How much attention have you given to your IVR campaign? Do you have a voice broadcasting strategy in place? Not all businesses give these aspects of their marketing campaign the attention they deserve. If you’re trying to maximize your reach, this is a grave mistake. Let’s take a look a few ways to get the most out of Voice Broadcast and IVR.

1. Offer live help. This is the number one piece of advice for conducting any IVR campaign – precisely for the reasons you may have been avoiding the technology in the first place. It’s true, not everyone responds well to automated systems. Don’t risk losing potential customers. It might seem counterintuitive, but a good IVR program is one that allows users to circumvent it altogether.

 

2. Limit the options. We’ve all been there. Waiting on a customer service call that runs you through countless, confusing options. If the choices go on too long, the customer gets bored by the time the reach the end, and they might have forgotten what the first one was. At this stage, most people simply ring off. As a rule of thumb, limit the options to no more than five, and avoid complex subsets.

 

3. Use humor. Where appropriate, of course. If you’re a charity or medical group, you should probably maintain a serious tone throughout, but if you are offering customer service for a retailer, try injecting a little light humor into the script. Experience copywriters can help you strike the right tone. As long as you’re providing a good service, you can afford some levity, and it often endears your brand to the listener, alleviating some of the frustration inherent in automated calls.

 

4. Be personal. Again, the degree to which you can personalize your IVR depends on your industry, but getting across a sense of your company’s culture and outlook can really boost user engagement.

 

5. Use talented voice artists. This is crucial to brand perception, both for IVR and Voice Broadcast. If you’re in the medical industry, you want a warm, middle-aged, trustworthy voice. If you’re selling extreme holidays, a youthful, energetic vibe is more appropriate. Mobile insurer Asurion hired a female actress and coached her speech inflections to imitate those of an experienced live agent. The result?  A 5% increase in customer satisfaction and reduced call times – all because customers were happy to use the automated system instead of requesting transfer to a live agent.

 

6. Plan for spikes. Another thing that irritates customers on IVR calls is the message that goes something like this: “Due to high call volumes, we cannot field your query at this time. Please call back later.” Even worse is keeping them waiting in a long call queue. Either hire more agents, or use a contractor that will handle call overspills during spikes and peak times.