PDFs CAN GO OUT OF DATE AND FEEL LESS TRUSTWORTHY. PHONE CALLS TO AN IVR AND MOBILE APPS ARE NICE BUT ARE OVERKILL IN MANY CASES.
VOICE IVR
... IF YOUR IVR CALL FLOWS ARE GETTING RIDICULOUSLY LONG, OR YOUR AGENTS ARE HANDLING A LOT OF REPETITIVE, MUNDANE CALLS, CONSIDER A TRUE CONVERSATIONAL AI EXPERIENCE.
Generations that have been around a while might be okay with slow, clear, and concise verbal instructions, even if it’ s old school and takes a little longer. So, ask yourself if you can deliver this reliably in your voice channels.
What kind of information do you need to support?
Is it simple balance information, binary yes / no, or multiple-choice information? If so, don’ t complicate it with error-prone speech recognition when clear, definitive touch-tone may work better. Not very cool, I know, but the idea is to get the job done for your customers, not test drive technology that could be overkill for your business models.
On the other hand, if your IVR call flows are getting ridiculously long, or your agents are handling a lot of repetitive, mundane calls, consider a true Conversational AI experience. Many relatively complex tasks like address change, billing disputes, flight changes, and a lot more can be handled easily, fairly reliably, and at a lot less cost than burdening agents with these calls.
PDFs CAN GO OUT OF DATE AND FEEL LESS TRUSTWORTHY. PHONE CALLS TO AN IVR AND MOBILE APPS ARE NICE BUT ARE OVERKILL IN MANY CASES.
The main point here is to first get a handle on the volume and types of information your business needs to provide to your customers.
How important is your brand and customer experience( CX) to you?
If I’ m interested in knowing when the next commuter train to New York City leaves from my home in the suburbs, anything more than a simple, reliable web page that updates automatically according to the time of day and day of week, and which informs of any delays and service changes, is all I want.
I’ ll bookmark that page and come back to it when I need it, or if I hear an announcement or get a proactive service alert to direct me to it. PDFs can go out of date and feel less trustworthy. Phone calls to an IVR and mobile apps are nice but are overkill in many cases. And if you are on a train or platform, you might not be able to hear them anyway from all the noise.
At the other extreme, if I’ m going to spend hundreds of dollars on a nice hotel or a business class flight, a great web or mobile experience is a great starting place for the great voice experience that could seal the deal. The key here is understanding your brand, the service levels your business models require, your competition, and of course your budget.
GETTING ON THE RIGHT ROAD
Yes indeed, we used to live in a much simpler world. There were fewer roads, and buildings, signs, and intersections along those roads. There were also fewer vehicles and hence, fewer individuals using those roads. Local cultures had much greater concentrations of people who went back many generations and who possessed deep knowledge of their immediate areas.
Today’ s populations have not only grown in size, but in diversity, language, and cultural norms. The range of products and services most businesses offer has grown tremendously too, as has the number of companies competing for the attention of your customers.
Before you begin your journey, understand your audience: not just the age demographics, but the cultures, languages, habits, and even their openness to new approaches to solving their problems.
Don’ t be surprised if a good portion of them are quite happy with an IVR experience that gives them simple“ lefts and rights” to get them where they are going. Not just because they don’ t want to learn something new, but because they know what works for them and really, they just want you to solve their problem for them.
Dan is the CEO of Gyst Technologies, a company that develops software for optimizing Conversational AI and Traditional IVRs. After graduating from NYU, Dan worked as an MTS at Bell Labs, and was a board member at the MIT Enterprise Forum. Dan’ s paintings( dansartworks. com) inspired the theme of this article.
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