Call automation can really be hit or miss. Whilst there are many advantages to installing a interactive voice recording (IVR) to your telephone lines, there are also many disadvantages. Below are some tips on how to avoid frustrating IVR.

Press 0 or Stay on the Line
Why offer two solutions, when one is enough. Apart from being confusing, it is totally unnecessary. Keep your IVR straight forward, and only give your callers one option to get to a particular department.

“I didn’t get that … please say what you are calling about.”
There is nothing more frustrating than having to repeat myself 10 times, only to be put through to the wrong department and wasting my precious time. If your system doesn’t have a good voice recognition device simply do not use it. It would be better to let your customer service representatives determine what your customers’ needs are, rather than getting them irate because your system doesn’t understand them.

After Business Hours
Fair enough your business may not have the resources or the need to be open 24 hours, but please don’t make us sit through 2 minutes of pressing buttons and saying which department we want to speak to, only to be presented with a message saying that we have called outside of business hours. Do this in the first instance. GRRRR.

Disconnected
Obviously this can happen on the odd occasion, but if your phone line has a habit of disconnecting your callers after they have spent time trying to get to the right department, you will have some very frustrated callers – who may not be bothered to call you back.

An interactive voice recording will definitely make your business sound more professional if produced by a reputable production company, and it will also help direct your customers to the right department, but use it wisely. At the end of the day, people do prefer to speak to people, and where possible – use your staff to interact with your customer-base.