IVR Design Tips

Most negative customer experience issues related to IVR systems are due to poor system design.  Despite multitudes of customer feedback data and industry best practices, many IVR systems lack basic design features that would make them more acceptable to customers.  The principles behind a good design are rather simple however a designer can often make what seems like a straightforward navigation menu to other designers, but is overly complex or daunting for the average consumer.  To this end, Acclaim Telecom Services recently released a list of common sense IVR design tips.

Like many lists of design tips that have come before, Acclaim recommends that first and foremost, the navigation menu should remain simple and concise.  Many systems try to offer too many options potentially resulting in customers forgetting choices and having to re-listen to a particular menu.  Another very important design tip is to only ask customers to enter information once.  Any duplicate request for information is indicative of an inefficient system and can cause frustration among customers.  Perhaps the most important tip is to make it easy for a user to exit the automated system and speak to a live operator.  Too many systems either bury the live operator option deep within the menu choices or worse, don't even give the customer the opportunity to speak to a human being.  On one hand, this is an excellent money saving strategy, but on the other, it is terribly alienating for a frustrated customer.  These tips are very simple however they are so often missing from the most basic IVR system.  Simply adjusting the design mindset can help drastically improve customer experience and satisfaction with an IVR system.