Firstly, what exactly is #IVR? There are 2 basic levels of an IVR, the first is where it is used to filter a customer’s call to ensure that the call is sent through to a customer service agent who has the appropriate skills to hopefully answer the enquiry accurately ensuring a high percentage of first time call resolution; let’s call this a menu-based IVR. The second IVR design is to allow a customer to self-serve i.e. fulfil their enquiry without needing to speak to an agent.
Menu-based IVR: The general problem with the design of this form of IVR is that the menu tree is too deep and the customer gets lost navigating. Ideally there should only be 2 levels of menu with a maximum of 5 options on each level; if this is not sufficient to route a customer call to the team with the correct skills, then your organization is too complex! At the end of the menu options there should be some form of reference on how to be directed to the general inbound queue in case the options do not satisfy the customer’s enquiry. If a customer has entered a menu selection then when the call is routed to an agent with the appropriate skills to handle this selection the agent should be notified on their terminal what options a customer has entered. There is nothing more annoying as a customer than being asked “How can I help you today” when you have already selected the option “I wish to know the balance in my account”, for example. This ideally should be coupled with caller line identification #CLI which in conjunction with computer telephony integration #CTI should allow an agent to have all details about the customer on their screen before the call is answered by referencing the enterprise Customer Relationship Management#CRM system.
Therefore in the following example the process would be as follows:
The other area that should be avoided if you operate a contact centre that offers different language options is an agent answering the phone in a language that the customer has not selected! I live in Belgium currently and nothing annoys me more than having selected the option to speak English then the agent answering the call in Flemish – like the required service selection, the choice of language should be shown to an operator.
By following the above simple steps then the Customer Experience can be greatly improved and the following benefits realized:
Remember CSAT = ESAT (Customer Satisfaction = Employee Satisfaction)
In my next article I will describe the design considerations of implementing a new voice self-service solution & the benefits to the customer & organisation.
(All views expressed are my own and do not represent those of any organization I work for)
Publish Date: July 8, 2013 8:23 AM |
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