How to improve
your IVR system

When customers call a business for help, their first conversation is usually with an interactive voice response system (IVR system). IVR systems can help make it easier for customers to connect with a qualified agent, but only if it has been properly designed. If an IVR tool prevents a customer from speaking to a human or strands them in an endless menu of options, none of which are relevant, they may quickly give up. With a few design improvements and IVR best practices, however, your business can give customers the speedy service they seek and ensure they come away from their calls feeling satisfied.

IVR is an automated system that interacts with callers, gathers information and routes calls to the appropriate recipients without an agent's involvement. If you haven't run across this term before, you've almost certainly encountered the technology itself. Any time you call a customer service line and the automated greeting asks you to choose an option from a menu to properly direct your call, you're engaging with an IVR system.

Businesses often use IVR to improve the customer service they provide. According to a study from Airkit, the average customer waits between five and 10 minutes to speak with an agent, with 6.5% of customers waiting over 30 minutes.¹ Reducing hold times, therefore, can benefit both businesses and customers alike. Your business can use IVR to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, while customers can use it to get help faster than they otherwise would.

Challenges arise, however, when customers become lost in poorly designed IVR system menus and can't find a way to talk with a fellow human. Even once they're able to connect with an actual agent, customers may still have to repeat their information from scratch. As they become steadily more frustrated, they may simply abandon their calls—and the business may lose valuable customers it could have otherwise retained.

How can your business avoid unintentionally frustrating its customers in this way? The answer lies in improving your IVR design. Left unaddressed, common IVR problems can hamper your company's ability to serve its customers. These design flaws include:

When customers are blocked from speaking with human agents, they may perceive that the company is engaging in cost-cutting strategies at their expense. One survey found at least 60% of respondents said they would prefer to wait in a queue if it meant they could speak with a human agent.

While customers want to speak to agents, they also want to speak to the right one. One survey revealed that 33% of respondents consider resolving an issue with the first point of contact to be an important factor in good customer service.

IVR system menus shouldn't accidentally create loops that force customers to keep making endless selections or present them with dead ends. Zendesk research found 68% of customers become annoyed when their call is transferred between departments.

If the prerecorded message for the main menu option takes longer than 30 seconds to play, customers may become annoyed at having to wait until it completes.

Customers often have to provide IVR systems with a fair amount of information, yet they end up having to repeat it upon connecting with a human agent. According to Salesforce, 65% of consumers say they often have to repeat or reexplain information.²

Some prerecorded voices sound more warm and approachable, while others come across as artificial and impersonal. Customers find a conversational IVR dialogue flow feel more natural and human-like.

Some IVR systems won't allow customers to issue voice commands until a message has finished playing. This unnecessarily lengthens the time required to connect with an agent.

When IVR systems are properly designed, they can efficiently route customer calls to the most suitable agents available while also guaranteeing that customers don't get lost in labyrinthine mazes or hang up. Here are a few IVR best practices that improve IVR design and enhance the customer experience.

• Provide a human option. Customers should have the choice to speak with a human customer service agent if they need to, so include this option at regular intervals in your IVR menu design.
• Give customers a chance to respond. When IVR comes across as robotic, customers are more likely to want to speak to a human right away. Use strong voice recognition to give customers natural pauses, so they can provide information or choose an option just as they would if they were speaking with a person.
• Streamline IVR menus. Ideally, your IVR menus should have no more than five top-level menu options and three sub-menus per top-level option. There should be no dead ends.
• Retain customer information. Confirm that your IVR system retains any information the customer has provided and makes it available to any agent who answers their call.
• Use a natural voice. If your IVR sounds computer-generated, replace the voice with a more natural-sounding alternative.
• Minimize instructions. Some IVR systems include detailed instructions at every step, which can lengthen the call and annoy customers. Configure your IVR to offer corrections only when a caller has made an error.
• Let customers interrupt your IVR. If your customers already know where they need to go, let them proceed as quickly as possible.

One of the most effective steps you can take to improve your IVR system is to give your customers choices. This way, they feel they have some control over how to handle the call and manage their time. With that in mind, here are six IVR best practices that will put your customers back in the driver's seat and make them feel like your business cares about giving them good service.

1. Give hold time estimates. Modern IVR systems can often give customers hold time estimates, so they're not in the dark about how long they'll have to wait to speak with a representative.
2. Offer a call-back option. Customers will appreciate having a call-back option if your call volume is especially high.
3. Let customers choose hold music. IVR systems often force customers to listen to repeated marketing messages or uncomfortably loud music while they're on hold. You can differentiate your customer experience by giving your customers a choice of hold music or even no hold music, should they so desire.
4. Provide inclusive language support. Many of your customers will appreciate having the option to use the language they feel most comfortable speaking, so include this choice toward the top of your IVR menu.
5. Configure activity triggers. Your IVR system should be able to detect signs of frustration, such as when customers are frantically backtracking up the IVR menu or entering options that don't exist. When that happens, your IVR can connect those customers with human agents to avoid call abandonment.
6. Regularly test your IVR. Traffic spikes and sustained call volume can tax even a well-designed IVR system, eventually causing it to falter. By proactively testing your IVR, you can make sure it still operates at peak performance even under these conditions.

In addition to implementing the above design improvements and best practices, you can modernize your IVR even further by connecting it to customer relationship management (CRM) and automated call distribution (ACD) systems. CRM integration allows your human agents to access detailed information about the customer so they can give prompt and personalized care. By combining IVR and ACD, you can help customers reach qualified agents faster and better balance contact center volume across various teams in your organization.

Conversational IVR (CIVR) goes even further, leveraging the combined power of speech recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) to give customers an even more natural, conversational experience. Instead of shoehorning themselves into predefined numeric menu choices, customers can simply say what they're calling about in their own words. From there, the IVR system can interpret what they've said and guide them to the right resource. CIVR becomes more proficient in gauging caller intent over time, steadily enhancing the quality of the service you provide.