Explore the business benefits of Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System

In today’s market place, customers find Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to be extremely useful because it is available 24/7, is faster, simpler for routine tasks and of course a much more cost-effective solution. Which is why, they deeply acknowledge and prefer the automated self-service machine over interacting with agents. A user-friendly, intuitive and well-designed IVR is capable of making a customer’s call experience enjoyable and accurate.

Today’s technology makes it easier to automate interactions with the customer using the IVR. It provides dual interaction and can generate audio that assists, or can be pre-recorded to direct and guide customers automatically without the need for a live operator. Features such as built-in speech recognition allow users to talk directly to the system rather than using a dial pad.

As companies look into the features of IVR, they realise that automating business calls increases customer satisfaction and service quality. However, there are challenges that come along with it including expensive hardware and software upgrades and additional personnel to handle customers in the new digital age. An effective way to address these challenges is by investing in IVR systems that are delivered through a hosted environment. Not only does this address the currentchallenges but also your future business needs. Deploying hosted IVR solutions benefit businesses in terms of significant cost savings, savings in investments, maintenance costs, technology upgrades, and enhanced customer service. Hosted IVR solutions enable companies to deploy a flexible cost structure such as 'pay-as- you-go' allowing them to control the expenses for software solutions. This also helps businesses reduce their overall capital expenditure as hosted services become a part of operating expenses.

The delays in implementation and additional resource allocations are some of the major challenges faced by in-house IVR systems. With a hosted environment, your business can be sure of scalability, frequent upgrades and faster deployment with a provide-on- demand capacity that meets your requirements and any unforeseen challenges.

You can also rapidly address the changes in the marketplace due to technology shifts and keep your business moving forward with the current trends. Additionally, extending the platform to include value-added functionality can provide exclusive customer insights from every interaction.

As IVR applications don’t need to be integrated with the call centre systems, it can simply be deployed at the host network. This is advantageous to businesses as services like announcements and broadcast messages can be directly integrated into the IVR.

Hosted IVR allows businesses to deliver 24x7 support services to all its customers as compared to the traditional call centre model. This also means that there is a high level of uptime without the need for capital investment making it a more cost-effective method.