Rise of the Hosted Contact Center

IVR systems have long been utilized by companies in an effort to reduce costs and burden on their customer support personnel. Further monetary savings have been achieved by outsourcing some or all of the infrastructure required to operate an IVR system to a hosted contact center. It should come as no surprise that in this recent economic downturn, while many companies have tried to find ways to remain profitable, companies specializing in hosted contact services have seen tremendous growth.

A recent study by DMG Consultants indicates that growth in the hosted contact center infrastructure market has exceeded expectations through the first half of 2009. Forecasts suggest that the market will grow by 30 percent in 2009 and again by 35 percent in 2010 before settling to 20 percent growth in 2011. The reasoning behind the massive growth arises from the fact that many companies see the benefit of IVR technology but don't have the capital to invest in the costly equipment. The downstream effects of this growth bodes well for the future of the IVR industry as whole through these tough economic times.

Integrated IVR

Recent research suggests that more customized and customer focused IVR systems result in improved service and experience for users. Integration of customer profile information into the IVR system can make for a much more personalized customer experience. InVox has integrated this concept into their recently announced cloud telephony offering. In addition to creating an online user interface for the IVR workflow design, the system is capable of using customer specific data to customize and enhance the IVR menus and on-hold messages.

The inbound call system is capable of identifying incoming callers and cross-referencing them with their in-house records. For example, the system can look up future appointment schedules and supply the customer with a reminder or even an offer to reschedule. It is also capable of transcribing voicemails which it can then deliver to the proper recipient in text form. The system can also solicit spoken responses from customers to handle common transactions like a traditional speech self-service IVR system. These types of increased integration of value added services are likely to be the future of telephone-based customer service systems.

Avalanche Calling

Standard IVR technologies coupled with minimally staffed call centers are usually capable of handling most day-to-day business of utility companies. However, large scale service interruptions can result in sudden spikes in call volumes by as much as 40 times typical levels. A traditional call center would be completely overwhelmed by such an event and customers eager for information would be left on-hold and frustrated. Avalanche Calling can be activated in these types of situations to help cover the increased load on the call center while still providing valuable information to customers.

Avalanche Calling uses cloud technology to virtually increase the IVR capability through off-site servers that are paid for on an as-used basis. This allows for more capacity when necessary without the need to actually invest in new hardware. In self-service mode, customers can enter a postal code to acquire information specific to outages in their service areas. Practical testing has indicated that 95% of customers will be satisfied with information provided by the Avalanche Calling IVR freeing customer service operators to address issues of the remaining 5% of callers. Such virtual outsourcing of IVR technologies could prove to save companies capital expenses while allowing for increased capacity and the ability to assist customers in times of increased need.

Cloud Telephony and IVR

Small businesses are created every day and most strive to increase their sizes to become medium or even large business. In the process of growing, both in size and in customer base, more resources are required by a business to stay connected to its customer base. The realm of customer service is no small part of a business. The advent of IVR systems served as a way for a businesses to avoid the need to invest time and money in a staffed call center to handle the daily volume of phone inquiries from customers and clients. Instead, calls could be interactively routed to the appropriate responder by a computer system rather than a human operator.

Cloud telephony could be the next evolutionary step forward in the realm of small business customer service. A drawback to a traditional IVR system is that the installation and start-up costs associated with implementing the technology can be prohibitively large. Cloud telephony offers the benefits of the IVR systems without the capital investments typically required. Rather than purchasing and physically locating the equipment on-site, the small business instead outsources the ownership to a dedicated service provider who assumes all installation and maintenance costs of the systems. Meanwhile, the small business "rents" the equipment for IVR and other uses and connects via Internet-based protocols. This would allow small businesses to be more competitive with larger firms in the same markets by cutting the costs associated with creating complex IVR systems for customer service. There are still issues to be resolved with basing such a concept on Internet protocols, but the approach could allow for better customer service for businesses of any and all sizes.