Companies may be looking at social media and alternative methods of networking
and communication, for developing an enhanced customer interaction and grievance redressal system, but the mainstay of complaint resolution still remains the interactive voice responses (IVR) system.
In fact the age old IVR system is now expanding fast as a result of the telecom boom in the country and also with the growing electronic industry, additional avenues for providing customer support have been created.
“In spite of all the technology that has evolved voice is still a major chunk of the interaction. Secondly, any customer interaction is a potential success or a failure point for any brand. Customers today are spoilt for choice, there are very few brands that are in the market that offer different products or that have carved a niche for themselves who would not require the service area to differentiate themselves. If the customer’s needs are not met at the IVR, a company can end up losing that customer,” said Shankaran Nair, President -Corporate Strategy, Servion.
Nair also explained that with changing business needs, IVR was set to evolve and services like Cloud computing-based IVR were expected to drive down costs and increase the speed of deployment of these systems.
Customers are often required to punch in a number of keys before they reach the customer service agent or their query is resolved. This puts off the majority with half hanging up before their issues get resolved. People prefer to talk to customer care agents rather than to an automated system. “The trick is to keep your IVRs crisp and short,” he said.
Most currently deployed IVR systems are viewed as a nuisance and the prime reason for that is their bad design. “A lot of intelligence has to go into crafting the IVR,” Nair noted.
IVR systems are expected to go mobile, with apps being available on a cell phone to connect to companies’ IVR system. The integration of business and data analytics into IVR systems will continue. “The need to improve the effectiveness of IVR systems and minimize customer frustration through improved information delivery is a never-ending pursuit,” he explained.
Another trend that is expected to evolve in the IVR industry, is the expansion of voice XML (VXML)-based IVR. With this the legacy IVR, which had seen a huge uptake in the late 1990s, will see a rapid decline. These legacy systems are now reaching the end of their useful product lifecycle, both in terms of support costs as well as functionality.
“While DTMF-based systems still represent the largest installed base, voice-enabled systems continue to close the gap as vendors and companies become smarter on how to use speech recognition-based technologies,” he explained.
From simple point solutions, these systems have become quite complex. Telecom and BFSI have been the biggest adopters. “They contribute 65-70% of our business in India,” said Nair.
According to Nair, an intelligent IVR would allow telcos to boost their ARPUs. “Every time a customer calls the company it is an opportunity for that company to engage that customer. However, one has to be sensitive that when a customer has called for complaints, one shouldn’t try to cross sell,” he noted.
Lastly, the IVR industry will soon transform into the high-definition territory with HD voice (also called wideband audio).