If I’ve learned anything from my recent kitchen renovation, it’s that the simplest things can go a long way in easing a consumer’s frustrations. And the opposite is also true: the simplest things can make your existing frustrations feel exponentially worse. For example, I recently called a major home improvement store (I won’t name names) to check on the status of my counter installation and was first sent to an IVR (interactive voice response) system. When done correctly, an IVR can be immensely helpful, automating simple tasks or helping you connect to the right department.
But what I faced was too many menus. All I wanted was the “Counters” department. I was confused. Do I connect to “Appliances”? Oh wait, I have to listen to a second menu of departments? I gave up and called Appliances who then left a (handwritten, mind you) message with Counters. This naturally got me thinking about what it takes for customers to get so frustrated with your IVR…that they give up on it. Regardless of industry, here are a few signs your IVR might need a tune up.
Sign #1: High Dropout Rate
If you don’t already analyze your IVR reports regularly you may miss that you have a high dropout rate. This is a clear-cut sign something is wrong. You need to take a step back and ask yourself what is occurring within your IVR to cause this. A successful IVR may mean a caller reaches an agent or it may be that they retrieved an account balance automatically, but why would people be leaving before this happens? Chances are your IVR is too long or complicated and they leave out of frustration.
HotelsCorp, for example, needed to examine what happened on calls that lasted under three minutes. Using call recordings, they realized they had a long IVR that callers were dropping out of. Armed with this information they were able to improve their IVR process and reduce on-hold times.
Sign #2: Callers Get Lost in Your Menus
This goes back to the first sign, but is important enough to call out. Callers getting lost in your menus can be another cause of IVR dropouts. With an established IVR it can be easy to bury callers in menus if you add in new menus without reviewing your entire IVR each time. This was my experience, where an additional menu was built (probably with less popular departments) but I had no way of returning to the first menu. I ended up ending my call and calling back – definitely not an ideal experience.
So how do you identify if this is occurring in your IVR? First, always look at your IVR as a whole and call into it yourself and see what the caller experience is like. And keep an eye out for a higher number of people who call into the wrong department (like I had to) or listen to call recordings to hear if your customers sound confused after they’ve connected to an agent from your IVR.
Sign #3: Callers Are on Hold Too Long
If you notice that your callers are on hold too long, it could indicate one of two things (but hopefully not both!). First, if you don’t clearly configure the call routing from your IVR the caller can end up on hold a number of times as they get bounced around between departments or agents until they reach the correct one. This could even be a result of a caller confused by your IVR menus – if they call the wrong department to begin with they may spend more time on hold.
Second, if your staffing levels are too low your callers will sit on hold as they wait for an agent to free up. If you’re running a call center or have a number of agents working remotely, there are call management tools that can help you manage how your team is currently staffed and monitor your agents.
Step Back and Reevaluate
It’s essential to regularly monitor reports as well as what kind of experience your IVR provides callers. If you’ve seen any of these signs it means it’s time to step back and reevaluate. It comes down to caller experience: you want to make it as seamless as possible for your customers. Ease their frustrations, don’t add to them.
Learn more best practices about using an IVR to qualify and route callers in our white paper, “Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales.”
