Does anyone have any tips on how to improve the menu on an IVR system?
In particular anything that would make it easier for a caller to navigate the system.
Call Centre Helper Forum » Call Centre Management
IVR Menu Tips
(3 posts)
IVR systems have a bad reputation despite being a hugely valuable tool for the call centre. Designed well, they can ensure that the caller gets to the most appropriately skilled agent to handle their call or even allow the caller to complete their transaction without needing to speak to an agent (balance enquiry, transfer funds, authenticate a new credit card, etc). Done badly, IVR systems become a huge source of irritation and frustration to callers - there is nothing more frustrating than being asked for your account number and PIN by the IVR and then being asked to confirm the same information by the agent you are (eventually) routed to, or being routed to an agent who cant help you!
So, to your question! If you have an existing IVR, test it regularly and make sure that it works! Do all of the options connect you to the service you require? Are the menus intuitive and obvious? Are the most regularly required services (rather than the most often selected) at the front of the menu? Am I asked to repeat any of the same information when I get presented to the agent? Ask your own employees to use it and see how they react to it - if they dont like it, you can be sure your customers wont. If it's a new solution, try thinking about it from a different perspective.
In general, I have found there are two key principles to IVR design -
1) Keep it simple! For call steering, keep any menu options to 4 or less, and dont have more than 2 levels of options. For self service applications, start with the most easiest, high volume services (such as account balance) and build up from there. Dont try and automate complex transactions - pass these calls to an agent, they like complex stuff and they are good at it!
2) Design it from the caller's perspective, not your internal process. Make it obvious and intuitive. Put the most common options first. Dont ask for information that you are not going to use, and ensure that any information you do collect gets presented to the agent handling the call along with the call.
Standard touch tone or DTMF IVR still has it's place for simple transactions (especially ones requiring the collection of large numbers of digits, such as credit card or account numbers) but for a more natural customer experience, the transition to natural language speech recognition is a must. Technologies, such as "Say Anything", allow a more natural automated "conversation" than numerical menus.
IVR really can be a good thing if implemented well - for both the call centre (reduced agent talk time, improved customer segmentation) and the customer (getting to speak to the right person first time, not having to speak to an agent at all for simple transactions).
Sorry - long answer to a short question but I hope this helps.
Posted 1 year ago #
A number of fairly simple guidelines can be followed but you shouldn’t treat them as rules which should never be broken. The design will always depend on each individual situation and a combination of techniques should be employed to achieve the best outcome possible and that may require an element of compromise in some areas.
Some of the guidelines include servicing as many customers as possible as quickly as possible, use barge in, but only where appropriate, group options together in a logical sets which will help the customer, cut down on total overall number of options early on and reduce the number of branches. In the real world you will also need to take into account agent skill sets of course for call routing applications.
You should also think about the MI you want to get out of the application so it can be built into the design. KPI’s include where drop outs are occurring because they are an indication of where customers are having problems, log the number of callers who follow each path within the IVR which will help you in future designs.
Use a specialist company to design the IVR application or to evaluate an existing application which may not be performing as successfully as it could be. Even quick wins such as changes to prompt wording can improve an application’s effectiveness by increasing containment in the application and transaction completion rates.
Think about using an IVR survey to measure customer satisfaction with your automated applications; it will be very interesting to hear what your customers actually think about the application rather than relying on one-sided anecdotal comments passed on to agents. Comments received in this way are always going to be one-sided of course because customer who have completed their business in the application and had successful experience will not be put through to an agent to tell them how great it was.
Speech Recognition has enabled more flexible and complex applications to be launched and has helped companies automate many more transactions than is possible with touch-tone interaction. When designed well Speech Recognition applications can be of huge benefit to the organisation and the customer. But remember that many organisations are still reaping substantial benefits of touch-tone applications which cost far less to implement compared to a speech equivalent. Be aware that I work for a company that provides both Speech and touch-tone applications and I’m not biased either way.
It has been interesting to listen to customer comments from a survey we provided to capture customer feedback on a sophisticated Speech Recognition application. The overall feedback was very positive but many customer still said they preferred touch-tone input because they were more confident in it’s accuracy and it also provided a level of secrecy which speaking doesn’t.
I Hope that is of some use
Posted 1 year ago #
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