Employing people to sit and answer phones all day can be a costly undertaking for small businesses.

To make sure their staff is productive as possible, many businesses of all sizes automate their phone-answering system with interactive voice response (IVR) technology. IVRs allow computers to respond to customer calls by providing them with answers to their questions.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a telephony menu system that enables identification, segmentation and routing of callers to the most appropriate agent within your team. It is a simple and effective and will significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency within any company.

The goal of most IVR systems is to allow customers to serve themselves by automating the calling process. The technology uses either touch-tone or speech-recognition technology to answer customer questions, handle their requests or point them in the right direction, all without having an employee speak with them directly.

Benefits  of using IVR systems

• Increase first contact resolution
  IVR significantly increases first contact resolution because callers are always directed to the agent who is most capable of meeting their needs or the most appropriate department.
• Increase customer service efficiency
  IVR are more proficient at solving specific problems and meeting specific needs of the customers that they are assigned. The result is an increase in customer service efficiency.
• Increase agent and company efficiency
  Agents who work in a company with an IVR are more skilled at addressing specific issues, are less likely to consult with colleagues or a manager and are also less likely to transfer the call to another agent. This results in a significant increase in agent and company efficiency.
• Reduce operational costs
  IVR systems are also very affordable, will increase efficiency and will reduce operational costs, so the ROI is huge.
• Increase professionalism
  You can use an IVR system to greet your customers in a very professional manner and to make it appear that you have more departments and employees than you actually have.
• Increase customer satisfaction
  When your IVR is easy to use and reliable, customers will never be routed to the wrong department, or to an agent who cannot solve their problems.

The benefits to using an IVR are clear and the associated costs are relatively low. It is therefore a sound investment with huge ROI.