Having a query regarding the shipping status of your order?... to assimilate the issue with better customer service and deliveries, the e-commerce and retail business organizations are seen implementing the call centers in their business niche.
But have you ever wondered, how prominent it is for call center organizations to lay their hand on the latest set of technologies, in order to scale in the list of customer’s choice?
Today the technologies like Automatic Call Distributor, Predictive Dialler, and call center IVR are gathering tons of recognition for their self-servicing and routing facilities to customers.
In this article, we will be knowing more about Interactive Voice Response (IVR) as an approach to escalate the call center services and customer support services in the e-commerce and retail business.
Let's dive in!
What Does IVR Mean in a Call Center?
Interactive voice response is an automatic system that lets the customers interact with the brand to satisfy their doubt and raise the query pertaining to the same.
Call center IVR system accepts the combo of inputs in the form of voice as well as touchpad inputs from the keypad of the device.
The IVR call center solutions assist the customer with self-servicing and call routing rather than waiting in a long queue for getting in touch with the real-time call center executive.
Also, the IVR call center bolsters in advocating the customer’s need in the desired language.
How Does IVR in Call Center Works?
IVR is a well-known technology, opening the quick gateway to the customers looking for support from the e-commerce businesses.
Traditionally, the organizations use to involve call center executives to carry out the customer service operation.
But with the passage of time, the introduction of AI-based technologies and IVR offered a helping hand to businesses for practicing their core competencies.
If we specifically talk about IVR, it is a technology through which the customer can resolve the query discarding the need to get in communication with an agent.
The process of IVR for call center is conducted in the following steps mentioned below:
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The customer makes a call to register the query on the toll-free number set by a brand for customer support and care purposes.
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Call welcomes the customer with pre-recorded messages through the IVR system.
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Automatic options are presented to the customer for getting the view of the menu for registering the query, for language selection, for getting to know about frequently asked questions (FAQ), and lastly with the step to contact the call center representative.
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The inputs to the asked options were given by touching the buttons of the keypad, as directed.
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If the customer desires to talk to the call center executive if he finds that the AI model is unable to sort out the raised issues. The customer can get in touch with a real-time human by pressing the dedicated key for the same.
The Technology Behind IVR Integration in E-Commerce Call Centers:
IVR in the call center is gathering tons of recognition for its commendable support to customer services.
The most common use of the IVR system is to regulate the inbound and outbound call center services of an organization dealing with e-commerce and various other factors.
At this point in time, we all must have gathered the experience of how the IVR call center actually works on frontend and back but you have any idea how IVR technology carries out it's working to support the task needed to be done on the behalf of the organization using the efforts of call center executives.
Well the IVR systems are usually driven through programming languages such as Voice Extensible Markup Language (Voice XML).
The VoiceXML comprises the knots of various peripheral devices such as a telephone network, TCP / IP, network server- web server, telephone server along with the technology of big data.
Over the years, the integration purpose of Interactive Voice Response has seen a major upsurge in a graph of implementation of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) has laid the step in the self-servicing technology to grade up the applications.
Therefore, it is very important to adopt the advanced versions of tools and software to conduct the practice of call center IVR in the business niche.
Types of IVR Call Center Solutions:
IVR is a known technology, serving customers looking for support from e-commerce organizations.
Based accessibility and ideal model, the solutions for IVR call center has been sub-divided into four categories:
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Conversational IVR System:
Gives the real-time experience to the customer of talking to an executive through conversation IVR.
There is absolutely no need to press a key from the keypad for getting the directions from IVR.
The process is conducted through Natural Language Processing (NLP) that accounts for 92% of accuracy in collecting the data from the customer in the form of voice input.
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Outbound IVR System:
Outbound IVR system sends the customized messages to the list of customers automatically by the system, mentioning the customer’s name and details needed to be followed on a priority basis.
In e-commerce, the IVR outbound system deals with the update of shipping and order-related queries without the need of raising a query by the customer.
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Self-Service IVR System:
Self-service IVR system is intelligent form that aims to deliver an improved experience to customerss through following the medium of self-servicing solutions.
It allows the customer to check details pertaining to order delivery, cancellation, and refund status all of its own, discarding the need to connect with call center executives via the medium of automatic self-servicing IVR options.
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Visual IVR system:
Visual IVR system work at the speed of 4x faster than the other IVR system.
Here, the customer can access the support and services through IVR from call center from its mobile device only, discarding the need to call a toll-free number for getting in touch with the real-time call center executive.
How Much Does it Cost in IVR Integration for Call Center?
IVR comes in various packages that differ in terms of pricing method, call recording, and other customizable benefits.
As we go deep in cost structuring of IVR call center, it can fall in different categories like, per user/seat, one-time fee, free with a virtual number, per user/hour/execution, pay-as-you-go, standard advance, and premium packages for small business and enterprise unlimited floor packages.
According to the data of AVOXI, the plan starts from $4.49/month to $60/month for small business to $799 (1 channel, upto 60 calls/hour) to $9,850 (100 channels, upto 6000 calls/hour) for enterprises.
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Expected Cost for IVR Integration in Call Center |
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IVR Integration Plans for Small Business |
$4.49/month to $60/month |
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IVR Integration Plans for Enterprises |
$799 (1 channel, upto 60 calls/hour) to $9,850 (100 channels, upto 6000 calls/hour) |
The basic cost structure for the IVR integration in the call center may differ as per the business type and the plans offered by the outsourcing company you are opting for delivery of efficient call center services.
How to Integrate IVR in Call Center for E-Commerce Business?
Alike the activities of outsourcing the business essentials to outsourcing partners, the organization dealing with e-commerce can follow similar steps as for hiring any other services.
Outsourcing call center fabricates the advanced outlook of business equipped with IVR solutions, that bolsters in enhancing the business opportunities and increase the trust level among customers simultaneously.
The IVR service provider makes a comprehensive blueprint as per your business requirement and offerings to the customer.
The perfect design for IVR integration is done through the implementation of various codes, software and APIs.
As per your process model for IVR in call center, the solution provider starts creating the process of customizing and integration that will go along with your websites and customer’s database, fulfilling the requirements of both parties i.e; the customer as well as the e-commerce organization.
How IVR in Call Center Helps in Boosting Business Productivity?
No doubt, IVR encapsulates the number of benefits that could help in enhancing the productivity of an e-commerce organization in an effortless way by connecting with the customer and offering call center solutions for the same.
Following is the list of ways IVR bolsters in improving the productivity of the business:
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IVR connects the customer to the call center of an organization in no time by offering a prompt resolution for the raised query.
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It offers omni-channel support for carrying out the conversation in an efficient manner. The IVR let the customer connect to call center through phone call, chatbot, text messages and many other ways…
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The IVR technology adopted by e-commerce organizations is scalable in nature. The organization can add-on as well as remove the functionality from IVR system, as per its budget and requirement in the business frame.
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IVR technology lets the e-commerce organization measure the key metrics of a call center that further assist the organization in getting the report for successful delivery via call center operations.
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IVR technology bolsters cost mitigation by saving the expenditure on call center executives as in meanwhile time, they can help in managing the core competencies of business rather than assisting the customer for minute activities over the phone call.
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Installing the cloud based IVR in call center helps in creating a backup for customer's detail and also save-up the office space by debarring the need of physical equipments for offering eminent call center services.
In Conclusion:
Technology like IVR call center acts as a helping hand for delivering the call center services to the customer in an approachable format.
With IVR, one can expect to accept more number of customers than ever before by improving the experience of the customer as well as trust in the favour of an e-commerce business and its services.
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