IVR Best Practices: Is your IVR Good? Bad? or Ugly

IVR Design Best Practices
Rebecca Gibson
Contact Center Solutions Consultant
Interactive Intelligence

www.inin.com
©2012 Interactive Intelligence Group Inc.
IVR Design Best Practices Agenda
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2. The Goal of your IVR
3. IVR Design Best Practices

PART 1
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

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Is This Your IVR?
• Welcome to the CoverYourBack automated insurance
claim filling system.
• If your claim falls into category 1, 3, or 7, press 1.
• If your claim falls into category 4 or 5, press 2.
• If your claim falls into any category other than the ones
already mentioned, press 3.
• For a description of claims categories, refer to page 15,
subparagraph 7a of your Contingencies.com insurance
policy, or press 4.
• If you would like to speak to a claims representative, press
5.

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The Good
Sometimes, they prefer it. 66% of
customers prefer IVR to fill a
prescription, 61% prefer IVR to check
flight information, 59% prefer IVR to
check account balances, 53% prefer
IVR to track shipments.
They certainly expect it. 82% of US
adults say they’ve used an automated
touchtone or a speech rec system to
contact customer services within the
last 12 months.
And even like it. 77% value
automated phone service because it’s
available 24/7/365, 40% value they
don’t have to wait for a live agent,
31% cited the ability to obtain
information quickly.
But they HATE to be “contained”.
67% said the ability to speak to a
live agent at any time was necessary
for them to consider an automated
interaction a “great experience.”
Source: Nuance/Forrester 2010

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The Bad and the Ugly
Guess what? Customers aren’t always thrilled to
encounter your IVR.

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Why Customers Find IVRs “bad or ugly”
• None of the options apply
• Can’t remember all the options
• Don’t know what the options mean
• Can’t get to a live person (and many other variations on
this theme)
• Voice recognition doesn’t understand me
• I have to provide the same information over and over
again
• I’m not even sure if I called the right place
• I have to verbally confirm every answer

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How is an IVR like an Escalator?

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The Goal of Your IVR
Reduce
customer
effort
Increase
service
efficiency

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The Goal of Your IVR
Increase service efficiency Reduce customer effort
Targeted routing
For customer service press 1, tech support press 2
Offload self service
To check the status of your claim using our
automated service, press 2.
Use speech to ease complicated
entry
Enter your serial number, which is a 15 digit
combination of letters and numbers found
on the bottom of your unit.
Increase revenue
If you’d like to place an after hours order,
press 3. To check on the status of an order,
press 4.
Clarify expectations
We are experiencing unusually high call
volumes today.
Authenticate callers
Enter your customer ID and password now.

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1. What is or are the goals of your IVR?
2. How does the IVR benefit your
customers?
3. What is the level of customer effort
required to navigate your IVR?
4. How does the IVR benefit your
company?

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The Goal of Your IVR: Reduce Customer Effort
How often do customers cut companies loose because
of terrible service? All the time.
Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service - at least
more readily than to reward delightful service - plays out
dramatically in both phone-based and self-service
interactions.
When it comes to service, companies create loyal
customers primarily by helping them solve their
problems quickly and easily.
Source: Nixon, Freeman, & Toman, Stop Delighting Your Customers, Harvard Business Review, 2010

PART 3
IVR DESIGN BEST PRACTICES

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Technology Enables Good Design

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IVR Design Best Practices
Use the IVR Design Best Practices Scorecard
Yes - Current/planned practice
No - Not current/planned practice
NA - Doesn’t apply in our environment

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IVR Design Best Practices: Principle 1
Who are your
customers?
What’s your
customer
service
brand?
What’s your
business
strategy?

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Principle 1: Align with Strategy
• We want to identify sales calls quickly and get them to a sales agent as
quickly as possible and inform other callers about our web self-service
options.
1. Identify the goals of your IVR prior to design.
• Our customers are not web-savvy and may not be comfortable accessing
self-service using a keypad.
2. Use your IVR to address your customers’ unique
needs and reflect the value of an interaction.

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What is the Purpose of Your IVR?
Identify and categorize
incoming customer calls
Route
appropriate calls
to self-service
Route
appropriate calls
to a skilled agent
Gather call information for
authentication, and to pass
along to the agent,
increasing routing accuracy
and call efficiency.

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Principle 1: Align with Strategy
3. Reflect your organization’s brand through in-queue
music, promotions, and messaging.
• “No one is available to take your call right now. Please leave a message and
we will call you as quickly as we can.”
4. Weigh the impact to customer satisfaction when
you auto-disconnect or ask a customer to leave a
message before they have received service.
• You can “contain” calls within the IVR and force users to self-serve. Beware:
this is the IVR feature that causes the most customer dissatisfaction and
anger.
5. Carefully consider how difficult you want to make it for
customers to connect with live service.

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Principle 2: Efficient Customer Interactions
6. Build 4 or fewer options in each menu prompt and 3 or
fewer menus prior to reaching service.
• Avoid: For parts replacements, replacement manuals, SmartParts, or
other parts programs, please press or say 3 now.
7. Use concise language, avoid superfluous words, and be
consistent. Do not use unfamiliar or “insider” terms.
• For customer service, press 1.
8. Describe every action prior to a required key press.
9. Choose an IVR persona and record in consistent formality
and vocabulary.

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Principle 2: Efficient Customer Interactions
• Press or say 3.
10. Offer touch-tone (DTMF) options for speech
applications.
• I did not understand your response. Good bye.
11. Don’t disconnect for user errors, including non-
responses.
12. Document hidden options in call flows

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Principle 3: Reflect Business & Tech Strategy
• “Are you calling about your 2003 Hyundai Excel?”
13. When possible, provide a customized
experience, based on customer data.
• “May I have your account number?” (again)
14. Limit what is request by the IVR to critical
information needed for self-service or optimal agent
routing. Caller information should “follow” customers
through transfers.
15. Collect two phone numbers to increase the
accuracy of CTI/screen pop. Gather Home and
Alternate Phone in the database.

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Principle 4: Monitor and Update
• Call regularly and test all the options to make sure they are working as you
expect them to.
16. Test your IVR.
• “30% of our callers access option 3, the self-service order status option. 50%
of those callers then opt to speak to an Agent.”
17. Measure and track IVR performance and caller
acceptance.

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The enterprise wants to save money.
The caller wants to be served.
Usability is the common link that allows
both interests to be safeguarded.
Source: Balentine, It’s Better to be a good Machine, than a Bad Person,
ICMI Press, 2007.

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Is This Your IVR?
• Welcome to the CoverYourBack automated insurance
claim filling system.
• To enter a new claim, press 1.
• If you are checking on the status of an existing claim,
press 2.
o Enter your claim number now.
o If you don’t have your claim number, enter the last four digits
of your social security number.
• At any time, if you would like to speak to a claims
representative, press 2.

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Exercise: Evaluate an IVR
Locate a competitor’s phone number and navigate their IVR.
1. Take note of the number of menu options and the verbiage used.
Note how long it takes to get through the IVR.
2. What is the goal of the IVR? For example, routing customer to self
service? To the right agent?
3. Do you have an idea of how they are segmenting/routing their calls
from their IVR?
4. In what aspects is the IVR customer-friendly? What are potential
areas of dissatisfaction?
If you’re on a path to talk to an Agent, wait for a answer (time
how long it takes) and say, “Wrong number” before hanging
up. Don’t cause an abandoned call!

www.inin.com
Exercise: Evaluate your IVR
Call your company’s primary contact number and navigate
the IVR.
1. Take note of the number of menu options and the verbiage used.
Note how long it takes to get through the IVR.
2. What is the goal of the IVR? For example, routing customer to self
service? To the right agent?
3. Can you tell how calls are segmented or routed based on the IVR?
4. In what aspects is the IVR customer-friendly? What are potential
areas of dissatisfaction?
If you’re on a path to talk to an Agent, wait for a answer (time
how long it takes) and say, “Wrong number” before hanging
up. Don’t cause an abandoned call!

Rebecca Gibson
Contact Center Solutions Consultant
rebecca.gibson@inin.com
Interactive Intelligence

IVR Best Practices: Is your IVR Good? Bad? or Ugly

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