When it comes to call centers and the customer experience, nothing is more talked about then the customer’s lament when it comes to endless phone trees backed by inefficient IVR systems that lead a person to the land of pressing “0” a hundred times. Sometimes the customer gets an agent, sometimes they’re on hold for what seems like an infinity; in the end, this always means that the business in question loses a prized and valuable customer.

Thankfully, technology has given a boost to legacy IVR systems, making them work better for the call centers that have implemented them. With the heavy proliferation of mobile devices, people are turning to their gadgets more in the form of applications in an effort to better reach out for their consumer needs. This is where IVR and the mobile app can benefit call centers to increase their customer experience management levels in a significantly positive and powerful way.

In a perfect world, customers would be routed right to an agent, have their questions answered, and end the call happy and harmoniously with nothing but good recommendations to their friends and family. For businesses that run high call volumes, however, this isn’t always a possibility. Due to this reality, call centers turn to IVR and other technologies to help better route calls to decrease wait times and put the customer in touch with an expert that is suited for their needs.

The question, then, is how can mobile apps, then, give IVR a boost not only with customer confidence, but with call efficiency?

Two words: visual IVR. What visual IVR is to the customer is what visual voice mail is to a mobile phone owner: it turns the experience into something they can physically touch and see, all the while getting their needs met.

Rather than go through the rigmarole of pressing buttons while saying yes or no after a tone, a customer can simply launch a mobile app, and touch their way through the menu as the visual IVR routes them to what they need, be it a readable info segment, instructional video or an actual live agent.

Perhaps a key driver to implementing a visual IVR system is that businesses need to reach their tech-savvy generation of consumers. Today, customers have different expectations of the companies they give money to, mostly because they want to use their smartphones and other mobile devices to reach out instead of calling a generic 800-number. This growing population will more than likely engage businesses that offer this form of communication to them.

 A visual IVR solution creates a new touch point for customers to interact outside of the voice channel, yet still utilize the capabilities that were designed for voice for the generation that prefers it the “old fashioned” way.

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