What does your IVR say about you? Your IVR is the front door to any customer conversation on the phone. Are you making the most of this critical customer experience or are you missing out on a loyalty-building opportunity? Take our FREE 5-minute IVR self-assessment to determine what sort of impression your IVR makes on your customers.
1. Does your IVR system provide callers access to agents?
  No, the system does not provide any agent support
  Yes, callers are allowed to reach an agent only after they have attempted self-service in the IVR
  Yes, callers are transferred to an agent upon request
 
2. Does your IVR offer speech recognition?
  No, the IVR only supports touchtone/DTMF
  Yes, the IVR supports very basic speech commands (e.g. "Press or say 1 to select Reservations" etc)
  Yes, the IVR supports speech self-service (e.g.: users can complete tasks such as looking up order status, trading a stock etc using speech)
 
3. Does your IVR allow callers to complete tasks without assistance from an agent?
  No, the IVR routes all callers to agents
  Yes, the IVR allows callers to complete simple tasks such as information lookup (account balance, order status etc)
  Yes, the IVR allows callers to complete complex tasks such as transactions (purchasing stocks, booking a flight etc)
 
4. Does your IVR personalize or play different prompts for each caller?
  No, we play a set of standard prompts and menu choices for all callers
  Yes, we play different prompts based on how many times they've called
  Yes, each caller gets a personalized experience based on information we retrieve about them from CRM and other systems
 
5. How often do you tune your IVR system performance?
  Almost no tuning has been performed since deployment
  The IVR is tuned infrequently (once every 2-3 years) or when a problem is uncovered
  The IVR is regularly tuned with a dedicated team tasked with improving system performance
 
6. Is your IVR able to handle traffic spikes or bursts?
  Our IVR often crashes during peak loads leading to busy signals and dropped calls
  We have built significant extra capacity into our IVR to deal with peak loads (excess capacity remains idle during non-peak times)
  Our traffic is fairly even or we dynamically allocate capacity so traffic spikes do not pose an issue for us
 
7. What is the most common reason that prompts most of your callers to opt out to agents?
  To avoid using our automated IVR system
  To confirm or clarify things they might have heard in the IVR or to complete tasks / transactions that they're having trouble completing in the IVR
  To complete tasks or transactions or resolve issues that are not part of self-service
 
8. Is your IVR aware of recent interactions completed on other channels such as web, outbound, mobile, etc?
  No, the IVR is completely standalone
  The IVR is aware of recent interactions on the IVR but not other channels (e.g. web, outbound etc)
  The IVR is aware of interactions across channels (e.g. web, outbound etc) and personalizes the interaction accordingly
 
9. Does your IVR support delivery of useful automated alerts and transactions?
  No, the IVR only supports inbound phone calls
  Yes, the IVR supports simple outbound notification calls (not interactive)
  Yes, the IVR supports interactive outbound calls (alerts and transactions)