“Self-Service: Talking Your Language” in CRM Today has some useful words of advice. The author, Richard Brown, notes that in some cases companies are still adopting IVR (interactive voice response) solutions which save the business money but have little or no thought for customer service. It doesn’t need to be that way.
Surprisingly he spends most of the time talking about ways of making IVR systems work better, where such systems help callers to navigate through a set of menu choices. For example he notes:
The design thus needs careful thought, though some simple rules will help here, such as offering a sequence of no more than three sets of options, each containing a maximum of four choices.
Such systems are certainly better than many that are encountered at the moment. However this minimal approach will not put you ahead of the competition. The technology has advanced and interactive voice response (IVR) systems can indeed make you better than the competition. No greater cost is involved so this is very much a win/win situation.
