Back in November, we blogged about the advent of Siri—and what she might mean for the future customer acceptance of natural language IVR systems.  And while that connection has yet to be revealed, Siri is continuing to pop up in other contexts.

For example, a recent New York Times article positioned Siri as the latest public nuisance in the cell phone revolution.  It outlined several scenarios of people using Siri in less than desirable situations (e.g., public transportation) for things as mundane as sending an SMS message wishing a friend a happy birthday. 

One of the particular sticking points that many raise when complaining about Siri’s public presence is that users must speak punctuation and emoticons—along the lines of “happy birthday smiley face” or “how are you doing question mark.”  Certainly not what we are used to hearing on the street corner or subway.

What caught my eye, however, was this part of the article (emphasis is mine): Read More »

IVRs are, in many ways, a necessary evil of the customer contact world.  No one is going to readily say that they love interacting with even the best of the IVRs.  After all, when customers call, they are typically ready to speak with someone.  So it is no surprise to us at CCC that so many member companies ask for advice on how to improve their current IVR structures.  And while every system is unique and our feedback can vary significantly from company to company, there are always a few common themes that pop up.  And in the spirit of avoiding the reinvention of the wheel, I wanted to share with you all some of the most common pointers we discuss with members.

1. Be Concise: This applies not only to your menu options, but also to things that I’ll call “filler language”.  Even by cutting out the “please” before each “please press X to do Y” will shave time off of the customer IVR experience.
2. Avoid “Our Menu Items Have Changed”: Unless a significant portion your customers call so frequently (I’m thinking weekly, maybe monthly) that they would absolutely notice a change, most customers will not know the difference.  Moreover, hearing that announcement will often times turn these customers off to the entire IVR experience, feeling as though they are being “tricked” into staying in the system. Read More »

If you’ve walked into any mall around the holiday season, you know that there’s nothing worse than crowded stores and long lines. Now, the UK fashion retailer Oasis is offering shoppers a more convenient, streamlined shopping experience with tablet technology.

In its flagship store, shop assistants are armed with iPads to help customers with all product inquiries from anywhere in the stores. In addition, shoppers can bypass the long cash register lines, and simply make their purchases directly from the iPads for home delivery. This service, only introduced a week ago, has made up 20% of all sales in that time. As a result, shoppers are able to avoid much of the stress that come with in-store shopping.

In the customer service world, we’re unfortunately no strangers to long queues. Peak times and holiday seasons indicate spikes in call volume and demand, and while call center reps can do much to enhance the customer experience, customer effort can begin much before they are even connected. So, what are some creative ways for organizations to manage lengthy queues and mitigate the ensuing customer effort?

Read More »

“Your wish is its command.”

That’s Apple’s new tagline for its natural language application, Siri, which is available on its new iOS.  If you haven’t heard of Siri yet a quick Google search will reveal that early reviews are a mixed bag: some find it useful, others find it frustrating (mostly because of recent outages), and still others just find it comical!

My question is this: will this fun app resurrect customers’ willingness to use natural voice IVRs to resolve issues?

Read More »

We’ve been blogging a lot about the IVR lately …a “by the numbers” look at the IVR customer experience, tips on using customer feedback to script the IVR, and more.  One thing we haven’t discussed, however, is an IVR-related topic that is sure to spark some debate:

Is the IVR channel worth investing in for the future? 

In other words, should companies invest in additional IVR functionality and enhanced technology moving forward?  Or should we leave it alone, assuming that it is not a “channel of the future”…that our customers will NEVER want to use the IVR en masse (as much as we’d like them to)?

It’s an interesting question.  The CCC research team discussed it recently and it sparked a really good conversation.  To share some of the debate, I’ve asked Matt Lind to spar with me here.  Read More »

How often have you ended up selecting a wrong option in an IVR system? Indeed, don’t all IVR options even sound the same from time to time? It’s probably fair to say that we have all landed up in loops, switching between various IVR options and never really finding the right one that describes our problem.

While most companies look to enhance their IVR systems through technology or sophisticated design, they fail to take care of a simple aspect—customer-friendly language.

Companies often design their IVR systems with an internal focus—resulting in company-specific jargon in the IVR script. This makes the system complex for customers who cannot relate to the terminology.  Hence, customers end up in misrouted calls leading to frustration and increased effort.

How do you ensure your IVR system says what you customers understand? Well, you talk to your customers and find out how they define the issues they call you up for. Read More »

Poor first contact resolution and customer channel switching are two significant drivers of customer effort, so pinpointing ways to improve upon these service failures should be on the to-do list for each contact channel you offer.  In this new four-part series, CCC will release key data points we discovered in our customer surveys in recent years for each of the following core channels: IVR, Web self-service, e-mail, and Web chat.

The focus of the first installment of this series is the IVR channel.  Here’s a sample “by the numbers” look at how customers describe their IVR experience: Read More »

It’s not news that companies and CEOs increasingly consider customer service as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.  Yet, until recently it was rare for service and support’s value proposition to play a leading role in advertising.

In several recent commercials—click on the links below for YouTube clips—companies boast of exceptional customer service and customer centricity in creative (and hilarious) ways, encouraging prospective customers to switch or otherwise use their products.

Read More »

Many organizations find themselves neck-deep in budget planning season, and many of the projects that needed funding in 2009 and 2010 are back in play for 2011.  And recently I’ve had a number of conversations with companies wanting to make investments in their IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.

What’s most surprising to me, though, is that many organizations are looking to invest significant money in a technology that has a small population of customers who like and use the IVR. 

And not only is the population of avid IVR users not growing, many of the customers who do use the IVR don’t like it and are very vocal about their displeasure.   I mean, what other technologies have spawned Web sites like www.gethuman.com, which provides consumers with step-by-step instructions on how to reach a live agent by circumventing t Read More »

On my daily browse of the New York Times, I ran across an article listing the biggest pet peeves for consumers.  I had a sneaking suspicion that customer service would make it on this list, and as the title of this post infers, we did.  The comment on the service experience went as follows:

ENOUGH AFTER-CALL SURVEYS!
“You call, say, an airline for a reservation, and after navigating the monkey bars that stand between you and a human being, a recording asks if you can stay on the line once the call is completed and take a brief survey about the experience.  The answer is no. If the point is for Company X to improve its customer rep system, it is probably recording and “monitoring” those conversations, as we are often reminded by the same automated voice. So the company should eavesdrop on its own time without asking to take up any more of ours.”

The experience described above represents an unfortunate, but common, sentiment that could be dismissed as simply a rant.  But, what I find interesting about the complaint above is it shows how customers don’t always appreciate the different purposes and value between the IVR for routing vs. the IVR for surveys. Read More »