“In your experience can my IVR messaging get any better?”Even after 15 years in the IVR business, my crystal ball tells me the same thing, “Ask the caller”.Do what marketing experts do, test your messaging, more specifically, split test your message to ensure that your message gets users to do what you want them to do.Whether you are using IVR for a survey, lead generation, or providing a client with information on their account, make sure that, the message gets the caller to do what you want them to do.
Is your objective to have your customer use your self-service IVR to check their balance? Or talk to an agent? (Needless to say that if the caller opts for the agent, it will cost you 5 times more than if they interact with an IVR).Do you want callers to say yes, to be contacted regarding an auto loan?Do you want more of your customers to participate in your customer satisfaction survey?
The type of application doesn’t matter, if you want to optimize your results, and achieve the return you are expecting. You need to test with real customers – otherwise you are leaving it to the luck of the draw.
This process I call IVR Optimization, (I borrowed the term from Google Web Optimization), a tool that you can use to improve on your web conversion rates by testing various versions of your web site.
Now, you ask yourself, what does this have anything to do with IVR applications? Its simple, the same principals of “Split Testing” apply and are possible with an IVR campaign.
Dynamic, IVR Optimization allows you to test different variations of your IVR scripting. This way you can identify the message combinations that produce the highest success rates. The success rate being; how often you can get the caller to do what you want them to do.
You can run 2, 3 or 4 different combinations and not just rely on gut feelings. You can conduct real-time research, with real callers. This research helps you optimize your messaging and yield the highest success rate.
The IVR world is a little more complex than Google’s Web optimizer approach; you have more caller/call recipient interactions to consider.
The good news is that with the right expertise and technical framework you can optimize your IVR messaging so the caller will do what you want them to do; you can move away from the traditional “guess work” approach to a systematic, predictable approach that will provide you with the highest return.
If you are working on your first IVR project ,I have published several guides which will help you successfully execute your project (the are FREE)
- How To Successfully Execute your IVR Project and Select The Right Vendor for the Job
- The Complete Guide To Successfully Implementing Your IVR Survey Project
- Using IVR For Lead Generation – How Professionals do it.
To Your Success,
Barnard L. Crespi
Datatel Inc/Datatel Communications Inc
