Customer Service Call Back

Although recent surveys indicate that customers have grown to accept performing common self-service tasks through automated IVR systems, when the need arises to speak to a live agent, long on-hold times still lead to frustration. Now some companies like Scottish Power give customers the option of being called back when an agent is available. The Virtual Hold system is triggered when call volumes are high and wait times are expected to be long. The customer can choose to stay on-hold or enter a call back number where they can be reached when their virtual placeholder in the queue reaches the front of the line.

Ideally, of course, customers would choose to experience no wait time, either on or off the phone, and prefer to be immediately connected with a live customer service agent. However, due to the downsizing of call center staffs to save money, waiting on-hold is simply unavoidable at times of high call volumes. The Virtual Hold solution is the next best thing to being immediately connected to a live customer service agent. The customer is free to do other things while waiting rather than listen to on-hold music and/or advertisements for other services. Although not a perfect system, Virtual Hold could result in improved customer satisfaction and retention.

IVR from Microsoft

As speech recognition software continues to improve, its IVR technology is growing. The days of pressing number keys to navigate menus is coming to an end and voice response systems are becoming more common among companies and more acceptable to consumers. Complicated customer service procedures can now be carried out more easily with the voice response systems than with touch-tone systems, so much so that Microsoft has entered the market.

After the acquisition of the Tellme Networks in 2007, the Speech at Microsoft group was formed to utilize and market the technology. In addition to speech recognition applications in the works for use on home and office PCs, Microsoft recently introduced an outbound IVR system. Besides the standard function of calling customers with important account alerts, the IVR is capable of allowing customers to act upon the alerts through further voice response menus. The system is optimized to work on all common customer communication platforms: telephone, text messaging, email, instant messaging and web browsers. The end result is a highly personalized customer self-service experience. As companies continue to cut costs, they will likely employ more systems like Microsoft's to communicate and do business with their customers.

Academic Research Through IVR

IVR technology has been used widely for many purposes beyond customer service including automated opinion polling and market research questionnaires. Behavioral researchers at the University of Buffalo have taken it a step further and are currently applying the technology in two National Institute of Health funded studies. The research involves investigating the effects of alcohol, marijuana and the situational behaviors that are associated with their use. The IVR systems are configured to make random calls to subjects' cell phones and conduct surveys of their experiences with respect to their use of alcohol and marijuana.

In the past, these studies have relied on subjects taking surveys at scheduled times and giving their responses based on remembering what they were thinking and feeling at moments in the past. With the use of IVR technology, subjects can be inconspicuously surveyed over their cell phones while they are actually partaking in alcohol or marijuana and can give much more relevant responses. Not only does this give more pertinent data for the study, but it also increases the privacy of participants. The true test of this survey methodology and it's future will be to see how it compares with similar studies conducted in more traditional manners.

IVR and H1N1: Round Three

As fall begins in North America, there is a heightened level of anxiety about the flu spurred by fears of an H1N1 pandemic. Earlier this year, the outbreak that began in Mexico and quickly spread around the world was a bit over-hyped by incessant media reports about growing numbers of cases and deaths caused by the virus. The initial outbreak occurred near the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere so it's effects were likely less than if the outbreak had occurred at the beginning of the season. Now that North America is entering a new flu season, more precautions than usual are taking place in businesses and schools to avoid being dramatically impacted by the H1N1 virus.

Earlier this year, many technologies were employed in various ways around the world to disseminate information about the spread of the flu and where individuals could seek medical treatment if infected. The health ministry of India deployed an informational IVR system to offer advice for those infected while some colleges in Canada implemented proactive IVR systems to periodically monitor student health. SoundBite has recently joined the fray with the introduction of an IVR system that will not only keep employees informed about the latest H1N1 news but will also make outbound notification calls when on-site flu shots are to be administered. This proactive approach is an effort to minimize the number of employees that are affected by the virus causing them to miss work. In this rapidly shrinking world, the issue of a global pandemic is more real than ever and preparedness is key to avoiding a health disaster. Of course, a preemptive strategy is only part of a business continuity plan and organizations must be prepared if they are unable to contain an outbreak among employees.

Integrated Health Care IVR

With the health care debate continuing in the United States, many companies have introduced innovative solutions to help in health care management through IVR technologies. From appointment notifications and followup care to maximizing doctors' appointment schedules, several specific programs have been unveiled in the past few months to help save both time and money. Now CallFire.com has unveiled an IVR solution that combines many of these concepts into one convenient package.

In addition to offering appointment reminders to patients, the CallFire system can be configured to quickly fill canceled appointments by making automated outbound calls to patients on a waiting list. Further customization options allow for the patient data to be integrated in such a way that outbound calls can be personalized. The IVR system is also capable of making followup calls after appointments and surgeries to ensure that patients adhere to post-visit instructions. Most importantly, the system collects patient feedback through voice response surveys that assist in improving services and overall medical care offered by the physician. Continued advances and integration of IVR technology into the medical profession will undoubtedly help save time and money for doctors and patients alike.

Business Continutiy and IVR

The future is always uncertain and major catastrophic events can occur at any time from natural disasters to pandemic outbreaks. In such cases, company offices may have to be closed for an extended period of time for the safety of the employees and the public as a whole. Thankfully, as long as telephone and Internet lines are functional, business can go on via telecommuting. But such an option is not available without a viable business continuity/disaster recovery plan. It is an integral part of companies both large and small.

Many tools can help achieve a plan, foremost of which is redundant off-site data storage locations where electronic business operations can be run if there is an issue with normal operations at headquarters. In addition to data management, communication with employees is crucial. Emergency notification and informational IVR systems should be created to maintain communication with employees who may be working from their homes. Read more about the other important considerations of business continuity/disaster recovery plans here.

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.

Automated Medical Followup

The ongoing healthcare debate in the United States has been spurred by many things, chief among them are the rising costs of medical care. Regardless of the outcome of the debate and future legislation, improved care and reduced costs should always be a goal to strive for in the medical field. Audiopoint has recently released a product that aims to do just that. NotifierRx is a telephone based application that can be used to communicate and follow-up with discharged patients to monitor their recovery and address any problems in a timely manner.

The recovery period following a hospital stay is fraught with opportunities for relapse or infection that can result in a costly readmission for care. NotifierRx communicates important recovery and medication reminders to patients but also allows for medical staff to acquire specific follow-up information. The patient can be asked a series of questions through an IVR system and his or her spoken answers are recorded for the physician to review. Based on the questions, appropriate actions can be taken quickly that could result in outpatient or even in-home care saving both time and money that would otherwise be spent during the readmission to the hospital. Time is of the essence in medical care and using automated systems to help with patient monitoring can shorten the response times and achieve cost savings and improved customer care.

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.

IVR in NHS

Throughout the debate over government involvement in health care in the United States, many on both sides have pointed to the successes and failings of the national services offered by Canada and the United Kingdom. Efficiency is always a popular topic of discussion and while inefficiencies are inherent in almost any system, recent initiatives by hospitals in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) are making efforts to save money and time for both doctors and patients.

According to internal statistics, almost fifteen percent of patients miss scheduled hospital appointments. This results in fewer patients being treated by doctors as well as puts a financial strain on the NHS system. Using a combination of text-to-speech and IVR technologies, NHS hospitals are automatically calling patients seven days prior to appointments to confirm the date and time of scheduled visits. Since implementation, the hospitals have seen a "significant improvement" in appointment attendance as well as shorter waiting lists for other patients to see doctors. It is unclear if recent research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal influenced this project, but it appears to produce similar benefits for both patients and doctors alike.

IVR and H1N1: Round Two

Last month the spread of the H1N1 virus had slowed considerably in North America but cases were beginning to erupt in other parts of the world. As a result, the health ministry of India created an IVR help line for residents to access updates about the outbreak as well as get help in locating medical assistance. Although it is still summer in North America, many local and state governments are preparing for the upcoming flu season that in some places could begin as early September.

Several colleges around Ottawa, Canada are developing IVR systems to monitor and contain any outbreak that might occur in their on-campus residence halls. Algonquin College is using a system that will periodically call all students to poll them on any flu-related symptoms they might be feeling. The college administrators will then be able to use this "snapshot" as a means for making decisions about canceling classes to minimize student contact. As the threat of the H1N1 virus returns this fall, there will likely be more localized IVR systems implemented to deal with dissemination of information about the flu.

Outbound IVR vs. Predictive Dialers

For years, predictive dialers have been employed by telemarketers so that one operator can call several phone numbers simultaneously and make a sales pitch to the first person that answers his or her phone. Predictive dialers are also used by some companies to communicate with their customers and clients. The systems are popular because of their cost effectiveness since they allow operators to connect to a customer almost every time they dial a group of numbers. As efficient as the systems are for operators, they can be equally frustrating for the customer who is the second or third to answer the call in the few seconds after the operator has already connected with the first customer. Those later customers are greeted with silence and usually assume it to be a wrong number. Those same customers may be called several more times in the following minutes before finally being connected to the operator, at which time the customer is usually not interested in the information or the sales pitch.

Recent data suggests that outbound IVRs are rapidly taking the place of predictive dialers as speech recognition and dual-tone multi-frequency technology improves. Some companies are even employing them as a means to conduct standard business transactions in lieu of operator assisted calls thanks to the ability to verify customer identity and record user submitted information through the IVR system. There are several advantages, the greatest of which is cost. Live operators are still employed to assist if problems should arise during a call, but far fewer are required than in a call center using predictive dialers. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is greatly improved as calls are received by the customer on the first attempt rather than multiple attempts. Current trends suggest that outbound IVR will continue to excel as the technology improves resulting in greater cost savings through efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.