Lose your customers or ditch your IVR?

A new customer survey has highlighted huge dissatisfaction with voice self-service.

Has the time finally arrived to stop upsetting customers and ditch the touch tone menus?

According to a new customer study 41 per cent of consumers cite voice self-service as the most annoying communications channel compared to only 1 per cent who find it satisfying.

 

In addition, 39 per cent of consumers said it is critical to improve voice self-service to make it integrate more intelligently with human-assisted service.

In customer service experiences where the consumer was ‘trapped’ in an automated system, consumers spent, on average, more than ten minutes trying to reach a live agent. Even paper-based mail, which can be a considerably slower communications channel, is preferable to poorly implemented voice self-service systems.

 

In comparison, consumers seemed generally happy with phone calls to live agents as well as email contact.

Consumers say the biggest issues influencing their perception of voice self-service have to do with automated systems not recognising their unique value to the company, the lack of context during the interaction, and the need to more effectively recognise customer needs and intent.

It strikes me that there are some clear conclusions highlighted by this report.

 

• To improve your customer satisfaction ditch the IVR system
• If you want self-service, do it on the website
• It’s time to beef up your email channels

 

Consumers were asked about the frequency of their interactions with businesses via the web, through contact centres and with their mobile devices.

• 73 per cent of UK consumers ended a relationship due to a poor customer experience
• The average value of each lost relationship is £248 per year
• 39 per cent of UK consumers said it is critical for companies to provide more intelligent self-service so they are not trapped in unproductive automated systems
• 83 per cent of consumers welcome more proactive engagement if it improves their experiences.

The 28-question survey of consumers in the UK was conducted by Greenfield Online. The survey was sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, in collaboration with industry analysts at Datamonitor/Ovum. The survey group represented virtually every age and income bracket of consumers in the UK. Datamonitor/Ovum reviewed the consumer survey data in conjunction with its proprietary contact centre models to produce the results.

This is not the first time that we have suggested that IVR has reached the end if its lifetime.
www.callcentrehelper.com/your-opinion-time-to-throw-out-the-ivr-1882.htm
www.callcentrehelper.com/time-to-get-rid-of-your-ivr-2854.htm

Jonty Pearce