How an IVR System Boosts Customer AND Employee Satisfaction

The field of customer service via a phone contact center is constantly changing. But one thing remains a constant. An efficient IVR is one of the best ways to both boost customer satisfaction and employee retention. And IVR can be helpful to even the smallest businesses.

Don’t have an IVR because you are not sure that’s the case? Here are just some reasons why investing in an IVR system is a winning idea.

Better Call Routing

IVR is an extremely powerful tool for routing customers when they call your brand. It allows them to bypass menu options that they do not need, and it enables them to speak their responses or enter them from a keypad so that they are routed quickly to the place they need to be. It’s a convenience that busy consumers love and your overworked employees will appreciate too.

Time – and Sanity – Saving Assistance

An IVR system can be a timesaver for both agents and customers. It can also prevent a lot of frustration. You can set the system up to help customers self-serve if they have simple requests. This ensures that they do not wait to speak to an agent for the answer to an otherwise quick question.

You can make contact center agents available to customers with more difficult requests, and more employees will be free to take these calls when IVR steps in to handle the easier tasks. You put your employees under less stress, and the same is true for your customers.

Greater Brand Accessibility When Your Business is Closed

If your company cannot offer 24/7 customer support – and that is the case for many businesses – an IVR can greatly increase your perceived hours of availability. For requests that can be handled through self-service, an IVR system is ideal as it may empower customers to obtain information when your agents are not there to take calls.

Get More (Useful) Feedback

It’s always a great idea to ask for customer feedback immediately following a call. However, many customers don’t feel comfortable giving such information directly to the agent, and sending the customer a survey on another channel is not the most efficient way to earn their participation.

This is where IVR can help. After they have completed a call you can give the customer the option of answering a brief survey powered by an IVR system. This way, customers can express their honest opinions easily on the same channel of contact.