This document discusses the need for a solution that can measure customer interactions from start to finish, including their experience navigating the IVR and speaking to an agent. Currently, most call centers only have visibility into what happens once a customer reaches an agent. The document proposes a new solution that can capture and interpret every step in the IVR as well as the agent call to provide a complete view of the customer service experience. This combined IVR and call recording approach would help call centers identify issues, improve customer retention and increase sales.

1. Measuring a Customer’s IVR
AND Agent Interaction
CALL RECORDING/IVR MEASUREMENT eBOOK
You cannot assess customer
Frustration today
Customer speaks with agentCustomer navigates IVR
You can assess customer
frustration today

2. Inability to Assess IVR Interaction
Many customer support calls today start with callers navigating an interactive voice response
(IVR) system before reaching a representative. However, there are only call recording,
screen recording and speech analytics solutions available that help the organization measure
customer satisfaction once the customer reaches the agent. What happens while they are
still in the IVR? There is no solution available today to gauge the person’s true experience
with your interactive voice response system.
What if the customer is having trouble with the IVR, starts cussing and then abandons
the call? Today’s customer service analytics solutions and common metrics might
classify that as a successful IVR call, thinking the caller learned what they needed all from
the IVR and never needed to speak to an agent. How would you be able to detect this
frustration?
This inadequate IVR abandonment metric used by most call centers with an IVR is called
“Call Containment”. It is basically the only measurement call centers have today to assess
the success of their IVR, however, it leaves the company largely in the dark as to the real
success of their complete customer service capabilities.
“This damn IVR!”
What is missing is a solution that captures and
interprets every step of the caller’s IVR AND agent
interaction.
Complete Customer Interaction
Customer speaks to agentCustomer navigates IVR Transfer
Measurement Solutions Available:
Nothing
Measurement Solutions Available:
1. Call Recording
2. Speech Analytics
3. Quality Monitoring

3. False Measurement of IVR
Effectiveness
If callers are defecting to your
competition because of frustration
with your IVR, you will never know.
And you will keep losing business!
The IVR Call Containment Measure,
the only real metric for assessing
IVR effectiveness, leaves your
organization in the dark regarding
what is really happening at this first
contact stage of your customers’
interactions with your business. The
Call Containment Measure identifies
the numbers of callers who hang-up
in the IVR versus those who transfer
to agents, and it assumes that a
‘hang-up’ is generally a successful
voice self-service event because the
person likely fixed their own problem
or answered their own question.
This isn't always the case though.
Some have negative IVR
experiences and "abandon" their
call and call back or defect to your
competition.
Using only this false-assumption
metric, calls can be easily
misclassified.
There has to be a better way!
Two Ways to Assess 100k Customer IVR Interactions
What’s Really Going on with your IVR Interactions?
Wrong numbers 7% Causes over-counting
Hang-ups due to
frustration; don't call
back
9% Lost or very
dissatisfied customers
Hang-up but
immediately call back
6% Dissatisfied
customers. Pads the
"successful call"
metric.
Planned transfer to
agent for additional
human support
Frustrated callers
forced to transfer to
agents
Equivalent of agent
"first call resolution"
Transfers to Agents 52%
Hang-Ups in the IVR 48%
Callers who need
agents (Voice self-
service success)
32%
Voice self-service
failure
20%
Successful hang-up,
received quality voice
self service
26%
(Typically considered
successful calls)

4. Measuring Agent
Effectiveness
Many proven solutions exist today to
assess how well your call center
agents are servicing your customers,
members and/or prospects,
including:
Call Recording Software
Quality Monitoring Software
Screen Recording Software
Speech Analytics Software
I want to
cancel my
subscription!!

5. Measuring IVR and Agent Effectiveness
New solutions have just been introduced to the market that can measure the actions a caller
takes within the IVR as well as the accompanying audio from their IVR interaction. This
intelligent IVR analysis capability, when fully integrated with call recording, adds a crucial
element to the quality monitoring mix as it assesses the entire customer interaction, starting with
the caller’s IVR interaction and then through to and including the interaction with a live agent.
Such an integrated end-to-end solution marks the first time ever capability of successfully
measuring a customer interaction from beginning to end. The added intelligence of the IVR
interaction gives a call center never-before quality of service data it can use to immediately
identify any IVR issues and correct them to improve service. These improvements could lead to
increased customer retention and increased sales conversion as it would bridge the gap of the
previously unknown interaction going on in the IVR.
What actually happens with such a combined IVR assessment/call recording solution:
1. Every step of the IVR interaction is captured and interpreted.
a. It would correctly interpret menu failures, data entry failures, prompts causing
confusion, data timeouts and so on.
b. It would automatically measure and rank these prompts by failure rates and the
amount of frustration.
2. Every step of the caller-agent conversation is captured and interpreted via call recording
and speech analytics software.
3. Quality supervisors could identify the root cause of unsuccessful interactions by listening to
select calls at the point of failure (whether in the IVR or during agent interaction).
First-Ever Measurement of Complete Customer Interaction
A Single Intelligent Measurement Solution Encompassing:
1. IVR Speech and Activity Measurement
2. Call Recording
3. Speech Analytics
4. Quality Monitoring
Customer speaks to agentCustomer navigates IVR Transfer

6. New Intelligent IVR
Interaction Metrics
First-ever metrics to dramatically improve
call visibility and quality assessment
across the IVR
Measures hang ups and agent transfers as
opt-outs and considers design intent to
better determine if the result of the call
was a successful caller interaction with IVR.
Measures percent of calls
with at least one negative
experience indicator
Measures calls that
include a strong desire to
use the IVR combined
with unplanned opt-outs
Measures prompts with negative customer
experience indicators.

7. Value of True End-to-End
Call Assessment
Optimize Call Flow and Minimize Call
Duration
Improve Routing
• Determine whether calls transferred from
the IVR are going to the right agent based
on desired skill set/knowledge.
Reduce Agent Talk Time
• Eliminate agents re-doing tasks already
accomplished by the IVR.
Manage Customer Experience & Reduce
Costs
Reduce costly transfers to agents
• Focus efforts on prompts causing the most
undesired transfers to agents.
• Measure the impact of changes to insure
they meet the anticipated goals.
Reduce agent-to-agent call transfers
• Find skills routing instructions in the IVR
that lead to higher than desired agent-to-
agent transfers.
Establish a data driven continuous
improvement business process
• Continuously focus on the next most
important goal to further reduce costs and
improve caller experience.
• Identify and fix the most important issue,
then move on to the next.
• Use performance measures to create plans
based on performance goals.

8. Learn More and Get
Started Today
http://www.listeningmethods.com/
The Listening Methods IVR
Measurement solution
includes OrecX call recording
software built right in.
First ever end-to-end caller
analytics software
(measuring both IVR and
agent interaction)