What if you never had to answer the phones again?

Trick question. Of course, you’ll have to answer your phone at some point. But when you use an IVR—interactive voice response system—you’ll only have to pick up the phone when someone’s already up for a chat. IVR software can gather call information, screen out unwanted callers, and maintain a professional image for your business around the clock. With an IVR solution, your business can collect data while you're asleep. Your IVR handles incoming calls from potential clients, so you'll only have to answer the phone when you want to.

If that sounds like something that might remake the way you do business, let’s dig further into the IVR.

What is IVR—Interactive Voice Response?

If you’ve ever contacted a call center and interacted with an automated message, you’ve encountered an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

The role of IVR is to route your call to the right place without the input of an actual human party on the receiver’s end. Ideally, that means your caller will be able to choose from the options easily and navigate straight to the appropriate team member.

If you’ve ever heard something like “to speak with a representative, press 1,” then you’ve dealt with an IVR. But if you’ve never been on the other side of an IVR before, you might not know just how helpful they can be in managing your business and managing call volume.

How IVR Works

An Interactive voice response (IVR) phone system automates call routing using speech recognition and touch-tone keypad inputs. IVR plays pre-recorded messages based on user inputs, keypad signal logic, and relevant data, and can even record voice inputs for later. IVR systems may also work with computer telephony integration (CTI) to transfer calls to a live agent who can see the caller's information.

IVR systems use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals to understand keypad inputs and connect with phones and computers. This allows IVR software to offer pre-recorded greetings or menu options specified by an organization. Advanced IVR platforms even include voice recognition using natural language processing (NLP) to create a more conversational self-service experience.

IVR may also leverage text-to-speech (TTS) technology to communicate complex information, such as news reports, emails, weather, etc.

What Are the Benefits of Using an IVR?

Don’t think that using an IVR will make your business sound like one of those giant corporate conglomerates that keep people on hold as a matter of principle. Instead, an interactive voice response system for a small or mid-sized business can work wonders to improve your relationships with customers:

• Consistent professionalism. With pre-recorded messages, you’ll essentially have a courteous professional answering the phone for you 24 hours a day, thereby improving customer experience. Robots don’t need to take holidays off and they don’t ever ask for a raise. They’ll use pre-recorded messages to maintain the tone you want without fail.
• Filtering. Filtering helps the customer save time. Rather than a company tossing out calls, an IVR can quickly direct them to the proper person.
• Personalization. Don’t think that automating a process like automatically answering phones means your business will become like a faceless corporation. You can add custom numbers to your directory to fashion specific responses for favorite clients and contacts. An intelligent IVR can even wish someone a happy birthday if you have that information handy.
• Customer satisfaction. According to a study by CFI Group, 76% of consumers prefer phone over email, live chat, and online knowledgebase when they have a question they need to be answered in real-time.
• Information. When you answer your phone calls, you end up gathering information yourself. This can make the conversation longer and more cumbersome. An IVR can pre-screen calls and collect this information before you even pick up. This way, you'll have insights into who is calling, their issue, and what you can do about it. This saves you time and makes the phone call much more rewarding for the customer.
• IVRs allow self-service. Sure, people dial through IVRs to get through to humans all the time. But what if someone is just checking up on their account balance? What if they only need to hear your business hours? There’s no reason that they should have to take up the time of one of your employees when an IVR can handle simple requests automatically.
• Speeding up wait times. Keeping someone on hold is risky if you have high call volumes a limited number of salespeople. An IVR can prioritize the most recent calls to reduce wait times for callers. While it may not always be perfect due to resource limitations, the IVR can still optimize the process to benefit you and your customers.
• Cost savings. Leveraging IVR technology as an automatic call distributor (ACD) saves you the cost of hiring call center agents to field inbound calls.

With benefits like these, the obvious answer is to move to an IVR solution and never look back. But not every business uses an IVR. They believe it’s too complicated to set up or will end up being too expensive.

But what if you configure an IVR system using Grasshopper’s voice system infrastructure to have your own version of a contact center?

How to Configure an IVR with Grasshopper

Once you log in to your Grasshopper account, there are plenty of options for setting up an Interactive Voice Response system:

• Create your settings. If you have multiple employees/teams, you’ll want to create a set of extensions. Even if you’re simply connecting remote team member cell phone numbers, you can use the custom voice greeting steer people in the right direction with an extension system.
• Set up a main greeting. Your main greeting is the message that welcomes callers when they dial your business number. You can either edit and record yourself or use our voice studio to have a professional record it for you.
• Edit your timing. You can customize the main menu options based on the time of day. For example, an IVR can forward all calls to your cell phone during the day. But after 5 p.m., the system can redirect or prompt customers to leave a voicemail.
• Create team extensions. For example, you might create an extension for “Sales.” Under this extension, you may assign multiple employees and decide how calls are routed when someone selects "Sales." You can also configure the settings to improve response times by having multiple lines ring simultaneously, with the call going to the first person who answers.

If it sounds complicated, don’t worry—we’re rolling out a new tutorial feature that will hold your hand throughout the process so you can set up your own IVR call flows without figuring everything out yourself.

Best Practices for IVR Optimization

The success of your IVR system heavily depends on how you implement it. An effective interactive voice response (IVR) phone system will help your business manage customer inquiries, route callers to the right people, and build better customer relationships. Here are six best practices you can apply to make your IVR user-friendly:

• Keep your menu short. Customers call your business phone number to resolve an issue and they expect a smooth interaction from the moment they dial from their phone. If they have to listen through a long list of options before getting what they need, they are more likely to feel impatient and drop the call. You can limit your main menu options to 5 or fewer to ensure your customers won't hang up in the middle of the call.
• Leverage intelligent call routing. Your IVR system can offer personalized services by directing callers to different departments or call center agents. Intelligent call routing lets you distribute callers to the right people who can address their concerns, cutting down the number of people waiting in long queues.
• Provide self-service options. Think about adding self-service features to your IVR system so customers can handle simple tasks like making payments or scheduling appointments on their own. These options can help customers solve issues more quickly and lessen long queues and wait times.
• Give access to live agents. While automated systems effectively manage routine calls and inquiries, customers may still face more intricate issues requiring live agent support. In fact, 67% of customers drop the call if they're unable to reach a live agent who can guide them through their issues.
• Make waiting bearable. Long queues and high call volumes are unavoidable when business is booming. While having a lot of active customers sounds great for your business, some customers may find waiting for a very long time inconvenient. Having your IVR system provide real-time and specific updates on customers' wait times and queue positions is a great practice to reduce frustrations. To fill in the silence of customers waiting in queue, use this time to inform them about other services they can avail themselves.
• Regularly update your IVR script. When your customers call your business, the IVR system is the first thing that greets them. Why not make their first interaction with you as seamless as possible? You can regularly review and update your IVR scripts to keep all information current and easily accessible. Doing this improves your IVR system, lets you recalibrate your menu options based on customer use, and shows your commitment to providing excellent customer service.

Following these best practices can help you leverage your interactive voice response system to its fullest potential. Of course, you can still take it up a notch! Your IVR system will work even better when it's properly incorporated into the systems your business uses.

IVR Integration with CRM and Other Systems

Integrating your interactive voice response (IVR) system with different business systems and tools makes your call interactions faster and easier. Not only that, it also improves your business' operational efficiency, reduces costs, and improves data use for strategic decision-making. Here are some systems you can integrate with your IVR:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software: An IVR system integrated with your CRM database allows caller data to be synchronized in real-time. This eliminates data silos and provides agents with the most current information, improving service efficiency.
• Back-office software: Some people might call your business phone number just to check on their accounts. You can also integrate your IVR into back-office systems to
  update your clients on their transactions without speaking to call center agents. This way, customers can access their information anytime without waiting for specific working hours to get short updates from live agents.
• Payment gateway: Integrating IVR with payment gateways enables automated phone payment options. These automated payment systems can handle multiple transactions simultaneously without delays.
• Analytics: You can also integrate an IVR with analytics tools that provide valuable insights into customer behavior, call patterns, and service efficiency. This data can then be used to refine and improve the IVR system, customer service strategies, and overall business operation

These IVR integrations can streamline your operations and give small and medium-sized businesses a competitive advantage in customer service.

Never Miss a Call with Grasshopper

Using an IVR with your own designed extensions and hours, you can completely customize the way you interact with your customers. This will not only free up your time but make your company more responsive. Explore Grasshopper’s main features yourself—try it free for 7 days!