Intelligent IVR: What it Can (and Can’t) Do…Yet

Electronic voices have been destined to answer phone calls ever since Bell Labs invented the Voder machine at the tail-end of the 1930s. These days, everybody and their mother has been greeted by an IVR (interactive voice response) phone system to walk them through a customer service calling menu in one way or another. 

In fact, once the 2020s came rolling around, call center IVR setups started getting smarter than ever before—ultimately reshaping how call centers operate.

In particular, Intelligent IVR systems were introduced as the smarter cousins of traditional IVRs. They use advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to understand human speech, react to real-time requests, and even predict customer needs. 

One of the biggest impacts of Intelligent IVR is that its call-routing capabilities have been upgraded not only to include personalized customer interaction capabilities but also to handle complex queries that were once only possible with the help of human intervention. This has led to a dramatic increase in call center efficiency and self-service options for customers, ultimately freeing up call center agents to tackle far more engaging issues.

Still, every new technology claims to be the best thing since sliced bread, so the question remains if Intelligent IVR is worth the investment. The short answer is yes—it absolutely is. Intelligent IVR can easily do everything from increasing a call center’s efficiency and reducing company costs to improving both customer and employee satisfaction. 

Now, before we get too excited, it’s worth noting that Intelligent IVR still isn’t perfect. The technology sometimes struggles with understanding accents, nuanced speech, and background noise. So although it’s getting smarter and learning how to reduce the burden on human call center agents every day, it can’t quite replace human agents just yet.

7 Game-Changing Things Intelligent IVR Can (Already) Do

1. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

What it is: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) lets machines understand and process human speech. When used in call centers, ASR can parse a customer’s spoken inquiries and convert them into text so that the system can understand and respond to the customer.

This technology is foundational for enabling more natural interactions between customers and machines.

Benefits:

• Improved customer experiences: ASR lets customers speak naturally without navigating cumbersome and slow touch-tone menus. This alone can lead to more satisfying and higher-quality interactions.
• Increased efficiency: By quickly understanding customer needs, ASR can reduce call handling times and promptly route calls to the best resolution path or agent.
• Better accessibility: ASR technology makes services more accessible for people who experience challenges using a traditional touch-tone IVR, including those with visual impairments or physical disabilities. 

2. Enhanced Natural Language Processing (NLP)

What it is: Enhanced NLP goes beyond basic speech recognition to understand the context and intent behind a customer’s spoken words. This allows Intelligent IVR systems to grasp what is being said as well as the meaning and purpose of the customer’s call, ultimately paving the way to create more human-like interactions.

Benefits:

• Deeper understanding: With NLP, an IVR can handle complex queries more effectively by understanding verbal requests.
• Personalized interactions: IVRs can tailor responses and solutions to the individual caller by understanding intent. This means NLP can help an IVR add a personal touch to automated services.
• Efficient call routing: With a better grasp of the caller’s needs, calls can be routed more accurately to the appropriate department or agent, thus boosting first-call resolution rates.

3. Real-Time Predictive Behavior Analysis

What it is: Intelligent IVRs can analyze customer data and real-time interaction patterns to predict their needs and make suggestions for future actions. It uses data analytics and machine learning to anticipate issues, and it can even offer solutions before the customer is finished articulating their problem.

Benefits:

• Proactive service: Predictive behavior analysis lets the IVR offer relevant information and solutions based on the customer’s history and current interaction.
• Reduced call times: By anticipating the customer’s needs, it can shorten the duration of calls. This alone can improve call center efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.
• Personalized experience: Predictive analysis allows for more tailored interactions, which makes customers feel understood and valued.

4. Sentiment Analysis

What it is: Sentiment analysis evaluates the emotional tone behind a customer’s speech so the IVR can respond by taking appropriate action, such as routing or escalating the call to a specific department. This technology assesses whether a customer sounds frustrated, happy, or neutral and adjusts its responses accordingly.

Benefits:

• Improved customer relations: By recognizing and responding to customer emotions, Intelligent IVR can handle sensitive situations more delicately. That’s a win for customer satisfaction.
• Intelligent call routing: Calls can once again be routed a little bit better, in this case to agents who are best equipped to handle the emotional context of the call, leading to greater first-call resolution rates.
• Enhanced agent preparedness: Agents receive insights into the customer’s emotional state before the call is transferred, giving them more time to tailor their approach from the start.

5. Smart Call Routing

What it is: Smart call routing uses a combination of ASR, NLP, and customer data to direct callers to the most appropriate resource, such as a self-service option or a qualified human agent. This system considers various factors, including the nature of the call, customer history, and skill sets of available agents.

Benefits:

• Improved resolution rates: By matching customers with the right agent or information, intelligent routing vastly improves the chances of first-call resolution.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction: Smart routing minimizes wait times and ensures customers feel their issues are addressed efficiently and effectively.
• Optimized agent utilization: This feature ensures agents are dealing with calls that match their skill sets—which can lead to greater job satisfaction and efficiency.

6. Self-Service Options

What it is: Intelligent IVR systems offer self-service options that give customers a way to take care of their own queries through automated responses and guided menus—without the need for human intervention.

Benefits:

• 24/7 service availability: Customers can access information and resolve routine issues anytime, even outside of regular business hours.
• Reduced call volume: By automatically handling routine inquiries, self-service options free up call center agents to focus on more complex issues.
• Increased customer empowerment: Offering self-service options is an easy way to give customers more control over their interactions. This often leads to faster resolutions and greater customer satisfaction.

7. Continuous Learning and Improvement

What it is: Intelligent IVR systems are designed to learn from each interaction. They use machine learning algorithms to refine their responses and improve their accuracy in understanding customer needs over time.

Benefits:

• Adaptive service quality: The system continuously improves, leading to more accurate and efficient customer interactions.
• Dynamic response capabilities: As the system learns, it can offer more nuanced and appropriate responses to a broader range of customer queries.
• Better personalization: With every interaction, the system gathers more data on customer preferences, behaviors, and patterns. This information helps the IVR offer callers increasingly personalized service.

Intelligent IVR (Still) Isn’t Perfect

Pobody’s nerfect—not even Intelligent IVRs.

While they’re already doing a ton of work to transform call center operations, Intelligent IVRs still have limitations. As such, it’s critical for the call centers that use them to set realistic expectations and be mindful of the key areas in which customers will run into trouble.

They’re Not Quite Passable as Human

Despite significant advancements, Intelligent IVR systems can’t replicate the nuances and empathy of human interaction.

In other words, they’re not fooling anybody just yet. 

Yes, they can handle routine tasks efficiently, but when it comes to complex emotions and situations that require a human touch, IVRs fall short.

This gap is often most visible in scenarios requiring compassion, understanding, or negotiation—underscoring the indispensable nature of human agents who can always provide a safer fallback. 

Similarly, human agents are also better equipped to adapt to unexpected situations, offer creative solutions, and provide the empathy needed to foster strong customer relationships.

Their Processing Speed Can Be Variable

Intelligent IVR systems can sometimes process inquiries slower than expected, especially with complex requests or during peak times. 

Processing delays can result from the system taking additional time to analyze the request, access databases for information, or wrestle with the current technological limitations of processing natural language in real time. 

While these delays are generally minor, they can impact customer satisfaction—particularly when speed is of the essence.

They Face Limitations in Understanding Complex Queries

Intelligent IVR can struggle with unusual or highly specific questions and queries that require an understanding of advanced vocabulary or industry jargon.

This limitation can cause the system to respond with inaccurate answers or route calls incorrectly. In these situations, a hand-off to a human agent is necessary for successful resolution. 

They Can Struggle With Accents, Vocal Nuances, and Non-Standard Speech Patterns

Language is inherently diverse. Accents, dialects, and individual speech patterns can vary widely.

Intelligent IVR systems can’t always recognize and interpret these variations, which can lead to misunderstandings and frustrated callers when the system gets confused. 

They Are Sensitive to Background Noise and Interruptions

In real-world scenarios, calls to customer service often occur in less-than-ideal environments, meaning background noise and interruptions can affect the clarity of a caller’s speech.

Intelligent IVR can struggle to filter out these sounds, which affects the system’s ability to interpret the caller’s request or question accurately. 

Intelligent IVR Done the Right Way

Implementing and using an intelligent IVR in your call center takes more than just installing some software. You need to follow best practices and take a strategic, holistic approach to be sure it can deliver on everything it promises. 

1. Understand the needs and preferences of your customers: Before implementing an intelligent IVR, it’s critical to understand your customers and what matters most to them. This knowledge can guide the design of your IVR menu structure, ensuring it’s both intuitive and addresses the most common customer queries in the right order.

2. Prioritize clarity and simplicity in IVR menus: Design your IVR menus as clearly and straightforwardly as possible. Remember to avoid overwhelming callers with too many options or complex terminology. The goal is to make navigation easy and reduce the average time it takes for customers to reach their desired outcomes.

3. Continuously train and update the IVR system: Intelligent IVR systems learn from interactions—but they also require ongoing training and updates to improve their accuracy and proficiency. This includes refining speech recognition capabilities, updating information based on new products and services, and adjusting routing algorithms to better meet customer needs.

4. Integrate with other systems and channels: Ensure your intelligent IVR is integrated with customer service systems and channels such as customer resource management (CRM) software, live chats, and email support. Consolidating all of your channels is a good way to ensure a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. It also ensures your IVR can access the relevant customer data it needs to personalize interactions.

5. Test and iterate: Before going live, thoroughly test your IVR system under various scenarios. This will help you identify any issues with navigation, speech recognition, and response accuracy. After launch, be sure to monitor the system’s performance and run tests after any major change you make. Gather plenty of feedback from customers and agents to make ongoing improvements.

Critical KPIs to Monitor

Some key metrics to consider when monitoring your IVR performance include the following:

1. First-Call Resolution (FCR): This tracks the percentage of calls that get resolved during the first interaction with the IVR system. A high FCR rate indicates that the IVR meets customer needs without transferring to a live agent.

2. Average Handling Time (AHT): Tracking AHT involves monitoring the average time a customer interacts with the IVR system. While efficiency is important, you should be sure that you don’t overcommit to reducing handling times at the expense of lowering your service quality.

3. Call Containment Rate: This metric measures the number of calls resolved by the IVR without human involvement. A higher call containment rate suggests that the IVR effectively handles customer queries and reduces the load on live agents.

4. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Post-call surveys can help you measure customer satisfaction with your IVR experience. Gathering this feedback is a simple way to learn how your IVR system can improve.

5. Abandonment Rate: This KPI keeps an eye on how often callers disconnect before their query is resolved. A high abandonment rate could be due to a combination of issues within your IVR’s menu, long wait times, and callers who are frustrated with certain parts of the system.

6. Speech Recognition Accuracy: Obviously, this deals with how well your IVR system understands customer speech, including accents and natural language. High accuracy is crucial for efficient navigation and customer satisfaction.

Getting Started With Intelligent IVR in Your Call Center

The easiest way to get an Intelligent IVR up and running is to use call center software that already has it as a built-in feature.

Most call center software with native AI and Intelligent IVR functionality is designed to be plug-and-play. This means that once you choose a provider and set up your system, you can immediately start taking advantage of its AI-driven features.

These systems work using cloud-based technologies, which is great news for those looking for a solution that’s easy to implement and even easier to scale. They also come with user-friendly interfaces to guide you and your administrators through setting up your IVR menus, defining routing rules, and integrating with other business systems like CRM software.

Our favorite call center software provider is Nextiva. Its collection of services includes advanced IVR capabilities like: 

• Advanced Speech Recognition (ASR)
• Smart Call Routing
• Natural Language Processing
• Integration Capabilities

Read our Nextiva review to learn more.