5 common mistakes to avoid with Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Call centres are conquering more territory than ever in various verticals, having grown from customer care gateway to being implemented in feedback, payment processing and even promotion.
With the main task of serving the customer, through sales, support or market research departments, it is essential that good contact centres are able to handle large, simultaneous call volumes allowing them to be responsive to the customer’s needs, while being adaptable to changing budgets and in turn lowering costs.
By intelligently automating the way that your business greets, communicates and supports its customers, you can better understand what your callers need all before they reach a live agent.
But what mistakes should you avoid when implementing your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system?
1. Too much information
As the starting point for your customers, your IVR should provide your caller with the information or solution they require, quickly. The human memory can often run out of the capacity to listen after more than 5 options (Customer Think) which is why providing unnecessary ones will only confuse the caller and leave them frustrated.
Your customers are looking for an immediate response and will likely abandon their call if they don’t get one. Is your IVR customer-centric and user-friendly?
2. Limited hours
IVRs are designed to assist operational efficiency and service. The everyday consumer now expects to access information via the internet 24/7 and they are gradually expecting the same of businesses too (Customer Think). Not providing an out-of-hours service misses this opportunity. Fill the void that is missing outside of the typical 9-5 by providing a basic self-serve option for more routine queries with the option for a call back.
3. No self-service option
In the case of payments, collections or balance enquiries the absence of personalised systems can often lead to frustrations in the way a customer’s call is handled. Is it time to upgrade your existing IVR system? Can your current system pull through personalised information to enable them to be redirected to a more applicable set of options?
Automating and implementing a self-service Interactive Voice solution should enable the customer to get the information and response they require in an effortless manner without the need for agent contact.  
4. Avoiding dynamic menus
Ensure that your menus are designed with the customer’s time in mind. Providing every caller with identical menu sets that ignores the previous engagements of the customer is frustrating. Improve your caller experiences by delivering more personal options based on previous interactions, routing the call appropriately.
5. No call-back option
The most important aspect of an IVR is to never waste a customer’s time. While an IVR cannot resolve every customer query it can offer a solution to get them solved quicker. This is when placing them in a virtual queue is not the solution. Always provide the option to request a call-back or speak with an agent. Where this is not an option for your business, consider our Voice Callback solution.
For further IVR or Voice service guidance, or to discuss your business communication needs contact our team on 0345 356 5758.