Customer experience/service has increasingly become an area in which companies compete, so having the right system in place is critical. Have you ever called a business, only to be greeted by a clunky IVR system?

You know the kind we’re talking about. You call in with what seems like a simple enough question or request, only to be bombarded with a long list of unrelated options to choose from and buttons to press before you’re finally put in touch with the right department (hopefully.)

Let’s face it – no one wants to be that company! If your business or organization is relying on an automated system and is at all concerned with customer experience, then you should be using the next-generation in IVR. DiRAD SmartSpeech IVR is an Interactive Voice Response solution that can conversationally interact with callers, while simultaneously filtering through background noise with ease.

The best part? It’s built with NLU (Natural Language Understanding). This gives the system the power to not only listen to and understand the words it’s hearing but to determine the caller’s intent as well.

A caller can dial in and tell the system what it’s looking for in plain language, instead of dialing through a long, pre-recorded list of options. With traditional IVR systems, the auto-attendant will greet a caller, then begin to list off menu options with corresponding buttons or voice commands to route the caller to the appropriate department. Depending on how far down the list their desired options are, this can become an elongated process. In a world where consumers are used to “now, now, now” that is a checkmark against you. And you haven’t even had your first real interaction with them, yet.

According to a recent smallbiztrends.com report, 61% of consumers believe IVR makes for a poor experience. But what makes the interaction so terrible? Almost 63% said it’s because they are “forced to listen to irrelevant options.” Others complained that it stops them from getting through to a live person and the menus are too long or repetitive. On average consumers say they have abandoned 27% of calls they make to a business because they reached an IVR. That’s more than one in four callers.

Here’s a great example – let’s say someone calls a business because they are potentially interested in becoming a customer. With a traditional IVR system, they would be greeted by the auto attendant, then a long list of options will begin to play. Every option they dial generates a new list of options to choose from before they are directed to the correct department.

With DiRAD SmartSpeech IVR that conversation would look more like this:

AUTO ATTENDANT: Thank you for calling XYZ Company – how may I help you?

CALLER: Hi, I’m considering starting service with your company. Can I talk to someone about that?

AUTO ATTENDANT: I understand you would like to speak with someone about becoming a valued customer. Is that correct?

CALLER: Yes.

AUTO ATTENDANT: Great! I’m connecting you with the correct department now.

What a vast difference – the caller got the result they were looking for after answering two very simple questions. Start all your customer service calls on the right foot! To learn more about improving customer experience with DiRAD SmartSpeech IVR, reach out to speak with an experienced member of our staff today.

 

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