As the economy begins to climb out of the recession, IVR both DTMF and speech rec and the newer related interactive voice and video response (IVVR) are being looked at by organizations as means not just to reduce costs but increasingly to retain customers and grow their value-including referrals. Applied right, IVR and IVVR are multi-wins, for customers and enterprises.

 

Convergys (News - Alert) is a leading supplier of IVR solutions both directly to organizations and indirectly through its BPO unit. It therefore has a keen focus on these technologies and their applications. TMCnet recently interviewed Scot Harris, director, market planning and strategy. Here are his insights:

 

TMCnet: What trends are you seeing in the use of IVR via contact centers and what are the drivers?

 

SH: The struggling economy and reduced consumer spending are not only putting pressure on enterprises to retain precious customers, but to do so in as cost efficiently a method as possible.  Recent surveys have reported that 85 percent of consumers believe customer service is an important factor in continuing to do business with a company.  Since the IVR is usually the "voice that answers the phone" when customers call, providing them with a personalized, information-rich automated interaction helps to keep customers satisfied cost effectively.

 

Shifting demographics - with "Generation X" and the "Millennials" gaining spending power - and easy access to information via the Web have created customer bases that have much higher customer service expectations.  This increased expectation, coupled with rapidly growing mobile phone use, is driving enterprises to enhance their customer service offerings to allow easy access to up-to-the-minute account information from anywhere at any time.

 

Introducing intelligence to automated inbound customer service interactions and proactively delivering outbound notifications are two ways enterprises are meeting the demands of today's consumer.  Not only do these capabilities increase satisfaction by providing access to up-to-date information, they have also reduced contact center operating costs.  Intelligent self-service offers a more personalized customer experience - where more transactions are being handled automatically - and reduces the number of calls that need to be handled by live agents.  Adding intelligence to proactive outbound notifications decreases inbound contact center call traffic by anticipating customer needs and delivering the information to them before they pick up the phone and call.

 

Convergys is also seeing enterprises going for the "quick fix" - trying to increase containment and reduce operating expense.  While introducing a few user interface changes to the existing application can accomplish this goal, taking a more holistic view of the market trends and demand will help retain customers by increasing satisfaction while reducing operating cost, leading to a stronger return on investment.

 

TMCnet: Discuss DTMF IVR versus speech recognition. What role do you see each of them? Or do you see speech recognition gradually supplanting DTMF? What customer interaction types do you forecast being managed by DTMF? Speech rec?

 

SH: We have found there are certain situations where callers prefer interacting with the IVR via DTMF: usually when numeric entry is required.  However, speech applications have been shown to result in higher customer satisfaction, plus they are more convenient and safer to use from mobile phones.  There are also a growing number of complex applications being implemented that lend themselves to a natural language, "How may I help you?" model.

 

Given the mobile phone growth mentioned earlier and the use of smart phones, it's more likely that inbound self-service and outbound notification applications that are deployed will leverage the use of DTMF, speech and touch screen interchangeably during the same interaction.  We're already beginning to see this take place where outbound notifications include a link to connect the recipient to a speech self-service application to complete a transaction.

 

TMCnet: Inbound IVR has been criticized for its lack of customer-friendliness, leading to zero outs and dissatisfied customers. What technologies and best practices methods have you seen and see developing that will encourage more end-customers to stay with the IVR systems?

 

SH: The reasons customers use voice self-service are that it provides around the clock availability, there's no waiting for a live agent and they can get the information they are looking for quickly.  As enterprises try to automate more and more transactions, there's a chance that voice self-service applications become difficult to navigate.  That's one reason why it is important to strike a balance between customer satisfaction and cost reduction by carefully selecting transactions that should be automated.

 

Personalization of automated contact center interactions is a key component to satisfying the customer.  In recent years, IVR platforms have migrated from being proprietary to being open and standards-based.  In addition to lower application and deployment costs, this has led to a more consistent, robust customer experience.  Additionally, adherence to standards has allowed the IVR to be "mainstreamed" into the enterprise IT infrastructure and become more tightly integrated with CRM and billing systems, thereby facilitating the deployment of more personalized self-service interactions.

 

While access to enterprise-based information is an important piece of the puzzle to provide a personalized customer experience, being able to make decisions based on what you already know about your customer is most crucial.  Implementing a centralized decisioning engine that simplifies the management of business rule administration and delivers consistent customer experiences across all customer channels should be considered. 

 

Voice self-service can leverage an enterprise-wide decisioning solution by applying business rules to customer data and past behavior and anticipate the caller's intent, providing a the ultimate caller experience.  Decisioning would also allow the enterprise to implement profile-driven prompts and menus, intelligently guiding the caller to likely self-service functions.

 

Many [firms] claim to have decisioning technology today.  Enterprises need to look for a solution that is self-learning and is easy to manage.  The decisioning solution needs to be as dynamic as the business rules across the organization driving a more consistent and effective customer interaction.

 

TMCnet: Outbound IVR, chiefly customer notifications is emerging as new interaction tool. Discuss its purposes, benefits, implementation challenges and application deployment best practices. Do you see it supplementing or supplanting other channels and if so which ones and why? Where does it fit in the interaction spectrum?

 

SH: Outbound IVR is a new emerging tool.  In fact, it's the fastest growing communication method for contact centers today - a compound annual growth rate [reports studies] of 48 percent over the past couple of years and continued growth through 2011.

 

The shift in demographics and the growth of the mobile phone market are having significant impacts on the way enterprises interact with their customers.  Over 20 percent of all U.S. households have dropped landlines in favor of using cell phones exclusively for voice communication, according to recent survey results from the National Center for Health Statistics.  As mentioned earlier, the consumer demand for real-time information is driving many enterprises to deploy customer care-based outbound notification services.  The good news for the enterprise is that in addition to increasing customer satisfaction, these notifications are also decreasing inbound calls to the IVR and live agents, and reducing operating costs.

 

For person-to-person communication, we're already seeing text messaging supplanting telephone calls.  In many cases teenagers will exchange instant messages or text messages before picking up the phone and dialing each other.  This trend impacts the way enterprises interact with their customers: an outbound text message turns into an inbound voice call to the IVR or contact center agent.

 

There are a number of vertical markets where customer care-based outbound notification services have been successful.  There are a number of airlines, for example that will proactively inform travelers via an automated phone call, text message or e-mail that your flight has been delayed or the gate has been changed.  Power companies are providing repair status to their customers, letting them know when service might be restored.

 

As far as best practices go, it can definitely be a jarring experience to receive a call from a machine that you have to interact with.  Trying to minimize the surprise by making sure it's clear what the purpose of the call is and keeping any interactions simple.

 

The implementation challenges are usually around scheduling notifications, delivering them on the preferred channel (voice, text or e-mail) and making sure you got the right person if the message is targeted to an individual.  Coupling a decisioning solution with outbound notification services is a natural fit.

 

In the short term, notification services will provide a complimentary customer care offering for enterprises.  The use of intelligence, though a decisioning solution, and tightly coupling the outbound notification solution to inbound contact services are two of the keys to success.

 

TMCnet: IVVR is beginning to appear as a new interaction solution. Outline its purposes, benefits, implementation challenges and deployment best practices. Do you see it being widely adopted and if so why and in which roles? Where does it fit in the customer interaction spectrum?

 

SH: We view IVVR as any kind of Visual IVR experience.  With the growing proliferation of broadband Internet and 3G mobile phones, more and more people are used to having a visual interaction on their handsets, but due to small screen size and the mobile nature of handsets, the interaction can be clumsy or difficult.  If customers could talk while they receive visual information it would allow them to take full advantage of the capabilities provided by a rich, multimedia experience.  For example, a customer purchasing a plane ticket on her handset could say the name of the cities she is flying from and to, and have the names instantly appear on her handset as opposed to having to type them in manually.  In addition, a diagram of available seats could be sent to her screen while she verbally tells the system which one she would prefer.

 

Therefore, IVVR, or Visual IVR, provides another way of allowing the caller to use the best possible media to get their task done.  If something is better represented graphically, you can do it.  If you're driving and need to navigate the application using speech, you can do it.  The challenge is understanding the modalities that are available to the customer--do they have a smart phone? are they at their PC? - and keeping all of the different user interfaces in sync.  Effectively handling error situations and network issues are keys to success.

 

As smart phones become more and more prolific, it seems likely that Visual IVR will grow.  Look for initial implementations to replace or augment traditional IVR applications such as locators, where a visual component is coupled with speech or text (show a map, voice/text directions).