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As 2023 looms as the year of massive digitalization of customer services with a large focus on automation, what role is there for Visual IVR?
To answer this question, let's first look at it from the perspective of the end customer. A recent study (The Inner Circle Guide to Customer Engagement & Personalisation*) conducted for Enghouse shows that consumers, far from shunning digital channels and self-services, widely favor them, especially when the need is urgent and not emotionally charged. They expect to get the information they are looking for in a timely manner and without disruption in their journey. If this condition is met, then the consumer will have no hesitation in being served in an automated process.
But what exactly are we talking about? Automated customer service refers to all processes that deliver information to customers without having to solicit another human (i.e., a customer service advisor, for example). Automated assistance systems are available 24/7. Promoting their use significantly reduces the cost per contact and eases the burden of long telephone queues.
Several types of systems are distinguished: those that qualify the contact intention and context (with the aim of directing to an automated or human channel) and those that respond, in the form of conversation or guidance. Generally, these tools incorporate quite advanced artificial intelligence systems trained for customer relationship professions.
Voice bots: They welcome customers on the telephone channel and offer them to express their problem in natural language. They can provide the answer themselves, in natural language, or transfer the call to an advisor or another channel where the customer will be immediately taken care of.
IVR (Interactive Voice Response): They welcome customers on the voice channel (telephone). They help to qualify the contact intention through digital guidance and route to an advisor or a self-service response.
Visual IVRs : They also welcome customers on the telephone channel but are directly linked to the IVR tool. At this point, the customer is invited to switch to the digital channel. They receive a link on their smartphone taking them to one of the following interfaces:
The knowledge base or dynamic FAQ : these are responses written and stored by keywords and contact intentions.
These knowledge bases are accessible by keywords or in natural language on the company's digital supports (app, website, blog, client space, etc.). They can be used directly by the customer, in your dynamic FAQs, or by the advisor when they need to provide a response.
The chatbot: it allows simulating a conversation in natural language with the customer. The chatbot can provide a response or transfer to another resolution channel, human.
The bot orchestrator : Similar to the voice bot, the bot orchestrator welcomes the customer on the digital channel; it analyzes and qualifies the intention before directing the customer to the most appropriate channel depending on the context; it can refer to a human on a vocal channel as well as on a digital channel (chat, messenger chat, email, telephone) or handle the response autonomously.
Visual IVR is therefore one of the key tools in automating customer services. One of its main advantages remains the ability to transfer the journey of a contact from the voice channel to the digital channel. It helps to break down the silos in customer relations.
For the company, Visual IVR has numerous advantages:
For the end customer, the advantages of Visual IVR mainly focus on the customer experience.
Visual IVR is thus, in automated customer service, one of the main bricks allowing both the qualification of the contact intention and routing. It bridges the gap between voice and digital (and vice versa),
The effectiveness of an automated customer service is generally measured by considering the number of interactions established with one or more humans, versus the number of interactions established via automation tools. This gives a Care utilization rate. The effectiveness of an automated customer journey can also be measured by considering the resolution rate at the first interaction. Indeed, the customer effort rate is one of the best indicators of customer satisfaction for the company.
To learn more, also read the article - how to measure the effectiveness of SelfCare -
An example? Among DialOnce's clients for Visual IVR, there is the La Poste group, which was able to improve its reachability by favoring digital and automated contact channels. More than 70% of contacts then turned to digital and automation, and the company became 100% reachable.
