Is your IVR working for your company or against it? Too many businesses are missing the incredible opportunities available when they combine a captive audience with a dynamic IVR Phone system. Too many companies provide muzak, or worse, nothing, while their customers, and potential customers, languish on hold, waiting and waiting and making judgements about your firm based on how long they must wait in limbo for the pleasure of speaking to one of your employees.

Typical Call Center Metric review meeting.

Sr. Executive: “Why is our abandon rate so high.”

Operations leader: “Callers are waiting on hold for too long and hanging up.”

Sr. Executive: “How are we going to solve this?”

Operations Leader: “We need to hire more people to answer the phones.”

Sound familiar? “We just need to hire more people” is a common answer to abandoned call problems. Frankly, some companies are truly understaffed for the call volume they are getting and they do need to add some staff. However, that is another topic we will cover in a future article. Let’s focus on the issue at hand. A boring, caller waiting room called the IVR, short for “Interactive Voice Response, ” which is rather ironic since most IVRs are anything but “Interactive.”

IVRs are used mainly to direct traffic for the convenience of the company, not the caller.

The IVR tells the caller to do things in order to get them to the agent or departments the company wants the caller to talk to. The main categories are Sales or Customer Service.

Typical IVR message:

“Thank you for calling ABC Company.

Press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish

Press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service,

Press 3 if you recently made a purchase and have a question

Press 4 if you want to make a return

Please use the keypad on your phone to enter your account number

Thank you, your call will be answered by the next available representative.”

This is not interactive. It directs caller traffic, sure, but it does nothing to engage the caller with your company in the process.    

The longer the caller waits in queue, the more frustrated they can become if they have a complaint, and the less likely they are to make a purchase, if that’s why they were calling, when a sales person answers, finally.

Imagine if your IVR became the equivalent of the check-out counter at the grocery store.

You know the scene.  You are waiting to check out. That wait can be excruciating, especially when the person at the front of the line decides to write a check for their purchase. “Manger to aisle 14 please.”

But wait, as we wait in line we have all of these tabloids to read, discounts on gum and snacks, and energy drinks and crossword books and magazines, and breath mints to consider, and keep us entertained while waiting for the manager to check the check. I just might add a few “impulse purchases to my cart. Wait, did the grocery store just monetize my wait in line?

What if your IVR were half as informative and entertaining as the checkout aisle at the grocery store?

Imagine telling your audience in a brief, but compelling way, about your latest product or service. Your seasonal discounts, answers to common questions and/or where to get answers. You might give the answers to common customer questions on the IVR system. You don’t mind if customers get the answer and hang up. Some abandoned calls are ok, and preferable, if they free up your people to handle higher quality customer interactions like selling and saving sales.

Ask customers questions about their experience with your product. How about a quick, one question survey while on hold?  Would you recommend our company to your friends and family? Press 1 for yes or 2 for no. These simple data could tell you a great deal. Promote your company to those who are showing interest. Major IDEA: Thank your Customers for being, well, Customers!

Tell the callers in the Refund waiting queue why so many people are customers of yours and why they are smart to have decided to be customers. Make them question their return by emphasizing your award-winning product lineup.

Even if your hold time is just 20 seconds, you have time to provide a quick promo for your company, maybe salute the employee of the month, awards your store recently won, community events you are holding and how you are helping the community. There is so much you could say in just a few seconds.

Stop thinking of your IVR as a traffic cop. Think of it as an extension of your marketing and sales department. Resell those who are calling for a refund, upsell customers who are calling about a product before they even speak to a salesperson.

If you do your IVR right, you may be tempted to increase the hold time…not shorten it.

Add some voices to your Interactive Voice Response system and, even if you haven’t invested in Artificial Intelligent voice bots yet, your IVR will begin working for you and generating and retaining revenue in short order.