Newsletter 
Making The Case
Opponents of IVR usually come in two colors: proponents of outsourcing who make their case for mainly economical reasons, and opponents, such as Paul English, whose case rises solely from purported ‘customer frustration’ and gives little thought to the economics of call centers.
Unfortunately, both of these claims are outdated. While these may have been valid arguments 10 – or even 5 – years ago, the advances in speech recognition technology and the progression of modern IVR render both of these claims if not outright false, then largely misleading.
In order to explain why, it is first important to understand the overall benefits of IVR:
- Access to information at any time, on any day
- Skills-based routing automatically directs calls to the most qualified agent
- Often more efficient than talking to an agent
- Service quality is often more consistent
- Often preferred for personal or sensitive information
- Saves money by requiring fewer live agents
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Increases Agent Satisfaction / Reduces turnover
- No need to change user behavior
- Provides access for those without ready web access
While the benefits of IVR are widely known, outsourcing proponents often site economics as the reason for what they believe to be the superiority of outsourcing. But, for a variety of reasons, a hosted solution is most often much more cost effective:
- Requires no upfront capital expenditure
- Immediate ROI
- Automatic upgrades
- Collective experience
- Scalable Capacity
- Just-in-time provisioning
- Economies of scale
- Simplified cost structure
- Highest service levels
- More flexible – facilitates an at-home workforce
As aforementioned, those who herald live agents as the call center solution often pay no attention to economics. For them, the first, last and only argument against IVR is ease of use. However, advances in speech recognition technology have not only made IVR a more pleasant experience, it has made IVR a more efficient experience. In fact, speech is a better option in the following scenarios:
- Special speech-only scenarios
- Names, spelling, cities, alphanumerics
- Multiple selection scenarios
- Hands-free environments
- Faster, more efficient for complex transactions
There will always be those who give thought to either economics or customer service and wish to tip the scales to one at the expense of the other. For those in the middle, however, hosted call solutions with efficient and effective speech recognition will become the optimal choice.
