Acclaim Telecom Services, Inc.

Over the years Acclaim Telecom has worked with many clients on hundreds of IVR applications.   Some applications are simple and unique in usage, while others have wide ranging and strategic impact on a company’s operation.

As IVR capabilities continue to migrate to cloud computing models, even more companies are taking advantage of these applications itemized below.  We thought you might be interested in learning about a few of the more commonly deployed retail industry IVR applications.

Store locators – an early usage which allows retail vendors with multiple locations to automate routine information retrieval for their customers.   Information made available typically included store locations (identified by proximity to zip codes), hours of operation, directions, and the ability to search for department or employee extensions.

Order status – by using an IVR order status application retail vendors can service their clients 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.  Typical inbound call information available include product shipment data for air, ground or mail shipments, back order status, along with outbound notices that a product has shipped or been delivered.  One innovative customer used their IVR system to send advance sales notice information with a special purchase code.  This purchase code could be used 12 hours in advance of the general public announcement.  Of course they provided the option to hear about pre-announcement sales information only after being updated on the status of their current order.

Bill reminders – another early and highly productive IVR solution.  With very little additional cost and with a potential huge reduction in live agent overhead, calls can be placed to customers reminding them before and after bills are due, along with current balances and payment history.

Employee notification and work scheduling – companies with large numbers of retail stores often have to make last minute staffing changes.  This is especially true in times of high shopping demand such as Black Friday, holiday shopping seasons, and unique store or product promotion events.  IVR systems can place outbound calls to store employees which in turn allow them to respond with availability, enable automated work scheduling, provide work audit tracking, and provide reminder notices of work schedules for employees who work irregular hours.

Customer service polls – companies wishing to capture real time shopper experience can use outbound IVR calls to capture important knowledge.  Acclaim Telecom recommends limiting the quest for information to the top 2 – 3 most important knowledge areas and allow the customer to finish the survey within 60 seconds.  And most importantly, this is not the time to market new offers to a customer.

Internal Inventory and Reporting – while clearly web enabled automation has encroached in this area, there are still times when using a mobile phone is useful to check the status of inventory, orders and sales information.  By integrating iVR capabilities into supply chain management systems, purchasing agents can place or check order status when mobile internet access is not readily available.

Call Center Automation – obviously this is the big one. By correctly analyzing repetitive customer inquiries, automating non-strategic information inquiries or simple information tasks, significant call center cost reductions can be achieved.  This in turns allows call center agents to address more complex or sophisticated customer inquiries requiring human decision making capabilities.

Custom Retail IVR Applications – if you have a unique or custom retail IVR application need, contact Acclaim Telecom.  We would be happy to see how our industry experience can help your organization achieve your desired results while improving customer responsiveness.

We believe every company with a call center truly wants to provide their customers great service. Being in the IVR technology business gives Acclaim Telecom Services a unique opportunity to observe successful (and not so successful) call center IVR practices.

Two observations stand out in our opinion which contribute in a significant manner to the success of a customer service organization:

First, companies that treat their call center employees as one of the most important elements in their customer support organization perform better than most.

Why? The answer is obvious. Engaged and happy employees provide better customer service. They understand the importance of their role and take pride in helping solve someone’s question or problem. A great example of this philosophy is found in how Paul Spiegelman, CEO of The Beryl Companies manages his company. In fact, Paul wrote a book titled, “Why is Everyone Smiling?” Paul shares his management philosophies punctuated with real life examples of the results of his actions. If you would like to know more you can visit the Why Is Everyone Smiling? website.

Second, build your customer service organization based on your customer’s needs, not your rules.

In the 2010 Global CEO study by IBM, three interesting thoughts emerge regarding customer engagement discussed in this comprehensive report. They are:

• How do you plan to optimize each customer interaction?
• What do your customers remember about each interaction?
• What do you want your customer to remember?

In a previous Customer Experience Impact Report by Harris Interactive, further information is highlighted regarding the importance of good customer service. Nearly 70% of consumers said they ended a business relationship due to poor customer service. Consumers indicated the most prevalent root causes to this decision were:

• Representatives that lack the skills to answer their questions
• Being trapped in automated self-service
• Being forced to wait too long
• Repeating themselves

So how does all this tie back to IVR systems?

The first is thematic. IVR systems are still one of the most utilized and effective technologies deployed in customer service organizations. Over time, IVR systems have evolved to handle more complex tasks in an attempt to off-load increased demands on live agents. As such, you need to carefully plan what you want your customer to experience and remember about their interaction with your IVR system.

Second, two of the items mentioned by the Harris Interactive study apply directly to IVR systems; being trapped in automated self-service, and having to repeat information to a live agent that has already been provided to the IVR system.

As you implement new IVR applications or enhance and modify your existing system, make sure your customers do not get trapped in your IVR application. If there is no live agent available to transfer, consider stating that fact early on in your greeting message. If your IVR system is designed to handle complex queries, be sure to limit the number of responses required to achieve the desired results. In an earlier blog titled, “IVR Design Tip: The Magic Number Seven (7)” we discuss this approach.

And finally, sometimes it is the little things that irritate customers the most. If you require a caller to enter user IDs, passwords, account numbers, security answers, and more; design your system to capture and display that information when a call is transferred to a live agent.

Acclaim Telecom has assisted clients implement new IVR systems and enhance existing IVR applications since 1993. If you would like to discuss ways to improve your IVR systems impact on your customer service operation, we would welcome that opportunity.

For more information about how Acclaim Telecom Services can help request a Free Consultation.

Despite what may generate lots of head nodding, most IVR systems are not as dysfunctional as a few pundits might like you to believe.  Not that there isn’t room for continuous improvement however.

Have you ever called an IVR system and initially felt  like you were led down a wrong path, or when you try to get to the right path, it takes you even deeper and farther from your goal?  Ever had so many menu choices you weren’t quite sure which option to choose in the first place? This has been a common challenge in IVR design when companies try to design an IVR system with either too many features, or try to solve too many problems through automation alone.

A recurring theme you hear from Acclaim Telecom regarding IVR design is “Keep your IVR system as simple and intuitive as possible“.

A research paper published in the late 1950s by renowned psychologist George Armitage Miller was titled, “The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”. This paper suggests that seven (plus or minus two) is the magic number that characterizes people’s memory performance on random lists of letters, words, numbers, or almost any kind of meaningful familiar item.  Further research revealed that the short term memory of a person depends on the type of information being remembered, (e.g., memory is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around 5 for words).  And unfortunately since then, time has not improved our short term memory.

The good news is the challenge of the number seven can be overcome.  Whether a huge call center or a business with just a few customer service representatives; the answer to this IVR challenge may be right under your fingers tips.  Your customer service representatives are one of your best resources for either helping design, re-design, or enhance your IVR system.  It can be as easy as asking them a few simple questions such as:

What do customers call about most commonly that are not solved with the IVR system?

Ask for the exact words the customer’s use to get assistance for the specific tasks, and incorporate them into your menus.  This will help the customer get to the option they require, without having to guess at whether it’s appropriate or not.

What are the biggest complaints about the automated IVR system?

This can be subjective, however listen carefully to the answer to see if you can determine what the true problem is.  It may be as simple as fixing menu option wording, or finding a better way to ask for account information.

What do your customers tell you would be a beneficial addition to the IVR system?

Customers will tell you what they want.  Obviously there will be some ‘pie in the sky’ requests, but for the most part the caller may say very simply, “I’d like to be able to pay my bill without having to talk to someone”, or “After four option selections I want to speak with a live agent”.

Sometimes the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) approach can be the most effective.  But if you must convey a lot of information to your customers, consider giving them an option to skip through, or trim the message to the most important of the key points and possibly allowing them a further option to hear more on that particular subject.  There’s nothing worse than being stuck listening to a message which seems endless, or worse, not relevant to their immediate needs while being forced to listen to the entire message before being able to move to the next option.

On a closing note, here is one additional suggestion we hope all owners of an IVR system perform.  Review your IVR call flow at least once every six months. Even if your business has not changed during that six month period, people’s expectations and your competitors do change.  Keeping your system fresh and current will go far in making your customers happy and showing you pay attention to their needs.

Press “9″ if you would like to hear these options again.

Can you spot what is wrong with these messages?

“Using your touch tone keys, enter the name of the person you wish to contact starting with the last name. Press # when finished.” Or,

“To speak with someone with product knowledge, you must dial a different phone number. Please call 1-800-HLP-FAST” (Please DO NOT call this number as it is for illustrative purposes only!)

Or finally, this text message I received on my cell phone; “Call 972 – XXX-HELP if you would like additional assistance.”

Did you spot the problem?

Actually, there is nothing wrong with any of the messages if you can make the phone calls on a home or business telephone where the alphabet is clearly identified on the key pad. Anyone out there really ever take the time to memorize which 3 letters of the alphabet are on the number 5 of your phone? I certainly don’t, and the alphabet is not identified on my Blackberry cell phone numbers.

If only they had a speech recognition front end!

We all know the old saying, “First impressions are everything”. Sometimes companies overlook the most basic entry points into their companies, and miss the opportunity to maximize a positive user experience, no matter how trivial or small it may seem.

In many situations a simple application of technology brings more immediate ROI, whether measured in financial or goodwill terms. Front ending your PBX call routing systems with a speech reco application is a good example of a high use feature, valuable to almost every caller or customer, and not very expensive to implement. Plus it seems pretty obvious with more and more individuals using cell phones, and with more than 50% of all cell phones sold being smart phones, you cannot use letters to identify which number to press on your keypad.

There are a number of vendors who provide speech recognition applications for call routing applications if you happen to have an older PBX system installed and wish to upgrade. You can also look into a cloud based PBX system with integrated voice recognition capabilities that also leverage other IVR capabilities. Acclaim Telecom can help you if you wish to explore cloud based options.

But the message I want to convey is speech recognition applications do not have to be expensive or sophisticated in order to provide benefit. Take a look at all aspects of contact with your company; your main phone number, voice mail system, call center, live agent support, and mobile applications. Identify where high volume customer contact occurs, and be sure to make the user experience as easy and as productive as possible, regardless of the types of technologies employed. After all, first impressions really are everything.

I recently used my telephone to contact a credit reporting agency, to change the address listed on my credit report. Because I design and program IVR systems,   I was disappointed when I dialed the number and started listening to the menus. Their website already directed me to call and speak with a customer service representative.  So I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get to one. Well, no.  It took me over five minutes PLUS wait time to finally get to speak with a live person.

Once reaching them, I had to give all the information I’d just entered all over again. I asked the person if they’d received a screen pop, and they said “no.”

So then I asked if they ever got screen pops, and they said they used to. Just out of curiosity, I called back after business hours and tried to see if I could get into the ‘cloud’ of the office using standard methods of back door and random number pushing. Sure enough, I was able to get into their office voice mail system.  I probably could have left some fun messages, but I opted to blog about it instead.

You have to wonder if anyone has ever said anything to the appropriate person about this program flaw.  But I digress…

To make a long story short, the application was poorly written, broken, and had a security breech.

So what do you do? What should you ask yourself when trying to build a customer service application that your callers will love, use, and praise; instead of complain, hang up, or possibly get angry with one of your live customer service representatives?

Cheap isn’t always best. When you find an IVR development company, ask for references. I know this sounds like a no brainer, but you might be surprised how often this does not happen.  They should be able to give examples, even phone numbers of companies they have done work for. Call the applications and listen to how it sounds.  Call a customer service representative for that company and ask them what their experience has been with the IVR system, good and bad.

One caveat to keep in mind.   A good IVR firm should be able to share best practices and experiences with their customers during the analysis and design phase.  However at the end of the day, the customer makes the final decision on how the call flows operate.

Remember the point of having the IVR system. You want your  customers to be able to perform tasks that can be time consuming, repetitive, and require little to no complex decision making process .  You want your highly trained customer service representatives assisting your clients with more complex transactions and needs.  In short, you want them involved higher up the food chain of customer assistance requirements whenever possible.

However, don’t force your customer to listen to lengthy options or execute too many decisions before allowing them to speak with a customer service representative.  Most customers know when they call whether their needs can be satisfied through the normal IVR options or whether they need to speak to a live agent.  The more complex the task or need, the quicker they need to speak with a customer service agent.  You don’t want your customer service representatives receiving the brunt of a caller’s frustration because you didn’t capture basic information already provided by the caller.

Here is a suggestion to consider.  If possible, release the new application to a small audience of customers initially.  This is your test market.  It’s a great time to get feedback from callers as to how they use the system; if they were able to complete the tasks they were calling about; or if another service option might be missing.  Here is another hint.  Have the customer service representative ask the caller their opinion of the IVR system.   Don’t offer them a survey at the end of the call.  You’ll get better results and more honest answers.  And in the end, the caller will be happy that you are taking the time to show your concern about them; further creating a loyal returning customer.

Finally, try the “5 year old adolescent” test technique to check for any possible back door logic.  Just start pressing buttons on the phone.  It’s pretty simple.  Star and Pound, or do a zig zag through the digits.  If there’s a way to get out of the IVR and into the cloud of voicemail, you should be able to find it.  You don’t have to be methodical about it.  All you need to know is that it worked or didn’t.

If you find an unexpected trap door, let the IVR programmer know, and they will fix it.

If you would like to know more about good IVR design practices, hosted IVR services or on-premise IVR solutions,  contact us and we would be happy to discuss those with you.

I stumbled across an interesting article last week while doing research on the internet. The article was written by Matt Flemming, founder of Flemming Consulting, LLC.  I must confess it was the title that caught my attention:  Lies, Damned Lies and Call Center Statistics.

Acclaim Telecom Services has been developing Call Center IVR Applications since 1993.  While developing these IVR applications we are heavily involved in areas such as:

• Analysis and optimization of call flows and critical decision points,
• Speech analytics and VUI design,
• Application tuning,
• Developing custom reports,
• And a plethora of other areas necessary to develop and support Call Center applications.

But we are rarely involved in the on-going analysis of the actual call center’s operation in an effort to optimize customer satisfaction as well as the call center’s performance.  That’s were Matthew’s expertise comes into play.

Matt  takes an interesting approach in tackling several key measurements traditionally used to predict and manage Call Center performance.  He also takes issue with the validity of using many of these metrics when applied in less than a holistic view of a call center’s operation.

So take a look at some of the areas of Call Center metrics and operations that Matthew challenges you to think about differently.    They include:

• Average time to abandon (ATA)
• Average speed to Answer (ASA)
• Service Level Objectives (SLO)
• Understanding your call profile
• Call Center Agent occupancy
• Economies of scale & idle time
• Cost per call

If you take the time to read his article Lies, Damned Lies and Call Center Statistics, we hope you find it of value.

And if you happen to contact Matt, please tell him the folks at Acclaim Telecom said hello.

Call it IVR anxiety questions commonly addressed by companies when considering the implementation of an automated IVR system. Hesitations like:

Am I doing my customers a disservice by making them talk to a computer to get what they need?

Will this implementation turn off customers, and push them away towards competitors?

Will I lose the all-important element of customer interaction that plants the seeds for profitable customer relationships?

Take a deep breath. You’ve probably got nothing to worry about.

Here at Acclaim Telecom, we understand the concern. Even the most intuitive and effective automated system isn’t right for every situation especially ones where that extra human touch can make the difference between invisibility and a long-lasting customer relationship. And we encourage all companies to make it easy for callers to “opt out” and connect with a real, live human being when it makes sense.

But what if the there’s an equally import but inverse factor at play? What if the majority of people say, approximately 2/3 of people actually prefer avoiding talking to a human representative when possible?

From the grocery store to the bank to online check-in at the airport, self-service is simply becoming more and more popular in our country. Sometimes customers just want you to make it easy for them to take care of themselves.

According to the Harvard Business Review, this might just be the case:

“Most customers these days demonstrate a huge and increasing appetite for self-service, yet most companies run their operations as if customers prefer to interact with them live.

In our research on this topic, we’ve found that corporate leaders dramatically overestimate the extent to which their customers actually want to talk to them. In fact, on average, companies tend to think their customers value live service more than twice as much as they value self service. But our data show that customers today are statistically indifferent about this they value self-service just as much as using the phone. And guess what? By and large, this indifference holds regardless of their age, demographic, issue type, or urgency.

This attitude toward self-service has been a long time coming. Two-thirds of the customers we surveyed told us that three to five years ago, they primarily used the phone for service interactions. Today, less than a third do, and the number is shrinking fast.

What is it that makes self service so appealing? [...] On a psychological level, it might have more to do with the unique element of control that self service affords. [...] Maybe customers are shifting toward self service because they don t want a relationship with companies. While this secular trend could be explained away as just a change in consumers channel preferences, skeptics might argue that customers never wanted the kind of relationship that companies have always hoped for, and that self service now allows customers the out they ve been looking for all along.”

We mentioned this trend a couple months ago here on the Acclaim Telecom blog, and explored a few reasons why this might be:

IVR adds an element of privacy for matters that callers might not want to share with a human representative. A thorough system avoids potential for human error. And that extra little bit of social stress that comes with having to effectively communicate with another human can be something that many people prefer to just avoid.

In its place, an intuitive, effective system can solve a customer s needs while still impressing them with your company’s thoughtfulness and care.

In the next couple of weeks, we’ll examine further exactly what “a relationship” with a customer means, and how IVR can make it grow. In the meantime, contact one of our telecom solutions specialists for more information.

To best understand the complex problems facing and plaguing the layered, always-changing, rapidly developing world of interactive voice response systems, sometimes it’s best just to opt out and simplify (sound familiar?).

Stick-figures. Two-dimensional. Flat and accurate. Simplified.

Something like this:

The good folks at Call Center Comics are doing exactly that, boiling down the potential problems, pitfalls, and customer frustrations that any company trying to utilize integrated IVR systems face.

There are multiple lessons we can learn. Here are just a few:

1. Don’t Be Redundant

You should always be looking for ways to remove unnecessary steps in your call tree and any unnecessary burdens placed upon the caller. The first (and easiest) step is to remove these sorts of blatant redundancies. Customers will know when they’re having to repeat themselves more than when they’re just moving through a tree inefficiently.

2. Do Your Research

Thorough and forward-thinking customer research can help you become much more intuitive about customer needs and frustrations. The result is happier customers who get their questions answered and needs met (and, of course, better, more efficient business).

At Acclaim Telecom, we invest heavily in the type of performance analytics, tracking software, and technological development that can keep your IVR system in tune with your customers. Of course, we don’t recommend stringing them along quite as long as this particular strip claims possible.

3. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.

This one should be obvious, but often in the quest to perfect and enhance their IVR system, companies will overcomplicate the process with too many options and too many steps. Sure—accuracy is appreciated, and customers will be thankful to end up speaking with the right department or the right people trained to deal with their specific problems. But if it takes more than a handful of steps to get there, you run the risk of losing callers altogether.

And, as always, make it easy for callers to opt out and talk to a real, live human customer service representative so they don’t end up trying to memorize these byzantine routes to the help and answers they need.

4. Expect Jaded Callers

Acclaim Telecom Services has been solving clients IVR and Speech Recognition system needs since 1993. Contact our IVR experts for more information.

We hope 2010 has been a prosperous year for everyone, and wish each and everyone of you a great holiday season.

We look forward to working with you in 2011

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Kwanzaa

Impress. Don’t just satisfy. Stand out. Don’t just aim for invisibility.

Your mindset while designing an automated IVR system shouldn’t be to minimize customer annoyance and frustration, but rather to maximize customer benefit and enjoyment.

Granted, sometimes the best IVR system is one that is hardly noticed at all. But that mindset is important, because customers will detect a commitment to professionalism, innovation, and intuition about their needs.

In fact, when done well, customers can actually prefer an automated system to a customer representative for certain uses.

Here are three:

1. Avoiding Human Error

Placing orders. Booking tickets. Making reservations.

In any situation where there’s a possibility of human error—based on verbal misunderstanding, difficulty with accents, or simple processing mistakes—IVR can offer a welcome alternative of automation and uniformity. In other words, when people trust the machine, people often prefer the machine (with, as always, an easy opt-out option giving them the control to escape the machine).

Of course, if the system is poorly designed and confusing, that trust will vanish in a heartbeat.

2. Keeping Sensitive Information Queries Sensitive

Bank balances. Lab test results. School grades.

For these sorts of queries, many people would rather not have a human representative pulling up their files and relaying such sensitive information to them over the phone. The fewer strangers handling it, the better. Using IVR, on the other hand, has the same sort of privacy effect as pulling up results over the Internet. There is at least a situational amount of privacy given.

3. Simple Information Gathering

Polls. Surveys. Database updating calls.

If a process done with IVR is actually quicker and simpler than if it were done with an actual human representative, customers often prefer it. For example, for straightforward tasks like polls and surveys or periodic calls to update database information, using a human adds a sort of complicating factor to the call. That little human “connection”  requires more of customers—cordiality, small talk, etc. (seems insignificant, we know, but little stresses add up)—than simply responding to the questions asked.

In other words, sometimes it’s nice just to talk to a computer.

In the end, an automated IVR system that’s easy, professional, and intuitive will do more than just avoid frustrating your customers, but also create a lasting and memorable impression that will solidify that relationship.