Interactive Voice Response (IVR) routing is a technique to information your callers to the best-fit agent, division, or service middle to reply their questions, remedy their queries, and meet their particular wants.
The tip outcome? Larger buyer satisfaction, plus streamlined name administration for your corporation.
IVR is a strategic software that advantages your callers by lowering their wait occasions and bettering service accuracy. With a well-optimized routing system, they will simply discover the division they’re searching for with out being transferred from one agent to a different.
The bottom line is designing name flows that make the most of several types of IVR routing. Every serves a singular operate and has particular eventualities that it’s greatest fitted to. Most companies use multiple kind.
These are the six IVR routing sorts I’ll cowl:
- Caller ID routing.
- Information-directed routing.
- Location-based routing.
- Menu choices routing.
- Time-based routing.
- Abilities-based routing.
Most fashionable enterprise telephone companies and name middle software program embody built-in instruments to arrange fundamental IVR routing. Directors can simply arrange the IVR for a single workplace or easy telephone tree with out the assistance of a specialist. Advanced IVR routing could require specialist help, in addition to upgrades and third-party integrations.
1. Caller ID routing
Caller ID routing makes use of a caller’s telephone quantity to find out one of the best course for the decision. This technique is greatest if that you must create a customized expertise for frequent callers or prioritize necessary purchasers.
If that’s the case, you may configure your corporation’ IVR system to acknowledge telephone numbers of present purchasers or VIP prospects. When these prospects name, the system will route them on to a devoted account supervisor or a precedence assist group.
This ensures high-value purchasers obtain quick and personalised consideration, which ought to preserve them completely satisfied.
Past that, you possibly can additionally use caller ID routing to establish and redirect frequent callers to particular departments they frequently work together with. This can streamline the caller’s journey by lowering the necessity for repeated navigation via the IVR menu and in addition assist your corporation handle name queues extra successfully.
Briefly, caller ID routing is an efficient technique to supply a tailor-made expertise to high-value prospects or streamline service for present ones — each of which ought to reinforce buyer loyalty.
2. Information-directed routing
Information-directed routing makes use of your buyer’s earlier interactions to enhance name flows and create a extra personalised expertise for callers. By accessing buyer knowledge like buy historical past, account data, or earlier service requests, this IVR routing kind intelligently directs the decision to essentially the most appropriate agent or division.
Callers recognized by account historical past as being in arrears could also be routed to collections, for instance, or routed based mostly on real-time data like account standing or service degree agreements. From there, prospects can get data or make a fee utilizing the IVR.
Bypassing common inquiry channels saves time for the caller. It additionally ensures they’re talking with an agent who’s already conversant in their particular necessities.
Callers will respect data-directed routing, as a result of it personalizes service and reduces the necessity for them to repeatedly present the identical data time and again. Like the opposite varieties of routing on this listing, when you use it proper, you’ll see increased satisfaction charges and in the end higher buyer loyalty.
3. Location-based routing
In location-based routing, the IVR system makes use of a caller’s geographical location to direct their name to the closest or most applicable service middle or consultant.
This technique is most useful if your corporation has a number of regional places of work or service areas, because it ensures your callers get localized assist tailor-made to their particular area.
Let’s say you run a retail chain with shops throughout the nation. You should utilize location-based routing to make sure that your callers are related to the shop that’s closest to them geographically.
This method additionally permits for region-specific data, like native promotions or stock, to be conveyed precisely. Equally, when you have a service-based enterprise that’s region-specific, like a utility firm, your callers will be robotically related to native places of work for extra related help.
Total, location-based routing offers callers a extra personalised expertise whereas additionally serving to your corporation handle name volumes extra effectively throughout completely different areas.
4. Menu choices routing
This is among the extra acquainted varieties of IVR routing. Because the title implies, callers are given quite a lot of menu choices to select from. Based mostly on their picks, their name is directed to essentially the most applicable agent or division.
The good factor about this technique is that it’s extremely versatile and will be personalized to go well with a variety of service wants. For instance, a utility firm might use menu choices routing to categorize calls into billing, outage reporting, or common inquiries.
By urgent a corresponding quantity on their keypad, callers can rapidly navigate to the suitable division with out having to talk to an middleman. This not solely accelerates the decision dealing with course of but additionally ensures your callers are related to the brokers greatest geared up to resolve their particular points.
Menu choices will also be nice for bettering effectivity. It may be designed to lower excessive name queuing occasions throughout peak hours by distributing calls based mostly on the kind of inquiry. Throughout a promotional interval, for instance, a retail enterprise may need a devoted menu choice only for promotional queries, which helps when you’re anticipating a rise in some of these calls.
5. Talent-based routing
Talent-based routing is considered one of a number of necessary name middle software program options. It’s all about connecting your callers with essentially the most certified agent attainable. That is particularly useful if a buyer has a extra technical difficulty or wants further steering that requires the help of considered one of your extra skilled brokers.
This IVR routing kind analyzes a caller’s enter or profile, then directs the decision to an agent or division with the requisite experience.
This technique is especially efficient for tech or software program companies, or any firm whose calls are likely to require specialised information or dealing with.
Your tech firm may use skill-based routing to direct technical assist queries on to your IT specialists, or route billing-related calls on to the finance division.
Since this routing technique rapidly connects callers to somebody with the mandatory experience to assist them, it may possibly assist resolve their points extra effectively — that means increased buyer satisfaction ranges in your name middle.
Talent-based routing will also be programmed with a language part or choice. For instance, a caller with a choice for Spanish might be routed to a Spanish-speaking agent, which makes the service extra accessible and personalised.
6. Time-based routing
Time-based routing is precisely what it appears like. This IVR system directs calls based mostly on the present time of day.
Does your corporation have to deal with calls throughout non-business hours or when completely different shifts are in operation? Time- based mostly routing is especially efficient for these use instances. It permits you to arrange predefined guidelines that robotically ahead calls to the precise vacation spot relying on what time they’re obtained.
That is pretty simple for places of work with customary enterprise hours. For digital contact facilities, companies that function throughout a number of time zones, and different organizations with distributed workforces, this routing technique turns into completely important. If your corporation will get a customer support name after hours in a single time zone, it might be routed to an workplace in a special location the place brokers are nonetheless working.
Equally, throughout weekends or holidays, calls will be forwarded to cell numbers or voicemail. This fashion, buyer inquiries aren’t left unattended.
Time-based routing is a good way to boost the shopper expertise by lowering wait occasions and guaranteeing considerations are addressed promptly, it doesn’t matter what time prospects name.