By Jason Williams

Recent studies show that the vast majority of consumers today are both familiar and comfortable with the use of automated telephone self-service systems, including IVRs. In fact, in a report by Forrester Consulting, 65% of consumers say they expect, and some even prefer, the self-service system over a live agent for certain tasks, such as prescription refills, getting a flight status, checking an account balance, storing information requests and tracking shipments.

But, with so many consumers willing to use automated systems – 82% say they did last year – how has the ubiquitous system gained such a bad reputation for plunging unsuspecting and frustrated victims into IVR purgatory? And, how can your company keep from having its IVR become the butt of late night jokes and snipey YouTube videos?

The key is superb usability and accuracy. Aside from providing an easy and obvious option to speak to a live agent at any time, consumers just want a system that works to get them to the right department to provide the solution they need.

Dual verbal and touchtone entry options can help significantly to fulfill this need. By giving customers the option to speak their requests, voice-activated systems avoid the problem of long lists of menu options, for which callers often forget the prompts and have to listen to the entire list over again. Meanwhile, touchtone response options are often preferable to users who call in from public places, where they’d prefer not to announce their private information for all to hear or where background noise might challenge the voice-activated system.

Accurate software that understands verbal cues the first time is also high on consumers’ list of demands. Having to repeat selections multiple times is incredibly frustrating for IVR users. For companies whose customers may be multi-lingual, or speak with various dialects or verbal accents, this can be a challenge for some systems, but the best IVR systems can accommodate these nuances to successfully guide callers to their destination.

From a strategic standpoint, it’s also critical to deploy a system that provides programming flexibility and allows for immediate response to changing needs. The ability to rescript the IVR quickly and easily can enable your company to accommodate peaks in demand, new product or service additions or other specific scenarios that require an agile response, like rebate programs, product recalls, widespread billing errors, service outages or other planned or unplanned situations.

Finally, the ability to keep every customer interaction positive and profitable may lie in the deployment option you choose. Cloud-based systems offer a level of flexibility, affordability and reliability unmatched by most premise-based systems. Hosted solutions enable rapid deployment of on-demand changes, relieve the maintenance and upkeep burden and cost, and provide superior redundancy and up-time in the face of demand spikes or natural disaster.

Whether your company handles incoming customer service requests internally, or you’re an outsource provider to multiple clients, ensuring superb customer interactions should be a long-term profit priority. Particularly in today’s infinitely networked society, one bad customer experience can quickly snowball into a major public relations problem. With the right solution, designed with customers’ needs in mind, your company can deliver superior automated service and rescue callers from the infinite loop of IVR purgatory.

Jason Williams is Senior Solutions Manager, at inContact (www.inContact.com), a provider of cloud-based contact center software and agent optimization solutions. He can be reached at jason.williams@inContact.com.