Running a call center can be more than a little tricky. There are a lot of moving pieces in a call center, no matter how large or small the call center you run may be. You have your agents, computers, and software such as your IVR. Trying to keep it all running smoothly takes some talent and dedication, but fortunately, there are a lot of tips that you can use to make it a little easier. Today we’re going to be looking at some of the best tips for your interactive voice response system to help your entire call center run more like a well-oiled machine than it already does.
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Constantly Test Your System for Bugs
There are few things that will drive customers away as quickly as a heavily buggy system. If your callers are calling in and anything happens that means that they can’t get through the menu, there’s a good chance that they’ll just hang up their phone and potentially call a competitor. That’s bad news because not only did you just lose a sale, but someone you were competing with gained a sale because of a mistake that was entirely the fault of your call center.
Comprehensively testing for bugs in your interactive voice response(IVR) system means that you can be sure that everything is running smoothly for all of your callers so you don’t run into this issue, and these tests are actually pretty easy to do. You can either do it yourself or have one of your employees do it for you, but all whoever does it needs to do is call your company’s phone number and test out the phone tree options to make sure that it’s working well. Depending on how big your phone tree is this could take a few days, but it’s important to make sure you’re doing this at least once every quarter if not much more.
Always Include an Option to Speak With a Live Agent
Some people don’t like fussing with interactive voice response systems. There are a lot of reasons why. Maybe they’re tech-illiterate and your automated menus only serve to confuse them, or maybe they have an advanced issue that requires immediate attention from one of your customer service representatives. Regardless of the reason why someone wants to speak with a human rather than fussing with your automated response system, it’s a good idea to make sure that the option is available to them.
It can be pretty easy to set up, and you don’t necessarily even need to announce that it’s an option, depending on your core demographic. It’s relatively common knowledge that if a company has the option to speak with an agent all you need to do is hit the 0 button and they’ll be transferred. Some menus require for the 0 button to be spammed, which is fine as long as your core demographic is tech-literate. If your core demographic is known for not being very good with technology, maybe make sure they know upfront how to speak with an agent. It’s little touches like that that can make a world of difference.
Make Sure Your Callers can do Basic Tasks Through Your Menu
On the opposite side of the spectrum, some callers don’t need to or want to speak with an agent for simple things. It’s pretty easy to make sure that your interactive voice response system has options to do basic tasks through the menus on it, and many callers will appreciate it. You really want to aim for a balance of it being just as easy to talk to a representative as it is to not speak with a representative. By doing that, you’re sure to please the most amount of callers because everyone will be able to do exactly what they need exactly how they need to.
For example, it’s pretty easy to set up things like bill pay, frequently asked questions, and re-orders through an automated menu if your I.T. team knows what they’re doing. It might take a bit of effort, but at the end of the day, your callers will be grateful that you took the steps needed to help them make their call as easy as possible.
Get Your Interactive Voice Response System Set-Up Just Right
Setting up your automated menu can feel tricky, but if you go through the process correctly you can ensure that all of your callers get all of the things they need out of their call as easily as possible. Many companies have their automated menus down to a science, so if you need some extra inspiration just call your favorite company and see how their menus are set up. You may be surprised at what they have to offer once you start looking at it through this lens.