10 reasons why you need a contact center IVR

Do you think IVRs are a waste of money or that it will turn your customers them away? You might change your mind after reading this.

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a telephony menu system that enables identification, segmentation, and routing of callers to the most appropriate agent within your team. IVR systems are essential elements of modern contact centers. And if you think they are too hard to set up, require sophisticated telephony or hardware or software to install, that’s not true.

Contact center IVR systems are time-saving and cost-effective. They will quickly and accurately every call with the appropriate agent, saving time for your teams and your customers—thus increasing your contact center efficiency.

Nowadays, most contact center solutions offer IVRs that can be easily configured. Talkdesk Voice Engagement, for example, allows you to create call flows simply and without any coding expertise. But if you’re still skeptical, you can find 10 strong reasons to use a contact center IVR below.

10 reasons why you should use a contact center IVR.

1. They’re easy to set up.
As we mentioned before, contact center IVR systems don’t require technical expertise to be implemented. With more progressive IVR technologies, all that is required is an internet connection and a browser. Your IVR will take a few minutes to set up— you can use pre-recorded messages to expedite the setup process.

2. They’re customer friendly.
Customers are used to interacting with an IVR. When you limit the number of prompts, they will be immediately directed to an agent who is most qualified to address their issues or concerns. This saves time both to customers and contact center teams and increases customer satisfaction and agent efficiency.

3. They allow you to automate customer support.
Automation has proven to be a great tool for customers to self-service, reducing caller wait time or preventing the need for a call entirely. Contact center IVRs provide your customers with the option of helping themselves, solve their own problems, and obtain relevant information without speaking with an agent.

4. They give your customers a personalized experience.
With IVRs you can record customized greetings, messages, and prompts. You can record as many greetings as you would like so customers have a unique and personalized experience each time they call.

5. They reduce transfer errors.
IVRs transfer calls to the most appropriate agent or department, without fail. Thus, the probability that the caller is transferred to the wrong agent or department significantly decreases.

6. They allow you to prioritize calls-based value.
IVRs will route VIP customers directly to your team member who is most qualified to meet their needs.

7. They improve your company’s credibility. 
You can use a contact center IVR system to improve the credibility of your company. The IVR will greet your customers professionally and you can use it to make it seem that your company has more departments and employees than you actually have.

8. They improve customer service and agent and company efficiency.
IVRs allow agents to be more proficient at meeting the specific needs of the callers that are routed to them. With IVRs, your agents will be less likely to place calls on hold, call a manager for help, or transfer the call to another agent with more experience. This results in a significant improvement in customer service, agent, and company efficiency.

9. They’re affordable.
IVRs are not just for enterprise companies. With cloud-based technology, there are no costly setups or maintenance costs, no expensive hardware or software to install, and are affordable. Any company can afford one, no matter what their budget.

10. They increase revenue.
More customers who are more satisfied will be more likely to buy your product or service. When you improve customer service and agent efficiency, you increase your business revenue.

Before you go.

Any company can clearly benefit from implementing a contact center IVR. If this blog has changed your mind, you might want to:

• Find new strategies to build customer loyalty through the contact center.
• Get a deeper insight into how automation tools improve the customer experience.
• Learn more about Talkdesk Omnichannel Engagement™—a way to connect to your customer with crystal-clear voice quality, unmatched reliability, and personalization that reflects your brand.