ivr best practices: is your ivr good? bad? or ugly

IVR Design Best Practices

Rebecca Gibson

Contact Center Solutions Consultant

Interactive Intelligence

www.inin.com ©2012 Interactive Intelligence Group Inc.

IVR Design Best Practices Agenda

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2. The Goal of your IVR

3. IVR Design Best Practices

PART 1

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY


Is This Your IVR?

• Welcome to the CoverYourBack automated insurance

claim filling system.

• If your claim falls into category 1, 3, or 7, press 1.

• If your claim falls into category 4 or 5, press 2.

• If your claim falls into any category other than the ones

already mentioned, press 3.

• For a description of claims categories, refer to page 15,

subparagraph 7a of your Contingencies.com insurance

policy, or press 4.

• If you would like to speak to a claims representative, press

5.


The Good

Sometimes, they prefer it. 66% of

customers prefer IVR to fill a

prescription, 61% prefer IVR to check

flight information, 59% prefer IVR to

check account balances, 53% prefer

IVR to track shipments.

They certainly expect it. 82% of US

adults say they’ve used an automated

touchtone or a speech rec system to

contact customer services within the

last 12 months.

And even like it. 77% value

automated phone service because it’s

available 24/7/365, 40% value they

don’t have to wait for a live agent,

31% cited the ability to obtain

information quickly.

But they HATE to be “contained”.

67% said the ability to speak to a

live agent at any time was necessary

for them to consider an automated

interaction a “great experience.”

Source: Nuance/Forrester 2010


The Bad and the Ugly

Guess what? Customers aren’t always thrilled to

encounter your IVR.


Why Customers Find IVRs “bad or ugly”

• None of the options apply

• Can’t remember all the options

• Don’t know what the options mean

• Can’t get to a live person (and many other variations on

this theme)

• Voice recognition doesn’t understand me

• I have to provide the same information over and over

again

• I’m not even sure if I called the right place

• I have to verbally confirm every answer


How is an IVR like an Escalator?

PART 2

THE GOAL OF YOUR IVR


The Goal of Your IVR

Reduce customer

effort

Increase service

efficiency


The Goal of Your IVR

Increase service efficiency Reduce customer effort

Targeted routing For customer service press 1, tech support press 2

Offload self service To check the status of your claim using our

automated service, press 2.

Use speech to ease complicated

entry Enter your serial number, which is a 15 digit

combination of letters and numbers found

on the bottom of your unit.

Increase revenue If you’d like to place an after hours order,

press 3. To check on the status of an order,

press 4.

Clarify expectations We are experiencing unusually high call

volumes today.

Authenticate callers Enter your customer ID and password now.


1. What is or are the goals of your IVR?

2. How does the IVR benefit your

customers?

3. What is the level of customer effort

required to navigate your IVR?

4. How does the IVR benefit your

company?


The Goal of Your IVR: Reduce Customer Effort

How often do customers cut companies loose because

of terrible service? All the time.

Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service - at least

more readily than to reward delightful service - plays out

dramatically in both phone-based and self-service

interactions.

When it comes to service, companies create loyal

customers primarily by helping them solve their

problems quickly and easily.

Source: Nixon, Freeman, & Toman, Stop Delighting Your Customers, Harvard Business Review, 2010

PART 3

IVR DESIGN BEST PRACTICES


Technology Enables Good Design


IVR Design Best Practices

Use the IVR Design Best Practices Scorecard Yes - Current/planned practice

No - Not current/planned practice

NA - Doesn’t apply in our environment


IVR Design Best Practices: Principle 1

Who are your customers?

What’s your customer service brand?

What’s your business strategy?


Principle 1: Align with Strategy

• We want to identify sales calls quickly and get them to a sales agent as quickly as possible and inform other callers about our web self-service options.

1. Identify the goals of your IVR prior to design.

• Our customers are not web-savvy and may not be comfortable accessing self-service using a keypad.

2. Use your IVR to address your customers’ unique needs and reflect the value of an interaction.


What is the Purpose of Your IVR?

Identify and categorize incoming customer calls

Route appropriate calls

to self-service

Route appropriate calls to a skilled agent

Gather call information for authentication, and to pass

along to the agent, increasing routing accuracy

and call efficiency.


Principle 1: Align with Strategy

3. Reflect your organization’s brand through in-queue music, promotions, and messaging.

• “No one is available to take your call right now. Please leave a message and we will call you as quickly as we can.”

4. Weigh the impact to customer satisfaction when you auto-disconnect or ask a customer to leave a message before they have received service.

• You can “contain” calls within the IVR and force users to self-serve. Beware: this is the IVR feature that causes the most customer dissatisfaction and anger.

5. Carefully consider how difficult you want to make it for customers to connect with live service.


Principle 2: Efficient Customer Interactions

6. Build 4 or fewer options in each menu prompt and 3 or fewer menus prior to reaching service.

• Avoid: For parts replacements, replacement manuals, SmartParts, or other parts programs, please press or say 3 now.

7. Use concise language, avoid superfluous words, and be consistent. Do not use unfamiliar or “insider” terms.

• For customer service, press 1.

8. Describe every action prior to a required key press.

9. Choose an IVR persona and record in consistent formality and vocabulary.


Principle 2: Efficient Customer Interactions

• Press or say 3.

10. Offer touch-tone (DTMF) options for speech applications.

• I did not understand your response. Good bye.

11. Don’t disconnect for user errors, including non-responses.

12. Document hidden options in call flows


Principle 3: Reflect Business & Tech Strategy

• “Are you calling about your 2003 Hyundai Excel?”

13. When possible, provide a customized experience, based on customer data.

• “May I have your account number?” (again)

14. Limit what is request by the IVR to critical information needed for self-service or optimal agent routing. Caller information should “follow” customers through transfers.

15. Collect two phone numbers to increase the accuracy of CTI/screen pop. Gather Home and Alternate Phone in the database.


Principle 4: Monitor and Update

• Call regularly and test all the options to make sure they are working as you expect them to.

16. Test your IVR.

• “30% of our callers access option 3, the self-service order status option. 50% of those callers then opt to speak to an Agent.”

17. Measure and track IVR performance and caller acceptance.


The enterprise wants to save money.

The caller wants to be served.

Usability is the common link that allows

both interests to be safeguarded.

Source: Balentine, It’s Better to be a good Machine, than a Bad Person,

ICMI Press, 2007.


Is This Your IVR?

• Welcome to the CoverYourBack automated insurance

claim filling system.

• To enter a new claim, press 1.

• If you are checking on the status of an existing claim,

press 2.

oEnter your claim number now.

o If you don’t have your claim number, enter the last four digits

of your social security number.

• At any time, if you would like to speak to a claims

representative, press 2.


Exercise: Evaluate an IVR

Locate a competitor’s phone number and navigate their IVR.

1. Take note of the number of menu options and the verbiage used.

Note how long it takes to get through the IVR.

2. What is the goal of the IVR? For example, routing customer to self

service? To the right agent?

3. Do you have an idea of how they are segmenting/routing their calls

from their IVR?

4. In what aspects is the IVR customer-friendly? What are potential

areas of dissatisfaction?

If you’re on a path to talk to an Agent, wait for a answer (time

how long it takes) and say, “Wrong number” before hanging

up. Don’t cause an abandoned call!


Exercise: Evaluate your IVR

Call your company’s primary contact number and navigate

the IVR.

1. Take note of the number of menu options and the verbiage used.

Note how long it takes to get through the IVR.

2. What is the goal of the IVR? For example, routing customer to self

service? To the right agent?

3. Can you tell how calls are segmented or routed based on the IVR?

4. In what aspects is the IVR customer-friendly? What are potential

areas of dissatisfaction?

If you’re on a path to talk to an Agent, wait for a answer (time

how long it takes) and say, “Wrong number” before hanging

up. Don’t cause an abandoned call!

Rebecca Gibson

Contact Center Solutions Consultant

[email protected]

Interactive Intelligence

ivr best practices: is your ivr good? bad? or ugly

Technology

interactive intelligence

customer service press

automated service

bad service

customer service brand

good design

terrible service

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