible for maintaining high agent performance levels and ensuring the legality of daily company activity. Fortunately, deploying a cloud-based IVR solution is simple and allows you to respond to changing business realities on a moment’s notice while ensuring high performance and compliance.

What follows is a more detailed explanation of how a cloud-based IVR solution can assist your business in streamlining call flows and improving overall operational performance by routing customers to the right service agents effectively and quickly.

1. Low Operating Costs

One area where cloud IVR solutions prove very useful is in reducing business expenses. When calls are allowed to flood the call center with zero flow control time and resources can be wasted or misused. Implementing a cloud-based IVR solution is the best way to funnel calls as they come in, segmenting callers into logical groups and then passing them directly to the agent who can best serve their needs.

In addition, if you see regular fluctuation in staff, business contracts, or both, having an effective IVR solution can prevent damage to your bottom line by ensuring that even in high call/low staff situations, your call center is routing customers in the most efficient way possible.

2. Simple Adaptability

Another advantage of using a cloud-based IVR is its scalability. Because the system is not tied to phone hardware, adding and/or removing features, such as branches, is instantaneous and extremely easy. The process is as simple as logging into a web-based dashboard and making changes.

For example, to add an essential announcement for callers to hear when they call in, all you need to do is add the feature to the network. There is also a wide range of video and voice features that can be added or removed as needed. Also of note is the fact that these features are independent of phone hardware, sparing you upgrade expenses while maintaining access to the features you need.

With cloud IVR solutions, there is no need to maintain or install hardware. Also with tiered price plans, you can easily scale your IVR services based on current business needs.

3. System-Wide Redundancy

If you’ve worked with an on-location IVR system before, you already know how critical it is to keep those systems up and running. You’re probably also aware of how easily they can go down. With a cloud-based IVR solution, the chances of downtime are eliminated. This is due to redundant servers and backup equipment, which means that even if a server were to go down, the IVR service stays up and running.

From a business standpoint, this allows you to offer service 24 hours a day with a near-perfect level of uptime. Such stability is difficult to implement in classic on-site IVR configurations. Not to mention, deploying such a system in-house is a rather large business investment. In this respect, cloud IVR solutions allow you to offer high-level solutions to clients without incurring the expense of implementation.

4. Smart Analytical Tools

Cloud IVR also gives you a wealth of analytical strategies & insight. For starters, it allows you to track customer call volume, origin, and timeframe. This proves useful in relation to employee scheduling. Many call centers see higher call volume during certain times of the day or week. By tracking this information, you assure bottlenecks are avoided. This helps cut down on lost business and bad customer response.

On the other end of the equation cloud IVR systems also allow you to track employees. This means you have access to the number of calls taken, overall call duration, percentage of overall work done versus their coworkers, and the amount of time they spend in various states. This allows you to keep track of employee productivity and overall performance. This feature assists in identifying problem employees and coaching rookies.

Cloud IVR solutions offer a rich array of advantages to your company versus more traditional IVR solutions. To recap, they are:

• Scalable, allowing you to customize your IVR system to fit current employee and work volume needs
• Easily Customized, allowing the easy addition and removal of added features
• Highly Stable, with high uptimes and resistant to service outages
• Analytics Workhorses that offer a wide selection of useful information allowing you to appropriately manage both employees and business needs.

If your company requires IVR upgrades or is looking to change your current IVR system, please request a demo today!