Home Solutions Customers Resources About us Join us Contact 19 Oct The obsolescence of old IVRs Faced with the increased demands of consumers, companies have been using all possible means for decades to respond favourably to their expectations. This includes the multiplication of alternative communication channels (email, chatbot, social networks, etc.). Although these channels, as numerous as they are, often prove to be effective, the telephone remains the preferred channel channel for customers. In the 90s, when the first automated servers appeared, this technology was perceived as very complex and rather expensive. A few years later, the voice server gained ground by being democratised thanks to the appearance of low-speed modems and the Minitel in France. Here we are in the year 2000, in the era of great technological upheaval. IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) are already well implemented and companies are facing more and more competition to satisfy their customers in the most ingenious way possible! The only problem is that callers are becoming increasingly disenchanted with traditional IVRs... IVR and DTMF: a passionate alliance for the benefit of the consumer? The use of IVR and voice automation in call centres allows users' queries to be answered without keeping them waiting indefinitely or incurring the cost of a real agent. All of this is done with the aim of identifying why customers are calling (and responding quickly!). IVR systems allow customers to interact live with a host system through voice menus using DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) tones. Callers are presented with several options and select the ones they want by pressing encrypted telephone buttons. This action triggers a DTMF tone and deduces an appropriate action such as : Routing the call to the appropriate agent and/or service; An automated response to the caller via recorded voice messages; Triggering actions in real time in the contact centre information systems and thus identifying the caller's request. All this leads us to think of a truly sustainable solution, beneficial to both entities and customers and, above all, without flaws! However, the reality is often quite different... DTMF, a death already programmed? We have all experienced it at some point: contacting a customer service department in the apprehensive expectation of a smooth and seamless interaction. Often, this expectation is not fulfilled, and we come across an endless IVR, forcing us to (re)listen to options that do not concern us. DTMF IVRs are largely responsible for this dissatisfaction, for several reasons: They are too rigid If the caller does not find any option corresponding to their call, they have no choice but to contact an agent via another dedicated channel: social networks, email, chat, etc. They are too long the length of the call is increased and the customer experience is significantly degraded ; They are too opaque The caller does not always know how to choose the right option among the choices offered, and does not know the different levels of the IVR; They are too directive Until the caller has answered all the questions in the IVR, he or she cannot even talk to someone who could solve the problem directly. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a video that illustrates the obsolescence and frustration generated by DTMF IVRs: In addition, a survey* conducted by Arise in 2019 showed that while around two thirds of respondents were willing to accept a waiting time of less than two minutes, 13% said that no waiting time was acceptable. The result is clear: there is a clear and direct correlation between increased consumer irritability and increased abandonment rate of calls within an IVR. Indeed, callers tend to hang up as soon as the situation becomes complex or too long, or try to bypass the predefined path to get to an agent faster! Finally, according to VHTa call abandonment rate within an IVR above 5% is considered is considered "poor" and in dire need of improvement. However, in the vast majority of cases, IVRs using DTMF technology produce abandonment rates above the fateful 5% figure. Thus, the era of the DTMF voice server voice server is inexorably tending to disappear. Customers' expectations in terms of reactivity and personalisation in their interactions with companies represent a fundamental trend. This naturally leads us to wonder whether the technological vestige that is the IVR does not need a dusting off, by replacing DTMF menus that are totally losing ground to natural language voice services? Choose a natural language voice assistant solution for an enhanced customer relationship Artificial intelligence in the service of commerce is becoming more and more a part of our habits. Yes, the fundamental challenge of voice assistants is indeed present in customer relations: it is a question of qualifying and responding quickly and simply to the caller's request. Today, thanks to the deployment of natural language and the personalisation of exchanges, it is quite natural that voice assistants are becoming part of the process of handling a customer or prospect call. The close collaboration between artificial and human intelligence through the implementation of a conversational assistant is a key lever to create a positive customer experience, and at ViaDialog we have undertaken many developments in this direction... Next episode *Arise Customer Service Frustration Series: Phone Hold Times, 2019. VTHcx book, Definitive Guide to Contact Center Metrics for Agents. Share: TAGS : Conversational Assistant Voice Assistants Customer Experience Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Customer Relations IVR Similar articles 02 Jul Hybridizing customer relationship channels with common sense 27 Mar The RGPD, 5 main areas of change for companies 10 Sep IRCAM 2021 - ViaDialog - David Guennec Search Recent articles What will the contact centre of tomorrow look like? November 25, 2021 The key issues of teleworking for contact centres November 17, 2021 The irresistible emergence of natural language IVR October 29, 2021 The obsolescence of old IVRs October 19, 2021 Web Call Back: a powerful tool for customer experience September 27, 2021 Find us on Solutions ViaFlow ViaSpeech ViaLeads ViaMotion ViaDialog Who are we? Our expertise Customers Join us Contact Contact us 152 Boulevard Pereire, 75017 - Paris - FRANCE +33 (0)1 83 77 31 00 2021 ViaDialog. All rights reserved. Legal Notice Cookies EN