Disecting an IVR Failure

Recently, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) announced that they would be opening a live call center to handle and address water supply shortages plaguing it's customers around the south Indian city.  The call center is set to replace an IVR system that was so woefully inadequate, approximately 80% of registered complaints were not being addressed.  Officials at the BWSSB blamed the failures on incorrect account numbers and incomplete customer address information left as voice messages on the system.  The call center will put customers in direct contact with human operators who will verify specific account and address information with customers so that their issues can be resolved in a timely fashion.

This situation seems to be a clear failure of the IVR system design and not of IVR technology.  The main purpose for the implementation of an IVR system is to save money by employing fewer live operators.  A secondary feature is to empower customers to access company services and complete simple transactions without the help of a human call center agent at any time of the day.  The system that the BWSSB employed failed to adequately accomplish customer self-service thus forcing the utility company to spend more money on a staffed call center.  By adopting a few simple design strategies, the BWSSB IVR system could have been a sufficient method for reporting water outages.

Many IVR systems employed by utility companies will request that customers enter an account number or telephone number associated with an account in order to access associated information such as a customer name and address.  A good system will ask customers to verify that it has accessed the correct information by prompting the customer to enter a PIN or some other form of identification.  Upon completion of the verification, the system can then proceed to record the customer complaint or issue.  The BWSSB system simply recorded customers speaking their account numbers or address so that a technician could then follow-up on the complaint.  The lack of real-time verification resulted in most complaints being left unaddressed.  The troubles were avoidable if a properly designed IVR had been utilized saving the BWSSB time and money.  Now they are forced to spend more of both at the added expense of customer satisfaction.

Golden Rules of Self-Service

There is, and perhaps always will be, an ongoing debate about the effectiveness of customer self-service through IVR systems.  A simple web search will return countless anecdotal accounts of frustration and trouble with IVR self-service solutions.  However, most consumer research indicates the opposite.  In addition, customer satisfaction data collected by companies further indicate a general acceptance of the technology by a majority of consumers.  These results raise the question: what is it about IVR systems that elicit such varied user perceptions?

ClickFox recently conducted a survey asking participants about their preferred method of interactions with their banks, cable/wireless providers, utilities and insurance providers.  The results indicate that most customers prefer to use self-service to resolve simple tasks like paying bills or checking account status, but would rather human interaction for more complex tasks such as filing claims or seeking technical assistance.  Of course these results also show that there will always be a place for human customer service operators but there is room to increase self-service and customer satisfaction at the same time. To implement an effective system, developers must take consumer demographics into account and consider how their range of customers will respond to certain types of self-service interactions.  By avoiding common mistakes in development, companies can also avoid negative attention on the web and social media sites.  1to1 Media suggests that there are five golden rules that will help increase self-service interactions while concurrently improving customer satisfaction.  Using best practices, knowledge bases and end-user analysis in IVR development can result in cost-savings and customer retention.

IVR Dos and Don'ts

After years of growing pains and mixed reviews by users, IVR systems are ubiquitous in large and small companies, yet many are still poorly designed or ineffective. Despite volumes of customer feedback and frequently publicized best practices, there is still often a disconnect between design and functionality/effectiveness of some IVR systems. DestinationCRM.com has put together a concise list of Dos and Don'ts for IVR systems that should serve as a starting point for companies that are new to IVR implementation as well as those who are considering changes and upgrades. These key ideas will not only improve customer satisfaction but it should also decrease overall call volumes to live operators in call centers.

One of the keys to good IVR systems is a clear road map specifying the call center processes that are most troublesome and time consuming. Identifying those key areas are an excellent starting point for planning an IVR system. However, many companies fall into the trap of expecting the IVR to be a replacement for human operators while it should instead be used to free call centers of easy tasks so that they can focus on more complex problems requiring one-on-one customer support. It is also very important to implement IVR systems around existing processes. Attempts to update processes and implement IVRs concurrently typically overwhelms an already overtaxed system. Simply learning from what others have done both correctly and incorrectly can lead to a smooth implementation and a benefit to all parties including the end user.

IVR in Recession

Don't be fooled by the title of this post...it should not imply that IVR systems will see a decline in use as a result of the global recession experienced over the past year. In fact, trends indicate that if anything, IVR usage is on the rise because of the need for companies to continue to cut costs. Historically, IVR systems have been implemented by companies as a way to handle normal or increased call volumes with a smaller call center staff. However, saving money is only one of the driving forces in the boost in IVR system utilization. Recent technological advances in speech recognition and innovative applications for IVR systems in general have done as much to spur growth in the industry as companies' bottom lines.

DMG Research recently reported an expected average compounded growth rate of approximately 13% for hosted inbound IVR solutions over the next four years while outbound IVR solutions growth could reach nearly 19%. This is not to say that the market will not see any contractions. The same study indicates that sales of on-site IVR systems will likely see a decrease as hardware and start-up costs outweigh the convenience for maintaining on-premises systems. On the forefront of increased IVR deployment are self-service solutions for all types of companies, both public and private. As users continue to accept IVR as a normal way of doing business, self-service will become more common at companies large and small. The IVR system market is not recession-proof but it certainly seems to be well poised to weather the financial storm and grow in the process.

IVR Intervention

Besides its typical use in customer service interactions, IVR systems have recently been deployed for more experimental purposes. Last year, two National Institute of Health studies were utilizing the technology as a way of conducting real-time in situ phone interviews with research subjects who were battling substance abuse. A new paper appears to demonstrate a similar application for primary care preventive service providers. The paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine describes a pilot study using an IVR system in alcohol screening and brief intervention for patients who were heavy drinkers.

After an office screening by a physician, the subjects interacted with a mixture of human-operated and IVR systems outside of the office as a means to dissuade them from drinking to excess. Interactions only lasted from three to seven minutes, but helped reduce alcohol use by an average of 25% among subjects two weeks after the initial office visit. Approximately 40% of subjects who utilized the IVR system reported that it helped motivate them to change their drinking behavior. Furthermore, subjects who experienced both human-operated and IVR systems indicated that they were more at ease with the automated intervention technology. This study only represents a small sample and was conducted to test feasibility of larger scale studies in the future but the results do indicate that an IVR system could be very useful in helping heavy drinkers change their behavior.

Speech Self-Service Lessons

Although speech-based self-service IVRs are becoming more popular among most companies, popularity among customers is decreasing at an alarming rate. Recent survey data suggests that as many as 40% of customers avoid using speech self-service IVR systems and 42% prefer using web-based self-service utilities rather than telephone-based systems. Furthermore, only one-quarter of respondents reported that they would use a speech-based option again. As companies continue to implement speech-based systems as a cost savings measure, many considerations can and should be taken as a means of improving customer satisfaction and experience.

One third of customers complain that they often have to repeat information to a human operator after already providing the same to the IVR system earlier in the service call. More than 20% of customers complain that the systems do not understand or recognize spoken commands. Finally, 16% of customers are annoyed by systems that do not allow them to skip directly to menus that they want. Integrating the IVR and human operator databases could cut down on the need for customers to repeat information during a call. Since most customers feel that they must over-enunciate when dealing with speech recognition systems, the software could be improved to accommodate both conversational and more precise speech patterns. Finally, creating shortcuts and/or keywords for frequent callers would assuage some of the frustration associated with listening to long lists of multiple menu options. It is important to take these and other customer complaints into consideration when designing and implementing an IVR system, otherwise the money that is saved in the call center will not make up for unsatisfied or lost customers.

Intelligent IVR

Improvements in IVR systems often come in the form of better work flows and more accurate menus for customers, but the new intelligent IVR system from Convergys looks to put a new spin on progress. The inbound IVR system offers intelligent self-service meaning that the system not only routes a caller to the proper menu item, but also creates a profile of the items he or she chooses along the way in order to better assist in resolving the issue at that time and, if necessary, in the future. Furthermore, the system uses saved profile information to better identify a caller and therefore offer more personalized and customized assistance. The result of the improved system is a projected 20% reduction in call handling times while giving a 20% increase in call containment all translating into a cost savings for the business.

The intelligent system also offers improvements to outbound IVR through intelligent notification. The system can leverage customer information and common inquiries to proactively contact customers immediately when a problem arises rather than having to wait for the customer to initiate contact regarding a service issue. This strategy can result in cost savings through a 20% reduction in the number of inbound customer calls. Furthermore, the system can be used to better acquire new customers while using customer profiles to retain current customers or even win-back lost customers. All told, the intelligent IVR system promises improvement in the two most vital aspects of IVR evolution: cost savings and improved customer service.

Visual IVR Effectiveness

Video IVR continues to show promise as customer research conducted by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories shows that visual IVRs used on mobile phones can reduce automated transaction times by as much as 56%. This not only translates to call-center resource savings, but also into increased customer satisfaction. Although most customers want to speak to a live operator when they have problems with a service, many people might prefer a self-service approach that includes both audio and visual components. Ultimately, customers hope to complete their transactions quickly and easily and research data suggests that this is more achievable with a user friendly visual menu.

As people become more familiar with using web-based utilities to report and resolve service issues, IVR appears to be following suit and progressing away from the standard audio interface that has been the norm in the industry. As discussed earlier this week, some companies have already begun to employ the video systems in place of more traditional IVR. Although the new element of the IVR system requires more time for development and implementation, the end benefits certainly outweigh the cost. As the use of video capable smart phones grows, there is undoubtedly a market for companies to improve their customer self-service menus to accommodate this emerging technology. The end result is most certainly reduced costs for staffed call-centers together with increased overall customer satisfaction.

IVR Lessons

E Source has completed and published rankings of the best IVR systems for utility companies in the United States and Canada and found some conflicting, but useful results that can be applied across the board for makers of IVR systems. The leading statistic is that utilities only offer 54% of what customers want leaving almost half unsatisfied. Previous research indicates that 70% of users were successful in completing self-service transactions on the first try but the same users reported that they were unsatisfied with the automated experience. These type of results confirm that there are still opportunities for improvements in IVR systems and that focusing on the customer experience could be the key to achieving better satisfaction ratings.

The overwhelming data suggests that customers still prefer to complete transactions with a live phone operator or a web based utility rather than an IVR system. The common thread among those utility companies with the highest rated systems is that they consistently focused on the customer experience. Those that scored poorly employ systems that are technically capable of guiding the user through the automated transactions, but still left the customers unsatisfied or frustrated in the process. There are certainly strong preconceptions about IVR systems among most users, however this study shows that there is a need to continually improve and develop IVR systems from the perspective of the user as opposed to simply design them to complete the task at hand.

IVR on Smartphones

A recent survey suggests that 75% of smartphone users would rather a device that allows them to speak most of their commands as opposed to pressing a series of buttons to complete the same task. The reasoning behind the result is that most smartphone users are more inclined to be multi-taskers and voice activated commands easily allow for a user to complete tasks without diverting much of their attention. This type of interface relies on IVR systems to achieve such hands free operations.

The survey also indicates a shift in cell phone etiquette. In the past, people were less inclined to use their phones in public places, but this survey reports that 71% of smartphone users said that they would be fine using their phones at a restaurant. Despite the mixed customer reaction to IVR systems in customer service, it appears that IVR continues to have a future in many applications. Capitalizing on the public desire for voice activated services shows that there is still a large market for IVR systems.

Integrating IVR and Public Transit

As the use of public transit increases around the United States, the need for reliable service also increases. This includes implementing systems that allow customers to get up-to-the-minute information about wait times and route changes for buses, trams and trains. The city of Santa Monica is doing just that for the Big Blue Bus lines with the installation of real-time updated signs, a web-based ride planner and an information IVR phone line.

The current information system includes a hotline to a call center only available during specific customer service hours. The new IVR system is projected to be in place by February 2010 and will feature a twenty-four hour, fully-automated message center that will offer real-time information about delays and route changes. Not only will the new service require fewer call center staffers, but it will also ideally result in no customers waiting on hold to get valuable information. Public transit is not perfect, but making real-time information available to customers greatly improves use and satisfaction in this important energy saving service.

Improved Self-Service Through IVR

One of the drawbacks of IVR systems is that customers sometimes feel that the available options do not specifically address their particular question or need sending them into a loop of menus in search of the proper path to resolve their issue. A newly announced system from eGain promises better self-service capability by using case-based reasoning technology to simulate intelligent dialogs between clients and the most qualified customer service agents. The end result of the improvement is that more customers would be capable of completing their calls without ever needing to speak to a live agent.

Such a system would naturally offer cost savings by requiring fewer human agents to handle issues that the system is unable to resolve. Furthermore, the developers claim that there is no additional implementation cost as the system uses the same knowledge base, customer interaction records, and reports as a traditional IVR system. Additionally, the system is designed to be implemented in concert with web-based self-service portals which are fast becoming a major part of customer service departments. While there will always be a need for human interaction between customers and live service agents, advances like these will certainly increase consumer confidence and, more importantly, comfort levels with IVR systems.