Just when you thought IVR technology was fading away, new methods of optimizing customer communication make their way into our business world. The way you think about IVR is nothing like it was 20, 10 or even 5 years ago.
New technologies have streamlined IVR in ways that might surprise you, and in an attempt to become more customer centric, companies are exploring them.
If IVR could help you do the following, would you rethink your perception about it?
What if IVR had the following end results:
- Enabling you to cater to a wider demographic
- Providing your customers with a personalized experience
- Helping your customers faster
- Telling you what your clients want
- Fully automating your communication between customers
Today’s IVR can do that. Here’s what you may not have known about modern day IVR technology.
Language Versatility
New IVR technology strives to connect your business with multiple cultures across the world. But even if you operate locally, adapting your IVR to accommodate different languages instantly broadens your potential customer base.
Adding common language preferences like Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Portuguese to your communication capabilities will connect you with those in your surrounding areas who don’t speak English—or prefer not to.
If you’re operating in a non-English country, why not add English to your IVR system? Grow your company by reaching out to more people, and adapt to the global hub where English is the most commonly spoken language.
How Does Language Versatility Make You More Customer Centric?
Customers appreciate being dealt with in the language they are comfortable with. You are sure to attract customers of different languages as well as retain them with your efforts to accommodate them.
Remembering Individuals
Personalizing the customer experience is what customer centricity is all about. Modern IVR technology now learns from past calls. It can:
- Tell what the caller’s personal preferences are
- Access the caller’s personal account details
- Put the caller through to the desired department
- Collect statistics on that called for future reference
This is what we call intuitive IVR. It’s a breakthrough in technology that essentially adds an AI element to your communication system. Since your customers prefer quick service over human-to-human interaction, this technology leaves them feeling satisfied with their call.
How Does IVR Memory Result in Customer Centricity?
Customers want to be remembered. Most of them would prefer dealing with the same automated system every time they call, rather than a different call centre agent each time. This results in higher efficiency at resolving calls, quicker calling up or updating of details, and the ability to handle more call queries per day.
Instant Assistance
Today’s IVR technology has presented businesses with streamlined communication. With the help of Smartphone technology, customers can now communicate with you wherever they are. But your company must adapt to this convenience, or you’ll be left behind competitively.
Adapt your IVR technology to accommodate app-based software where users can access and initiate changes they want. Give them the control they need to assist themselves, and they’ll appreciate your efficiency.
Payment methods can also be added to make accounting a simpler process. IVR technology has reached so far as to assist in this. Investing in this kind of technology is essential to surviving an ever-changing global climate.
How Can Smart IVR Technology Make Your More Customer Centric?
By handing control back to the customer, you are giving them the convenience and speed they want to feel satisfied and well served. Customers will grow so accustomed to the convenience you offer with your IVR system that they will be unlikely to leave you for a competitor.
Gathering Feedback
Did you know that intuitive IVR keeps records of all your client information? Not just personal information, but also all preferences that are evident during calls. IVR systems can now personalize your customers’ experiences more than call centre agents because it’s one system that remembers everything.
Gathering this kind of feedback makes you more customer centric because:
- Customers feel valued when they are remembered
- Calls are handled quicker because that feedback is never forgotten
- Feedback statistics give you a map on how to please customers
- By learning what your customers want, you can shape your company to bring in more of them
Competency
One of the main reasons call centres have such a bad rep is because of the inefficiency at which they assist customers. Since the point of a help centre is to help customers, why do so many customers feel frustrated after speaking to a consultant?
I’ve been on both ends of phone, and this is my theory:
- The majority of customers want to deal with an automated system rather than a fallible person.
- Customers hate having to call back only to speak to a different person. The customer therefore experiences varying levels of service based on the individual they are talking to.
- People have a tendency to be inefficient. Their personal lives, personalities and social skills have a great bearing on whether the customer ends up satisfied in the end.
- People forget. They forget to record notes, they forget to send invoices and they forget to call back.
It’s an inescapable truth: customers feel more comfortable with technology. It’s more reliable, more efficient and much quicker.
Full Customization
After working with many different companies over the years, one thing I’ve realized is that every company is different. The culture is different, the processes are different, and the chemistry between workers is different.
New IVR caters for any company by presenting itself as a sandbox system—meaning you can tweak multiple different settings to make it suit the way you do business.
IVR has come a long way. It’s had to in order to survive the changing market. Today’s IVR is sure to become a part of our every day lives as more and more companies adopt this superior business tool.
