August 2019
Hundreds, Even Thousands Times a day, Your IVR is Sending Signals!
You may not notice it, but every caller who does business with you by phone can hear your IVR’s sometimes not-so-subtle message. No, not a broadcast message that you’ve recorded, but one that your IVR system itself sends. What kind of signals may your IVR be sending?
What callers hear is all a matter of how you’ve designed your IVR. Here are two examples:
1. If it sounds like
Welcome to Sunstar Electric and Gas.
Enter your 10-digit SE&G account number.
… that tells every unidentified caller that you’re more interested in your processes than about their reason for calling. Think of it like going into your favorite restaurant and asking to look at the menu, only to have the server ask you for your credit card before you can see it. All you want to do is see what choices you have for dinner; that’s what’s on your mind. It’s the same for your callers, each of whom have a reason for calling you and want to hear where in the menu to go, but only to hear the menu is blocked by account ID.
We understand that up-front ID has some operational appeal, but your system intelligence can make routing decisions after the caller has made a menu selection or said the appropriate command word. System intelligence about the account status can be a driver behind the scenes to get callers into the desired place within the IVR, making the call about the caller’s reason for calling, not your processes.
2. What signal are you sending if your IVR sounds like
Welcome to Sunstar Electric and Gas.
To make a payment, press 1 or say PAYMENT.
That tells callers at the start that you are more interested in getting paid than in your franchise reason for being in business - the provision of reliable, high-quality service!
Again, we understand the internal desire to get paid and to have an easy path so callers can pay you. But paying an account is only one of a myriad of billing and payment reasons people call. Yes, have such a payment option, but have it in a well-designed Billing and Payment Menu and not have such a granular option on a Main Menu.
For an objective look at what else your IVR may be telling callers hundreds or even thousands times a day, send us a signal that you’d like some input at info@ivrdoctors.com.