IVR- A panacea for all

Innovative way to get value for money and responses like never before is what IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is all about. Call center solution that has emerged as a blessing for recession hit call centers. It not only delivers more with limited human resource pool, but even nullifies the scope of human errors.
It is only with IVR that call centers can be operational 24*7 *365 as IVR needs no lunch or sleep breaks. It can perform efficiently round the clock with no sign of fatigue in voice. Apart from giving a pleasurable experience to the customer, it even reduces the cost of call upto 5-6 times.
Ideal call center is one which has perfect combination of IVR and agents as IVR can handle FAQs by guiding the customer through various menu options and following the sound of keypad, but then an experienced agent is required to handle the difficult queries. This is time saving for call center as agents spends time handling complicated queries and the customer does not have spend money and waste time by holding the line to allow the agent to be free to handle his query.
IVR can be comfortably incorporated in both inbound and outbound campaigns. But then the call center really needs to be clear about the nature and needs of the campaign to get a right mix of call center software and equipments, so as to reap maximum benefit at minimum cost. IVR can be multi-lingual or bi-lingual depending on the communication language of the population. It is the scale of operations that determine whether to opt for predictive dialers or auto dialers. The latter is an ideal choice when funds are a constraint.
Most positive aspect of IVR is that the solution free of faults and is agent productivity multiplier by routing call to right agent in a right way. This gives an agent more opportunity to spend more time on live calls and close more calls on optimum customer satisfaction.
The key consideration that needs to strictly monitored is that IVR message has clarity of voice with simple and easy to follow directions, which resolve customer’s query instead of confusing him. As we need to remember that complete exercise to give a pleasurable experience to customer , who is the king. Call record is also essential, so that call details are available for any future reference.
So in short, IVR is the answer when the question is about reducing costs , offering round the clock service and enhancing productivity and profit!

AUTHOR bIO: James is an associated author to the
obelyx.com, write articles for Voip call centers, Voip dialers, call centre software.