Your IVR is your customer’s first point of contact. It’s the step in the customer experience that sets the tone for the entire interaction. When you make a good impression, accomplish a conversion or lose a customer altogether, your IVR was a factor. So to help you build a killer IVR that will leave you customers and your customer service staff smiling, we’ve compiled 4 essential tips:
- Let the customer drive your IVR design. Put the options that’ll be most selected first. If you get twice as many calls for sales than you do for technical support, your menu should reflect that. “For sales, press 1, for technical support, press 2.”
- Respect your customer’s time. Your customers have got better things to do than navigate through your IVR. Do everything you can to make the IVR interaction short and efficient. Indicate to the customer how many options will be available in a menu. “Please select one of the following three options.” Give your callers an easy way to return to the previous menu or to speak to a real agent.
- Make your customers feel at home. Use language that’s comfortable for your primary demographic and keep it consistent. Employ the same professional voice talent for all of your prompts and ensure that an appropriate tone is used.
- Leverage available technology. Take advantage of CTI technology to improve the customer experience: look at implementing advanced functionality like virtual queuing and smart call routing.
We’re all somebody’s customer and simply put, life is too short for crappy IVRs. If you’d like to find out more about keeping your customers and staff happy, get a free demo of what Telax can do for you.