What’s a Visual IVR and How Does it Improve CX?
The contact center industry boasts some of the most intelligent and innovative CX technologies out there. One of the most talked about in recent years is the Visual IVR, for its hugely positive impact on customer experience.
If you haven’t encountered Visual IVR yet, it’s quickly becoming an essential tool for businesses who prioritize customer satisfaction and brand perception. Read on for a crash course!
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What is a Visual IVR?
The original Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is better known to customers as the phone menu. This tool gathers customer information and guides callers into the proper phone channels to be connected to an appropriate agent.
Like its predecessor, Visual IVR collects customer information and directs them down the proper channels — only now, it’s a web-based interaction. This new support experience makes for an easy, frictionless customer journey.
Where do you use a Visual IVR?
Visual IVRs are usually hosted on a business’ website or mobile app. They’re designed for quick and intuitive navigation, and some even leverage AI to anticipate the customer’s needs.
Through this full-service experience, contact centers can gather more data with greater accuracy in a single interaction. When combined with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, you can store this data to create more personalized interactions with your customers in future.
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Why use a Visual IVR?
Better data collection.
Asking for information on a visual interface is much easier than a traditional phone line. Customers find it much easier to type their information into a Visual IVR than pushing numbers on a traditional phone menu. This means higher quality data with less room for error — and more of it!39663
Direct customers to self-serve tools.
While popular with customers, the voice channel is expensive to run and tricky to manage. To lower costs and ease burden off your agents, Visual IVRs can utilize chat bots and intuitive AI technology to answer commonly asked customer questions and drive them to self-service channels, such as an online knowledge base or FAQ.
FACT:
44% of people surveyed in the U.S. still prefer phone or voice as their primary customer service channel. That’s 21% higher than any other channel available.Microsoft State of Global Customer Service Report
Create a seamless omnichannel experience.
Modern customers expect businesses to engage with them wherever they are and carry the conversation between channels. Visual IVR can go one step further and transition your customers from one channel to another. For example, if a customer issue is too complex to solve through standard resources, you can offer them a scheduled call-back from an agent.
Make a lasting impression on your customers.
According to Hubspot, 93% of customers are likely to purchase multiple times from a company with excellent service. With a stat like that, investing in your customer experience is well worth the investment. Trust us, customers take notice of brands that can take their issue and turn it into a positive and enjoyable interaction.
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Visual IVR’s perfect pairing.
Call-back technology and Visual IVR are a well-known power combo in the contact center world. In fact, Voice Call-Backs address one of the biggest CX challenges not covered by its counterpart: long hold times. With this tool, customers can choose to skip the queue in favor of receiving a call-back later from an available agent. The results? Higher customer satisfaction (CSat) scores, lower abandonment rates, and improved First Contact Resolution (FCR).The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.