{"id":19636,"date":"2019-07-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary-term\/ivr\/"},"modified":"2024-02-21T10:40:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T18:40:17","slug":"ivr","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/","title":{"rendered":"IVR"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/#Why_is_IVR_important_to_Customer_Service\" title=\"Why is&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;important to Customer Service?\">Why is&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;important to Customer Service?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/#The_3_Main_Uses_of_IVRs\" title=\"The 3 Main Uses of IVRs\">The 3 Main Uses of IVRs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/#The_Reality_of_IVR\" title=\"The Reality of&nbsp;IVR\">The Reality of&nbsp;IVR<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/#How_Helpshift_Improves_Upon_IVR\" title=\"How Helpshift Improves Upon&nbsp;IVR\">How Helpshift Improves Upon&nbsp;IVR<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/glossary\/ivr\/#Additional_Information_About_IVR\" title=\"Additional Information About&nbsp;IVR\">Additional Information About&nbsp;IVR<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>IVR&nbsp;stands for&nbsp;<em>interactive voice response.<\/em>&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;is a technology that allows incoming callers to self-navigate a phone system with automated prompts. Some&nbsp;IVRs&nbsp;work by way of dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones from traditional telephony, while others use voice recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) to route callers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_is_IVR_important_to_Customer_Service\"><\/span><strong>Why is&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;important to Customer Service<\/strong>?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>IVRs&nbsp;have long been used to help customers find information, or the correct human contact, efficiently and quickly.&nbsp;IVRs&nbsp;can identify, segment, and route callers to specific customer-service agents at substantial cost savings over traditional manual processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_3_Main_Uses_of_IVRs\"><\/span><strong>The 3 Main Uses of IVRs<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Personalized messages and prompts:&nbsp;<\/strong>Rather than general instructions, such as \u201cPress 1 for Sales,\u201d systems allow for configuration of customized greetings and prompts based on the caller\u2019s identification<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pre-agent information collection:<\/strong>&nbsp;IVRs collect general information about a customer\u2019s needs and transfer a call to the appropriate area within the organization<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Automated customer support:<\/strong>&nbsp;IVRs enable support teams to have customers solve their own problems or obtain information without speaking with an agent<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IVR-Call-Center.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In theory,&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;lends efficiency on both sides of the equation. For customers, it helps expedite self-service options. For companies, it helps streamline the customer-service operations and automate tasks that do not need to be performed by a human.&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;thus saves time, provides richer experiences and empowers agents to put their time and energy toward scenarios where they\u2019re most efficiently utilized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Reality_of_IVR\"><\/span><strong>The Reality of&nbsp;IVR<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the reality is quite different. Even as&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;systems have become easier to use and less expensive to deploy, they are still fraught with customer-experience problems. Customers frequently find them aggravating. They can create a perception that the customer is doing needless or circuitous work to achieve the same effect he or she could achieve through a human agent much faster. At best, they require patience and create a disjointed customer experience. At worst, they disrupt the flow of customer support and create customer animosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Helpshift_Improves_Upon_IVR\"><\/span><strong>How Helpshift Improves Upon&nbsp;IVR<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Messaging is a better alternative to traditional phone&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;because it takes place in a format that customers are comfortable with, and with a conversational cadence that\u2019s far more similar to human conversation. Chatbots can collect routine information, interpret customer needs, and route the customer down the correct path without beeps, tones, or button-pushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, today,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameyo.com\/blog\/customer-experience-statistics-which-will-impact-your-business-in-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">57 percent<\/a>&nbsp;of customers now prefer to contact companies via digital customer service channels rather than use voice-based&nbsp;IVR. Although&nbsp;IVR&nbsp;still has its place, it\u2019s no longer the reigning champion of customer experience \u2014&nbsp;if it ever was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Additional_Information_About_IVR\"><\/span><strong>Additional Information About&nbsp;IVR<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Product Information: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/products\/amazonconnect-customer-support\/\">Helpshift and Amazon Connect Advanced Technology Partnership<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Product Information: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/products\/customer-messaging-platform\/phone-tree-app\/\">Helpshift for Phone IVR Integration<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blog post:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/blog\/ivr-automation-right-idea-wrong-application\/\">IVR\u00a0Automation: The Right Idea but the Wrong Application<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blog post:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/blog\/the-new-imperative-of-ai-powered-issue-classification-why-we-created-helpshift-predict\/\">The New Imperative of AI-Powered Issue Classification: Why We Created Helpshift Predict<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":19637,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Uncategorized"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IVR-Call-Center-1024x475.jpg",1024,475,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Erik Ashby","author_link":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/author\/erikhelpshift-com\/"},"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/19636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/19636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30254,"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/19636\/revisions\/30254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.helpshift.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}