Getting the most out of your IVR can make a world of difference in your company. The only problem is that this information can be hard to know, especially if this is your first time needing to know it at all.
That’s alright because the internet provides a lot of information on this topic so that you can be sure that you’re making your IVR look and feel amazing both for your agents and for your callers. Today we’re going to be looking at our 9 top tricks to make this happen.
1. Testing, Testing, Testing
If you want a system that runs well, you can’t just set it up and forget about it. You have to constantly test the software to make sure that it’s always working at its full capacity. This can mean a lot of different things.
Regardless of how it manifests for your company, ensuring that you have tests run at least once a month can cut back on the number of serious issues that your company faces as a result of major technical issues happening. It’s always better to catch those earlier rather than later.
2. Make It Easy To Talk To A Customer Service Representative
Some tasks are really easy and don’t require the assistance of an agent, but there are other tasks that are a lot more difficult and definitely could use the aid of one of your customer service representatives. Making sure that your agents are easy to get to is a must if you want your IVR to work well.
Most companies just have the hidden option to hit the “0” button so they can be connected to an agent at any time. This is a pretty good idea because it’s universally understood to work this way and most callers will try this first.
3. Don’t Force Everyone To Talk To A Customer Service Representative
While some things do require the help of a human, not every task does. Making sure that your menu allows for customers to do things with an automated system can save both the caller and your agents some time for their call, as well as a bit of frustration,
4. Get Your Menus In Order
Your menus are important. Making sure that everything is lined up well can ensure that you’re going to get the most out of your IVR. Your callers want to get to where they’re going with minimal issues, so getting your menus in order can make a world of difference.
5. Offer An Faqs Menu
An FAQs menu can help your callers get basic information about your company without having to talk to an agent about it. Most commonly people will include things like business hours and office locations on this kind of menu to make things as easy as possible for everyone involved.
6. Make Sure That Your Phone Tree Is Routed Correctly
If you have a phone tree set up, make sure that the calls actually go where they’re supposed to. If someone is calling to speak with Keith from billing but ends up on the line with Sam from sales, they’re probably not going to feel like your company cares about them as a customer.
7. Do Frequent Test Calls
Doing test calls is the only way to make sure that you’re getting everything right. You can have everything theoretically set up perfectly, but if you don’t do any test calls there’s no way for you to be sure that everything is running smoothly in practice.
8. Look Over The Settings In Your Menus
Your software for your IVR more than likely has all sorts of settings for your to play with. Making sure that these are in order occasionally can help both you and your callers have a better experience with the IVR in general. It only takes a few minutes to get this done.
9. Offer Bi-Lingual Support
Not everyone speaks English, so making it as easy as possible for your callers to get to someone that speaks their language is a good idea. Most people put this at the beginning of their calls to ensure that everyone can get to the right place even more quickly.
You can set up a separate tree in a different language for each agent you have that speaks a certain language, it’s that easy. You might need a little help with translation but a lot of software can automatically do that part for you, making this task nearly effortless.
Optimizing the IVR
Your IVR is important. It’s what makes your call center run. Getting it set up in the most optimal way possible can make everything about your business run that much more smoothly on a daily basis, regardless of how large or small your call center happens to be.