Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Contact centers face constant shifts like any industry, with contact center trends reporting more remote call centers and a heightened need for customer intelligence and improved work environments.
A robust call center IVR system and strategy can support all the above trends. Here we’ll get into the basics of call center IVR and why it’s important, as well as some call center IVR best practices that’ll improve your call center performance.
Contact Center Trends: Predictions for 2022
What is Call Center IVR?
Call center IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a communication router that directs customer calls and messages to the appropriate agent or department.
In simple terms? IVR links your customer to the information they need.
A call center IVR system presents options to a customer to help route their call. The customer selects the appropriate choice either by pressing a number, selecting a choice from an online menu, or by verbally indicating their choice through IVR voice recognition.
Unfortunately, studies show that 61% of customers don’t like call center IVR systems. Many call center IVRs take up a lot of time and frustrate customers. In most scenarios, a customer prefers speaking to a human rather than a robot. But these days, call center IVR offers more flexibility and immediacy to customers than ever before, especially visual IVR systems.
Why a Great Call Center IVR Experience Matters.
As mentioned, many customers don’t like call center IVR systems. Reasons for customer dissatisfaction with IVR vary, including long and uncertain wait times, irrelevant or lengthy IVR options, and a lack of empathy.
Luckily, a great IVR system addresses all the above concerns (we’ll get into how later in this article). But first, let’s explore why a great call center IVR experience matters.
It improves efficiency.
Customer expectations have evolved to include immediacy in the past couple of years. A strong call center IVR is available to provide support whenever and wherever their customers need it. IVR systems save time by:

Connecting customers to the right agent through call routing.
Allowing callers to schedule a call-back instead of waiting on hold.
Communicating important updates to customers navigating the system.

Time efficiency and customer satisfaction go hand in hand, as customers will be happier if their issues are resolved quickly. Time efficiency acts like dominos, linking to better customer satisfaction, improved metrics, and positive word of mouth.
It saves your call center money.
High call volumes force call centers to schedule more agents and hire more talent. IVR systems help promote agent productivity and save call centers labor costs in a couple of ways. First, they allow customers the option to schedule a voice call-back, allowing agents to focus on customers that wish to be served promptly. Second, IVR can provide the information a customer needs without having to speak to an agent.
One study compares the cost of IVR as $1 per contact compared to the telephone-service cost of $6-12 per contact. Clearly, IVR is cheaper!
Now that we know the benefits of a strong IVR, let’s explore how call center leaders can optimize IVR to better experience the benefits.
Call Center IVR Best Practices. 
Always offer a call-back.
Customers hate long hold times. One way to minimize customer dissatisfaction amidst a call spike is to include a call-back option in your call center IVR.
Fonolo’s Voice Call-Backs is a great way to give your customers the flexibility they desire. With this call center technology, Fonolo takes on the burden of the hold time, so that your customers don’t have to.
Include a live agent option.
Despite the evolution of IVR, many customers still crave a live-agent option when they call a business. Make sure to include a live-agent IVR option that your customers can access quickly, without having to listen through all the other IVR options again.
Gather feedback and customer data.
Call center leaders aren’t strangers to KPIs, metrics, and call center reporting — after all, you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
The only way to know how your customers truly feel about your call center IVR is by asking them outright. Send customers mini-surveys every so often to learn about their experiences with your IVR. Don’t be alarmed at negative feedback — this is a great opportunity for you to improve your IVR system and meet your customers’ ever-changing expectations.
How to Create a Call Center Performance Report
Let customers choose their communication method.
The modern IVR must accommodate the various communication methods customers use today. Visual IVR offers customers the option to talk on the phone, live chat, or text message, or to review online resources through other menu options. If you receive calls after hours, Visual IVR also lets customers schedule a conversation at a later time.
Keep phone menu options simple and short.
Remember when we mentioned customers prefer to speak with a human than a robot? This fact likely won’t change; however, you can make the robotic experience less tiresome by keeping IVR options simple and short.
How to Create a Strong Call Center IVR Script
The main reason customers prefer humans is because that option seems intrinsically faster. However, with simple, short IVR options, customers should feel like they’re saving time. Moreover, simple IVR options ensure customers can easily remember their options without having to listen to the system repeat the entire sequence of options.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

I was sitting in a friend’s study the other day, and noticed that he had hundreds of books I’d never read.
Each was written, perhaps over the course of a year (or a decade), by a smart, passionate person with something to share. All of that focus and insight, generously shared with anyone who wants to take the time.
It reminded me of how much is out there, just waiting for us to explore and understand. We have a chance to learn and move forward if we care to.

Some folks think of marketing as something that is done to people. A hustle, a hype, a stealing of attention.

We need a name for that, but I don’t think that’s marketing.

On the other hand, calling dinner, “cold dead fish on rice,” while accurate, doesn’t really help people enjoy their sushi.

Human beings aren’t information processing machines. We’re not hyper-rational or predictable. Instead, we find joy and possibility in stories, in connection and yes, in tension and status roles as well.

When you care enough to see your audience with empathy, you’ll realize that they’re not happier if you simply recite a list of facts. Almost everything we engage with is a placebo at some level, and bringing a human-friendly story to the interaction is a way to serve people.

We need to not only have the ability to imagine what others see, we have to have the guts to go where they are and talk with them on their terms.

This means that we’re willing to be wrong on our way to being useful. We need to make assertions and show up with consistency, making promises and keeping them. Promises not just about the atomic weight of nitrogen, but about experiences and expectations that are sometimes hard to pin down.

Don’t make something that you would buy.

Make something that they would buy.

The latest research by Netcall, a leading provider of customer engagement solutions, in collaboration with Davies, a professional services and technology business, reveals some interesting results. This paper uncovers both drivers and obstacles of further CX transformation. As a team dedicated to preparing CX professionals for upcoming challenges, we gathered the most important insight from…
The post Netcall’s latest research: 50% of leaders worry they will fail to engage with customers appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

When you think of the phrase “call center training”, does the word fun come to mind?
If it doesn’t, you’re probably not alone. After all, workplace training has a reputation for being dull with endless PowerPoint presentations and the occasional role-playing exercise. But now, with agent engagement becoming a growing priority for call centers, it’s a great time to reimagine your approach to training your team members.
Contact Center Trends: Industry Predictions for 2022
According to our most recent trends report, customer service expectations are at an all-time high — that means customer support must catch up through effective call center training. But the old textbook methods just won’t do! Luckily, there are lots of methods out there to make call center training engaging, and dare we say… fun!
Agent training is more important than ever before.
With the rise of remote and hybrid work environments, customers don’t always have access to brick-and-mortar businesses. That’s why customers rely more on contact center agents now more than ever for all the information they need.
That explains the 600% increase in call volume across various industries’ call centers. Such an increase would overwhelm any normally staffed contact center. Imagine how much agents felt this increased volume when 20% of agent capacity dropped. That’s a big hit to an industry that already experiences a 30-45% agent attrition rate outside of COVID!
On top of that, agents are reporting more negative customer interactions these days. Customers desire more empathy and immediacy, bringing their patience levels lower than ever.

Did you know that call center agents face a 30-45% attrition rate? #CallCenterEngagement #CallCenterTrendsClick To Tweet

Clearly, call center staff members are stressed, overworked, and sometimes even burnt out. Agent performance levels are on the line, as well as agent retention.
What does this mean for call center training? You may see a decline in agent engagement during regular training sessions compared to previous years. So call center managers and executives have to step up their game with more engagement, support, and incentives to keep their agents happy.
Balancing education and engagement.
The problem with a lot of call center agent training sessions is a lack of engagement. However, this doesn’t mean your agents aren’t suited to the job. In fact, it has a lot more to do with the way the information is delivered.
Ask yourself:

Is the information presented in a way that will appeal to our agents?
Is there a way to make the training courses more interactive?
Is the training leader delivering the information with enthusiasm and positive energy?

Balancing education and engagement is essential if you want your training to sink in. You need to invoke human aspects into your training to get your agents engaged. That means making training more interactive and potentially using gamification tactics in your program.
5 Best Practices for Training Remote Call Center Agents
4 tips to improve agent engagement during training.
1. Use a buddy system. 
The buddy system is a tried and true training method that involves pairing up an experienced team member with a new agent. Allow the new agent to sit in or listen in on customer calls on the experienced agent’s schedule. This helps them see strong customer service skills in action rather than just in theory.
Take this approach one step further by coaching your veteran agents on setting a positive tone and building a friendly mentor-mentee relationship with your new hire. You’ll be impressed how much further your training efforts go!
2. More video, less text. 
Dry call center training manuals are the bane of every agent’s existence! Nobody wants to sit through a 4-hour long reading assignment about call center techniques. A long lecture with text-dense slides won’t do either!
It’s easy for call center agents to feel isolated, as their work is very independent. This is especially true for remote agents. Using interactive online training techniques with video conferencing can give them opportunities to engage with their team mates on a more personal level.
3. Gamify your training. 
Education + Engagement = Call Center Training games!
Call center training material can get pretty dry. Why not spice it up with some competition and fun games for your agents? Offer rewards and competition throughout your call center training to keep your agents engaged.
Rewards might look like a shortened workday for the person who answers the most questions correctly in the training, or an award of recognition for a game-winner.

TIP:
Why stop the fun? Continue the games onto the sales floor, virtual or in-person, with these engaging call center games.

4. Share analytics with your agents.
Call center training should use real-life examples to help employees see the results of good and bad techniques. This approach will help them feel more connected to the depart
Involve your employees in data collection and analytics. You might share a live customer call with trained agents and then show your agents in training that customer’s CSAT score! Or, you might share a few metrics like FCR or abandon rate before and after your team uses Fonolo’s Voice Call-Backs!The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.