Room for improvement in SA`s IVR systems

Although most IVR (interactive voice response) systems contain similar technology, local research carried out by Dimension Data reveals that what differentiates a good IVR from a bad one, is how well the application is designed, scripted and spoken.

Dimension Data this month released the results of a survey of existing IVR applications at major SA organisations, particularly those in the banking and telecommunications sectors.

"There are typically two types of reactions to IVR applications: people either hate them or they wonder how they ever did without them," comments Mike Fairon, Solution Architect Manager - Channel Solutions at Dimension Data.

"The survey was undertaken to establish why some IVR systems are more successful in delivering customer satisfaction than others, despite the fact that most systems are virtually identical in terms of their constituent technology," he explains.

The survey found that the weakest areas in the design of IVR applications were around the quality of the `spoken output`, the error handling procedure and the number of options available on the menus.

For example, numerous systems included in the survey offered callers more than five options which, research has shown, can prove confusing and frustrating.

"Callers don`t like having to listen to a long list of potential options because they invariably forget which one they should have chosen. Depending on the system, they then either have to redial the IVR system, or start again and listen to the menu options," Fairon says.

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"On the plus side, the survey revealed the strongest area of the design is the fact that every application consisted of easy-to-follow prompts - for example, `for balance information, press 1`.

"And all the systems surveyed were also all `Dial Through` enabled, allowing callers to step ahead and not wait for the prompts to finish before they select their option. The advantages of `Dial Through` is that it allows the caller to immediately reach the required service," he adds.

However, while most applications consisted of prompts that were short, conversational and to the point with no jargon or acronyms present, a relatively high percentage - 25% of financial institutions surveyed - had prompts that were too wordy and contained jargon and acronyms which consumers could find difficult to understand.

Around 75% of the financial institutions automatically transferred the caller to an agent for assistance after two or three errors but only 50% of the telecommunications sector systems contained the same helpful feature. "Of the problems experienced with the systems, the most pressing is undoubtedly the quality of the `spoken output`. Indeed, within the telecommunications sector, only 20% of the applications contained `spoken output` that could be considered good quality.

"Many of the applications contained background interference, more than one voice as well as a voice artist whose voice was decidedly unfriendly. This can create an unpleasant experience for a caller," comments Fairon.

Improving both spoken output and ease of use will incur added cost but, he stresses, without these improvements, organisations may find that their investment in IVR fails to achieve anticipated returns simply because customers find the system unfriendly and difficult to use.

"Organisations should invest money in utilising the services of a professional voice artist and a professional recording studio. In addition, to improve `ease of use` of their systems, organisations should re-visit the design of the prompts and ensure they are written from a caller`s perspective, not the organisation`s. The prompts must be logical and written from an externally focused mindset."