If you don’t streamline your caller experience with IVR, your team members are likely serving as proxy receptionists by:

• Answering every phone call • Fielding the same questions day in and day • Transferring calls and taking handwritten messages

According to a UC Irvine research study, it can take up to 23 minutes for the average worker to refocus his or her efforts after just one interruption.

That means that every time your phone rings, productivity is compromised.

It’s not that phone calls are bad – you want your customers to call. But if you streamline your caller experience with IVR (interactive voice response), you can increase your team’s efficiency and free them to focus on the work for which you hired them.

An IVR is a multi-tasking system that runs through your voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephone. The system can be customized to take calls, transfer them and communicate valuable information that your customers need to know.

If you don’t yet have an IVR or you are under-utilizing your current system, here’s how you can streamline your caller experience so that your IVR can do the heavy lifting and your team can focus on revenue-generating activities.

Streamline Your Caller Experience by Using IVR to Answer Calls Thanks to VOIP, the proliferation of IVR systems has pushed callers to accept that calls answered by IVR are the rule rather than the exception. Most callers are ok with this as long as your IVR is programmed professionally.

It’s to your advantage to use this cultural adaptation of IVR and route all of your calls through the system’s features.

Your team members will still need to take phone calls. But if your system is programmed right, the IVR will put calls through that are relevant to your team members and in line with their assigned job tasks.

Once you’ve decided to use IVR to answer calls, you’ll need to design a call flow plan and menu options based on what your callers need.

For example: • Use logic to program your IVR so that it answers frequently asked questions with voicemail messages. But make sure your system ‘knows’ when the caller needs to speak to a live person. • Too many menu options will confuse the caller, so keep a balance between thoroughness and efficiency. • Simplify the experience so that callers can easily follow your directions.

If you’re not taking every advantage to communicate your brand’s identity during the caller experience, then you’re missing out on key opportunities to build stronger connections with your customers.

You can enhance the impact of your caller experience and strengthen your connection with callers by incorporating brand-aligned: • Content and messaging • Music for business • And voice talent

Streamlining your caller experience by using IVR to answer calls, economizing call flow and incorporating your brand enables you to strengthen customer connections while reducing the number of interruptions that distract your team members.

And that’s a win for your customers as well as your team members.

Source: Business2community.com

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