IVR systems. We’ve all used it and we’ve all had experiences where we were trapped in a routing loop unable to reach a human being and stuck yelling at a “robot” we can barely understand.
When was the last time you’ve had an experience like that? How did it make you feel about the brand who provided that experience to you? Probably not good.
When you consider that by 2019, global advertising budgets are poised to rise to over $2 Trillion, doesn’t it make sense to ensure that your customers have a positive experience when they try to reach you? Otherwise, all of those advertising dollars were virtually wasted.
And it’s not just advertising dollars that can go down the drain because of a poor IVR experience. Your brand can suffer in a variety of ways if your voice prompts or menus aren’t professionally designed and recorded. 
At the end of the day your customers judge you based on their experiences with you. A study conducted by Purdue University found that 63% of all customers say they will stop doing business with a company if they have a bad IVR experience.
You’ve worked hard to create your business and your brand. Don’t let that time and money go to waste due to poorly developed phone system greetings.
Employee Performance and Churn
When your customers have a poor phone experience, they take that frustration out on the customer service agents who (eventually) answer the phone. Consider the effects on employee performance if they’re consistently taking heat over a broken Voice Prompt system.
We all know employee churn is high for call center agents. If your Voice Prompts are consistently creating issues for your staff, that only compounds the stress of an already difficult job and leads us to our last point.
Higher Costs
We’ve seen from the two points above that a poorly developed IVR system can cost your business valuable customers and employees. However, what does that mean for your bottom line?
Let’s start with your customers. On average, acceptable customer churn numbers will be around 1-2% monthly. If your phone system menus are costing you an additional 2% of customers each month, it’s effectively doubling your customer churn and doubling the advertising spend that’s now needed in order to recoup that lost revenue.
When you lose an employee, you now have to spend money to hire and train a new employee to take their place. On average call center representatives have a 26% churn rate and it costs you $8,500 to hire and train a new call center agent.
That’s not a good starting point in terms of cost. If your voice prompt system is contributing to even 1 extra employee quiting each month, your hiring costs will increase $102,000 annually.
Your phone system menus set the tone for your customer’s interactions and plays a critical role in your business. Even though Voice Prompts are a simple tool it shouldn’t be overlooked or taken for granted.
Take a few moments to call YOUR phone number and hear what your callers are experiencing. By improving your IVR with well scripted and professionally recorded prompts, you will not only improve the caller experience, but improve your business processes as well.
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