A Comprehensive Guide to Interactive Voice Response System (IVR)

 

Interactive Voice Response System (IVR)

Virtual phone systems are definitely an excellent way to initiate business communication but that’s not the end. When you first start with your business, the pace of communication is limited. However, as your business expands and grows, you will experience more and more customers calling to seek support or guidance. 

In the event of the above, handling all user requests becomes difficult. Also, it conjures up a lot of human time, addressing the calls and routing it to the desired person. One way to deal with this solution is to integrate the technology of IVR within the internet phone system. 

 

What is IVR?

IVR or interactive voice response technology is one that automated the process of routing calls to the desired professional. What this implies is that every customer is forced to interact with a computer system prior to connecting with the end representative. 

This computer system holds the responsibility to record all the responses given by the user and based on the above, direct the call to the appropriate representative. It would not be a matter of surprise if these systems take over the manual form of communication. 

Even today, most of the official interaction is guided through virtual assistants. Most of the time, these assistants themselves solve the issues or problems addressed by the customer, eliminating the need to draft a communication between the customer and the representative. 

Every other call that comes through a dedicated number is first exposed to an automated and pre-recorded response. Users need to answer all the questions asked either by typing the option or manually answering the same. In case, the customer still has queries, the call is then transferred to the ideal employee. 

 

A boon for the Customers and Human Operators

Without a doubt, IVR technology is much like a blessing for the human operators and the user as well. Imagine the pain agents need to go through to get through the requirements of the customer only to know that the call needs to be transferred to a different desk. 

It looks like a time-consuming thing to do, right? 

But with the onset of technology, it is not. Businesses can stay assured that the call is addressed by the appropriate agent. 

On the other hand, this is beneficial from the customer point of view too. In case, the first person to attend the call wasn’t appropriate and the call is transferred to another agent, users need to rewind all of the information shared once again to the new agent. 

For organizations that do not have a 24/7 support desk, IVRs are designed in a way that sends the call to the voicemail, promising a call back within hours of operation. In a nutshell, adopting the technology does only good, not to mention the time saved and the cost reduced. 

 

How Does IVR Work?

There are, in total, two different forms of IVR. The first one being the basic system. 

This Basic IVR system further has two components: 

  1. Voice recognition technology
  2. Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency signaling (or DTMF)

The DTMF signaling takes place every time the caller touches the keypad to feed a response to the query given by the automated system. This enables routing the call or transferring it to the right person. It is much like selecting the right option for a menu list. 

Voice recognition does pretty much the same job with the only difference being that response here is fed orally. The system needs to convert it to text and move ahead with the menu. 

 

Advanced IVR

Advanced IVR is the modern-day IVR that has been designed keeping in mind the need to quicken the pace of response and further, improve communication. It uses the technology of Natural Language Processing software (or NLP) to make the communicating process better and faster. 

Even though the basic IVR system had the ability of voice recognition, here with the evolution of NLP systems, computers own the ability to recognize full-length phrases to deal better. Such a conversational approach improves the speed of communication giving users the ease to connect better. Also, the quality of customer service rendered by the business reaches greater heights. 

 

Interactive Voice Response System (IVR)

The Final Word

An IVR for your virtual phone system is an excellent way to add credibility to the channel, reduce the load on the manual workforce and also, optimize the entire operation. In case, you are wondering how to set up an IVR system, all you need to do is move to the cloud and align the services with the IVR feature and functionality. 

You can also connect with internet phone system service providers who would do the entire back end task for you. Right from setting up communication lines to installing the IVR system, the provider would encompass all.