Ever wondered why your business calls are not converting as much as they should?
Are you putting customers on hold? Or hanging up on them so you can get the right person to attend to them? The average customer sees that your business is not organized, especially if you put them on hold for a long time as they wait to speak to the right person to attend to them.
People now have a shorter attention span, and their tolerance level is also shorter. Everyone wants to be attended to immediately, else they go to your competitors. So how can you solve this?
Interactive voice response. That’s the simple answer. Let’s show you how a PressOne interactive voice response (IVR) will make you attend to customers faster, and convert them before you can say “Jack Robinson”
Table of Contents
ToggleWhat is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?
IVR is an automated phone assistant that interacts with callers, providing a convenient and efficient way to access information, make requests, or resolve issues over the phone. Here is how IVR works:
- Answers phone calls automatically
- Understands voice commands (what you say) and keypad inputs (what you type)
- Responds with pre-recorded voice messages
- Guides callers through menus and options
- Helps callers complete tasks or find information without human assistance
Example:
Let’s explain how IVR works using a Nigerian business example:
Imagine you call GTBank’s customer service number. Instead of speaking to a human immediately, you hear a friendly automated voice saying:
“Welcome to GTBank. Press 1 for account inquiries, 2 for transaction issues, or 3 to speak with a representative.”
You press 1, and the voice responds:
“Enter your account number, followed by the pound sign.”
You enter your account number, and the voice says:
“Your account balance is N100,000. Press 1 to hear your transaction history.”
This is IVR at work. It’s like an automated phone assistant that guides you through menus and options to help you get what you need quickly and easily.
No more waiting for a human representative or getting transferred from one person to another. IVR makes it fast and convenient
For example, PressOne IVR eliminates the use of multiple business phone numbers. There is a centralized system where all activities can be monitored regardless of how many branches or locations your business has
Benefits of Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Here is how Interactive voice response (IVR) is a great benefit to businesses.
- 24/7 availability
- Reduced wait times
- Cost saving
- Better customer experience
- Useful for data collection
- Helps in scaling
- Language and dialect support
- Brand consistency
- Reduced errors
- Make special offers to customers
1. 24/7 availability
Interactive voice response operates around the clock, supporting your customers anytime
Imagine you are a business owner in the hospitality industry, and you run a hotel. One of your guests needs to request extra towels at 2 AM. With IVR, they can simply call the hotel’s customer service number and interact with the automated voice system.
IVR: “Welcome to Pierre Dominique Hotel Abuja. Press 1 for room service, 2 for housekeeping, or 3 for front desk.”
You press 2, and IVR responds:
“Housekeeping. Press 1 for extra towels, 2 for cleaning, or 3 for other requests.”
You press 1, and IVR says:
“Extra towels will be delivered to your room within 30 minutes. Thank you for choosing Transcorp Hilton Abuja.”
Without IVR, you might have to wait until morning to request extra towels or disturb the front desk staff. But with IVR, you get help anytime, even in the middle of the night!
This 24/7 availability ensures that your customers receive prompt support, improving their overall experience and satisfaction with your business.
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2. Reduced wait times
Interactive voice response greatly reduces wait times for customers. Research shows that reducing long wait times keeps customers happy and loyal to your business.
Imagine you have a food delivery app called “BiteDash”. Without IVR, customers calling to track their orders or make inquiries might wait for several minutes to speak with a representative. This leads to frustrated customers who abandon your app and go to your competitors, especially if they are hungry. They have no reason to stay with you or keep on trying. It even gets worse if they have established a pattern with your wait times.
However, with PressOne IVR, your food delivery app can automate responses to common queries like:
“Press 1 to track your order”
“Press 2 to make a new order”
“Press 3 to speak with a representative”
This reduces wait times significantly, as customers get the information they need quickly. For example, a customer can simply press 1 to track their order and get an update on delivery status, without waiting for a representative.
Reduced wait times benefit your business by:
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Reducing abandoned calls and lost orders
- Freeing up representatives to handle complex issues
- Improving overall customer experience and loyalty
By reducing wait times, you can easily enhance customer satisfaction, reduce losses, and gain a competitive edge in the food delivery market.
3. Cost saving
Looking to make your support and sales staff more efficient and not spend all their time attending only to numerous customers with the same requests? Turn to PressOne IVR. Easily automate everyday phone call requests and reduce the need for your staff to attend to all these calls.
Think of interactive voice response as a robot that can handle routine tasks, freeing up your staff to focus on complex issues.
Without IVR, you will need to hire many human agents to answer every customer call, including simple queries that customers seem to ask frequently.
With IVR, these routine tasks are automated, so customers get answers quickly without needing to speak with a human agent. This means that, as a business owner, you can:
- Reduce the number of human agents needed
- Save on salaries, training, and benefits
- Allocate agents to handle complex issues, improving resolution rates
By automating routine tasks, interactive voice response helps your business save money on operational costs, making customer service more efficient and cost-effective.
4. Better Customer Experience
What makes customers feel special? Personalized experiences. This is what a PressOne IVr can help you with. IVR makes customers feel special and valued because it offers personalized interactions with customers.
Imagine you are a Lagos-based healthcare provider, you own a hospital called Reddington Hospital. A patient calls to inquire about your appointment schedule. With interactive voice response, the patient is first greeted with a personalized message:
“Welcome to Reddington Hospital. Please enter your patient ID or phone number to access your appointment details.”
After entering the ID, IVR responds:
“Good morning, Mr. Johnson. Your appointment with Dr. Victoria is scheduled for 2 PM today. Press 1 to confirm or 2 to reschedule.”
This personalized interaction makes you feel valued and special like Reddington Hospital knows you individually. IVR helps businesses like Reddington Hospital provide a better customer experience by:
- Addressing customers by name
- Providing tailored information and solutions
- Offering convenient self-service options
- Reducing wait times and improving response rates
By making customers feel valued and special, IVR helps Reddington Hospital build trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among its patients.
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5. Useful for data collection
Think of IVR as a super-efficient data collector. When customers interact with IVR, it captures valuable information like:
- Call volume and frequency
- Customer preferences and behaviors
- Common queries and issues
- Response times and resolution rates
Interactive voice response stores this data, making it easy for you to analyze and understand customer needs, preferences, and pain points. With these insights, you can:
- Identify trends and patterns
- Make informed decisions about products, services, and operations
- Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Develop targeted marketing campaigns
For example, Reddington Hospital, the former listed example, can analyze IVR data to:
- Identify the most common reasons for patient calls
- Make appointment scheduling processes easier
- Improve patient engagement and retention
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6. Helps in scaling
IVR grows with your business. It helps in scaling by adapting to call volumes, making it perfect for growing businesses. No matter how many the number of calls your business receives, IVR matches it easily.
Here’s an explanation of how IVR can help your business scale
Tony Oye is the founder of an online marketplace. As the platform grows, more customers call to inquire about products, sellers, and deliveries. Without interactive voice response, Mr. Tony needs to hire a large team to handle the increased call volume, which can be costly and challenging to manage.
IVR solves this problem by:
- Scaling up or down to match changing call volumes
- Providing consistent customer service, even during peak periods
- Handling multiple calls simultaneously, reducing wait times
With PressOne IVR, you can easily:
- Handle growing customer volumes without sacrificing service quality
- Focus on improving the online marketplace experience, not just answering phones
- Expand services and operations without worrying about phone system limitations
- Maintain a professional image and reputation, even during periods of rapid growth
7. Language and dialect support
Another great benefit of interactive voice response is that it is available in multiple languages, to cater to customers who speak different languages.
PressOne is a leading telecom provider for African businesses. Let’s imagine PressOne customers speak various languages like Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and English. Without IVR, PressOne would need to hire representatives fluent in each language, which can be costly.
IVR solves this problem by:
- Offering support for multiple languages and dialects
- Enabling customers to interact in their preferred language
- Providing consistent customer service across languages
- Helping you reach a broader customer base
With IVR, PressOne can easily:
- Cater to customers in their native languages, improving understanding and satisfaction
- Reduce language barriers and miscommunication
- Increase accessibility for customers with limited English proficiency
- Enhance customer experience and loyalty
8. Brand consistency
Have you ever spoken to different staff in a business and they all represented the brand differently? IVR helps ensure that every customer interaction sounds and feels like your business, every single time.
When a customer calls your customer service number, they expect a certain level of quality and professionalism.
IVR maintains brand consistency by:
- Using standardized greeting and menu options
- Providing clear, concise, and accurate information
- Ensuring a uniform tone and language across all interactions
- Reinforcing your brand identity and values
With PressOne IVR, you can:
- Deliver a consistent customer experience, building trust and loyalty
- Align customer interactions with their brand promise and values
- Differentiate themselves from competitors through unique branding
- Strengthen their brand reputation and image
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9. Reduced errors
Since interactive voice response automates tasks and processes, it reduces human involvement where mistakes frequently occur by providing clear and concise instructions and options
This ensures consistent and accurate information delivery and reduces miscommunication and misunderstandings
With IVR, you can:
- Decrease errors caused by human fatigue, stress, or lack of training
- Ensure accuracy and consistency in customer interactions
- Improve overall quality and reliability of customer service
- Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty
10. Make special offers to customers
Here’s the cherry on top. You can use IVR to promote special offers and promos to customers. The key is to use the IVR system to provide valuable information, personalized offers, and clear call-to-action that drive customer engagement and sales.
For example, let’s say you’re running a promo that allows new customers to get 10 percent off their first order.
When a customer calls your business, the IVR system greets them with:
“Welcome! Are you a new customer? Get 10 percent off your first order. Press one now to claim this”
If the customer presses 1, the IVR system provides more information on how to get 10 percent of their first order
This same method works if you’re running a new campaign that you want existing customers to know about. You could even incentivize them by giving discounts to the first 10 people who register
By using IVR to promote your special offers and campaigns, you can:
- Increase customer awareness and interest
- Drive sales and revenue through targeted promotions
- Enhance customer experience through personalized offers and information
Ready to convert customers easily and make them happy and loyal?
Common IVR Use Cases (for Business Owners)
Here are common IVR use cases and the industries where they are used
1. Customer Service and Support
IVR helps customers find answers to frequent queries, routes calls to appropriate agents, and reduces wait times.
Examples of industries:
- Retail and E-commerce (e.g., handling product inquiries, returns, and exchanges)
- Telecommunications (e.g., troubleshooting internet connectivity issues)
- Healthcare (e.g., answering patient questions, scheduling appointments)
2. Phone Surveys and Feedback
IVR collects customer feedback, opinions, and data through automated surveys, helping businesses improve their products and services.
Examples of industries:
- Hospitality (e.g., gathering guest feedback on hotel stays)
- Financial Services (e.g., collecting customer satisfaction feedback on banking services)
- Automotive (e.g., surveying customers on car dealership experiences)
3. Appointment Scheduling and Reminders
IVR assists customers in scheduling appointments, sends reminders, and reduces missed appointments
Examples of industries:
- Healthcare (e.g., scheduling doctor’s appointments, sending reminders)
- Beauty and Wellness (e.g., booking salon appointments, sending reminders)
- Home Services (e.g., scheduling maintenance appointments, sending reminders)
4. Order Taking and Processing
IVR enables customers to place orders, track status, and access account information, streamlining sales and customer service.
Examples of industries:
- Food Delivery and Takeout (e.g., ordering food, tracking delivery status)
- Retail and E-commerce (e.g., placing orders, tracking shipping status)
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Supply (e.g., ordering prescriptions, tracking delivery status)
5. Information and Directory Services
IVR provides customers with business hours, location, and contact information, helping them find what they need quickly and easily.
Examples of industries:
- Retail and Hospitality (e.g., providing store hours, location, and contact information)
- Education (e.g., providing school hours, location, and contact information)
- Government Agencies (e.g., providing office hours, location, and contact information)
What business do you run? PressOne IVR can help you improve customer experience and drive conversions easily. Ready?