How Does the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system Work?

In the above example, first three options as mentioned below are self-help options.

1.     Press 1 for Billing Related Queries

2.    Press 2 for Product Enquiries

3.    Press 3 for Sales Related Issues

These options help the customers to resolve queries without intervention of a live agent.

However, the option with a description “Press 3 to Talk with our Sales Representative” connects you with a live customer representative directly.

After listening to the options thoroughly, a caller can numerically input their desired response depending upon the type of query they want to inquire.

According to their requirement, the callers can proceed forward with self-help IVR option or can connect to the customer service representative of the desired department.

At Backend

While the process seems simple at the front end, the backend involves combination of technologies to facilitate the smooth functioning of IVR. These systems use Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) technology to computerize their calls, i.e., instead of calls being received on a traditional landline set, the calls are received, forwarded or dialed on computers. This technology eases the whole communication process by providing many additional features other than dialing or receiving a call. Below is the list of actions which process in the backend.

When the caller calls on the business phone number, the automated message is played to welcome the caller. This automated message is either a recorded audio or a customized text-to-speech.

After listening to the options thoroughly, a caller can numerically input their desired response depending upon the type of query they want to inquire.

Further, numeric response of the customer is interpreted by the DTMF technology where every frequency of numeric input tone generated by keys is used to decode the response. A computer needs special hardware known as telephony card to understand this DTMF response.

If a caller opts for a self-help option, then the answer to the query is retrieved from a database or a pre-recorded script.

However, if the caller opts to talk with the agent then features such as call forwarding or routing is used to direct the caller to the desired customer service representative.

And with the help of CTI technology, the calls are displayed on agent’s desktop. Hardware devices such as softphones are further used to answer the incoming call and proceed with the conversation.

What Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Offers?

Apart from easing up the process of query resolution for customers, IVR system widely helps businesses to streamline their everyday processes by replacing manual tasks with automated processes. Below are few of the advantages which makes IVR a promising solution for business.

1.     Process Automation: Adopting IVR solution  automates many of the mundane day-to-day tasks, be it answering thousands of calls with an auto-receptionist feature or using the call forwarding feature to route the calls to the right department. These number of reduced manual tasks optimizes the overall efficiency of the agents and smoothens the overall customer experience.

2.    Cost Reduction: As many of the manual tasks get eliminated in the process, the cost of overall process gets reduced to a large extent. Moreover, by using cloud-hosted IVR services Provider, a business saves a lot on their capital expenditure as now one needs lesser infrastructure as well as human resources. Scaling up or down also becomes very cost-efficient with cloud-hosted IVR.

3.    Customer Data & Analysis: IVR comes with an added feature of call recording. This information proves to be of great help to the business as it provides them with insights of conversation. Businesses can use this information to understand the approaching customers and their concerns. This further helps the business to refine their services by adjusting it according to the customer’s requirement.

4.    Enhanced Productivity: Self-help options resolve many customer queries without the need of contacting a customer service agent. IVR system segments the incoming calls into different departments which allows the agent to address the query of their expertise. This reduces the number of calls and queries received per agent and helps them to deliver quality customer service.