How to Minimize IVR Frustration

In the recent years, customers have become more aware about their choices of the services and service providers. And in the same pattern, self-service has come up with many prospects with which the possibilities for the customers are taking a totally new direction in the customer service environment. For self-service solutions, IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) have helped a lot.

A customer is most satisfied when he finds the best solution in the least time invested. IVRs provide the best possible results and give a long lasting impression on the customer’s mind if they are designed with a thorough approach.

But at times, IVRs do the exact opposite to the customers because they lack few simple and time-saving features. To make an IVR system more productive, the design and the ideas behind its execution is the most important part. Let’s look at this topic in more detail to understand and estimate IVR’s take in the customer service realm and what can make it better.

Simple Menus

It is always better to keep things simple when it comes to designing an interface. A complicated menu may give the customer many options that serve the customer but the best design is the one where customers get more output in the lesser number of options. More options confuse the customers and deter the purpose of self-service with an IVR. To keep the navigation easier, maximum three options should be given at any level.

Time-Saving Features

Some IVRs lack the simplicity factor in navigation. And one has to go through the entire menu just to reach at the right point, which itself is the most frustrating. An impatient customer may not like or remember all the options and may get confused while navigating through the options.

Considering the factors related to impatience and impassivity of the customers, popular choices should be kept early so that the customers do not have to navigate, unnecessarily.

Option to Live Agents

IVRs have proved to be very helpful and customer service has been consolidated with their presence but when a glitch occurs, human interaction has its own advantages, as customers look for an immediate response.

A machine may repeat itself and may not be able to provide the customer with the most suitable solution. In that case, the line to live agent should always remain open so that the customer could get a productive feedback for what he is looking for without any delay.

An Apt Language

Language is an important factor. It should always be user-friendly and should be inclined towards the customer’s interests. No such word should be used that takes a while to be understood by the customer. It leads to a greater reaction time, which holds off the purpose of an IVR.

No More Marketing

Most of the companies do marketing activities during the hold time of a customer’s call but it doesn’t help anyway. Bombarding the customer with too much information doesn’t take the conversation to a meaningful point. For any customer, it is very frustrating to deal with marketing jargons while looking for a service.

So, IVRs should not be used as a channel for marketing. IVRs should be kept strictly purposeful in its communication with the customers.

Customer’s Patience is Thinning

Research has shown that the customer patience has gone thinner in the past decade, gradually. Although the efficiency of customer service has gone much higher with times but when it comes to IVRs, the best practice is to speculate the expectations of the customers beforehand and give them an interface that provides self-service in the meaningful way.