Regardless of the scale of your business, you have to respond quickly to incoming calls. Receiving caller information for your business and transmitting their calls to the most appropriate recipient increases both the efficiency of your business and customer satisfaction. So how are these operations done dynamically?
What is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automatic telephone system that automatically interacts with callers, receives their information and delivers their calls to the most appropriate recipient.
IVR systems have been used continuously since the early 1980s and first emerged with their use in major airline reservation call centers.
In the words of Michael Maoz, vice president of research and outstanding analyst at Gartner Research IVR:
The truth is that when IVR is well configured, it saves costs for a business. And it offers good service to those looking for your business.
What are the Advantages of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for Your Business?
Benefits of businesses embracing the capabilities of modern IVR:
Better Customer Service
In a business that uses IVR systems, quick responses to any question a customer may think of will positively affect customer satisfaction.
With the fast responses of the IVR system, the waiting time of the customers will decrease and your business will save time.
Unlimited Customer Access
Customers can reach your business at any time, as IVR systems will be active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While working hours, holidays and breaks limit the activity of your employees, IVR systems are always at the customer’s service.
Wider Customization
IVR systems have tremendous customization features that help build a better relationship with customers. In IVR systems, you can create or program personalized welcome messages for callers.
In addition to addressing the caller by name, the system can also define and share additional information specific to the caller. For example, celebrating the caller’s birthday will add value to your business.
In addition to programming caller information, IVR systems accommodate a variety of language options tailored to specific customers or callers.
In both cases, customers will increase their loyalty to your company.
Build a Better Company Image
IVR will increase the corporate image of your company. IVR is frequently recommended when building the corporate image of small businesses.
In large-scale businesses, these systems provide a professional image by maintaining consistency of customer service during any call volume.
More Profitability in the Company
Increasingly, the majority of business deals and transactions occur over the phone. In this case, continuing the process with traditional methods causes both a waste of time and an unnecessary cost for businesses.
IVR offers virtual call center employees for your business. Virtual call center employees help you save workforce by better using your business resources while meeting the needs of your customers. Your profits will increase as the IVR system will work 24 hours non-stop, even with high volume calls.
Usage Areas of Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
- Stock account balances, transfers and banking
- Polls
- Office call routing
- Call center routing
- Simple order entry procedures
What is Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)?
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is the technology that allows computers to interact with phone systems.
CTI also allows your communication devices (telephone, computer, fax, voicemail, mobile, etc.) to communicate with each other. This feature of CTI provides users with central control over all communication tools through a single interface.
With CTI, tasks can be performed from any computer, thus benefiting smaller businesses that do not have the resources to maintain costly communication infrastructures. This technology is frequently used in call centers as they receive a large number of calls and are constantly trying to increase productivity. CTI enables a call center to operate in a more flexible and scalable way.
What Benefits Does CTI Provide to Your Call Center?
The benefits of Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) on your call center and customer experience can be divided into 3 headings.
Manage calls directly from the computer without a phone
CTI reduces many costs by eliminating the need for separate landline telephones. Call center workers can receive calls directly through their workstation, and integrated softphones allow them to make callbacks. The system manages all call controls (answer, hang up, transfer, hold, mute, conference, etc.) without the need for a separate device.
Integrations can simplify tool tasks and streamline operations
By matching the credentials with the existing information in the CRM database, CTI transfers a screenshot of the caller’s information to the tool desktop and prevents call center employees from constantly asking for the same information. This integration helps to get a better customer experience and your customer representative to have a good experience.
Customer representatives know who they are talking to at the time of call
CTI technology shows the caller information as a screen image to the customer representative when the call is received, and when the call is transferred to your customer representative, it reflects the detailed information about the caller (name, phone number, dialed number, e-mail, account history, etc.) The agent can greet the customer by name and have quick access to relevant information. It also significantly reduces call handling time and eliminates the need for agents to put callers on hold or ask the customer to wait while the agent calls a customer’s record.
Customer representatives working in busy communication centers, help desks, sales teams or customer service departments are tasked with managing high-volume calls while providing excellent service to each customer. It is essential for businesses to have the right tools to help team members work more efficiently. By using CTI technology, businesses gain call management feature, increase productivity and minimize waiting times.
To use the technologies mentioned above, you can try Infoset free for 14 days. With Infoset, you can manage all your support and sales channels such as cloud call center, live chat, e-mail and social media from a single platform and offer your customers an extraordinary experience.
