As a consumer, one of the things that I find most annoying about contact centers is the fact they still use IVR technology (Interactive Voice Response). When I pick up the phone, I do it for a reason. I want to speak with someone; not a machine that doesn’t understand my Scottish accent or have the correct options. More often than not, by the time I navigate through the options and eventually make it to a Customer Service Representative (CSR), I’m extremely frustrated. This leads me to the question, are IVR’s doing more harm than good, particularly in the age of mobile technology?
Working in the customer care space for a number of years, I understand why companies implement IVR solutions. It reduces costs, filters out the most basic of inquiries, provides 24/7 coverage and identifies customers upfront and, in theory, allows calls to be routed more effectively. The last point assumes businesses are using the technology correctly, but on several occasions I’ve navigated an IVR for the CSR to repeatedly ask me the same questions over and over again. However, even with these benefits, I genuinely feel IVR technology doesn’t improve customer satisfaction levels and its use is becoming obsolete in the age of mobile technology. If I want to find out my account balance, a stores opening hours or make a payment, I will use the web or a custom app. Anyway, how do today’s consumers get a phone number for a business, more than likely from a company website? If the website or app isn’t able to handle my request what makes a company think an IVR system would be able to do so? I highly doubt it.
In summary, I know that not everyone uses mobile technology and that an IVR system can be useful in some scenarios. But I feel that in order for organizations to improve their level of customer service, as opposed to their bottom line, they would be better to focus their time and money on mobile technologies and move away from IVR’s. At the end of the day, if companies stopped using the technology, would consumers genuinely feel they are missing out on something? I doubt it…