Should I Consider an IVR Solution for My Business?
- winet
- 0
- on Oct 07, 2023
Interactive Voice Response is a wonderful tool. It aims at the automation of certain routine tasks whenever it comes to handling phone calls. Thus, if you are planning to purchase IVR solutions for your business, it might be a game-changing decision. But, if you are hesitant about whether you should consider an IVR solution, you had better think twice about it. This blog provides assistance for everyone who is in a dilemma over whether to consider IVR services or not.
Goals or Objectives
Whether you should consider an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) application depends mainly on the goal you have kept in mind.
Suppose you have come across this technology recently. Thus, you don’t know much about the same. But, you are of the opinion that IVR solutions can increase the productivity of your business.
First of all, IVR is not for every business. It is only useful for voice call-related operations for example outbound or inbound call campaigns. Thus, to narrow down the discussion, you should only consider the IVR solution if your business requires voice calls.
So, let’s assume that you run a marketing agency. Your business has to deal with various incoming calls on a daily basis coming from various advertisement platforms i.e., Facebook, Google Ads, etc. Here, an IVR solution is the perfect means for you to increase your level of productivity and encounter a reasonable increase in profits over time.
How does this happen? Consider the following section as it is amply explained there.
IVR Improves Resource Allocation
In the above section, it is well-stated that you should only consider purchasing an IVR solution if your business has anything to do with voice calls. For a practical understanding, a specific example of an advertising agency was mentioned.
Furthermore, it was claimed that IVR in this context can lead to an increase in profits. But, how? Let’s deal with this question now!
You must have noticed the heading attached to this section on the top. This is the key or link. IVR applications don’t do any magic. Instead, the technology helps leverage resources i.e., time, money, efforts, etc. It promotes better resource allocation, reducing operational costs, and thus increasing profits. In other words, the increase in profits is just the byproduct of utilising idle capacities to the maximum.
Let’s understand the implications of these words with the help of a practical example.
Large Call Volumes and Human Agents
Think of yourself as an advertiser for a moment. You put in marketing efforts with the help of various digital platforms to generate incoming calls (or leads). You are the owner of a very big advertising corporation. Now, consider the following scenario.
Your marketing firm generates high volumes of incoming calls on a daily basis. Therefore, there is a massive team of agents deployed to deal with callers or customers on the other end of the line. Agents’ work here involves talking to customers and labelling them as qualified leads before routing calls to the right departments or persons.
This is the exact context where a well-designed IVR application can do its miracles. Now, see. An IVR setup will reduce the requirement for human agents. The IVR technology will automate routine tasks and thus it will reduce the operation costs. This reduction happened because of a decrease in human resources and the associated costs like salaries, office space, electricity bills, etc.
Now, IVR will handle the huge volume of incoming calls, engage with callers and finally route qualified calls to the right departments. Now, your advertising agency doesn’t need as many agents to handle clients as before.
Overall, the efficiency and productivity of the firm will remain the same with the reduced need for inputs in comparison to previous data. And now, the resources saved because of better resource allocation can be used to expand the current capacities of the agency, increasing its productivity level in the long run.
IVR Helped in Two Ways
In the above analysis, an IVR system helps you in the following two ways:
- Reduction in staff requirements to handle incoming leads
- The same amount of work is done in less time (machines are more agile than humans and they need less downtime too e.g., computers don’t fall ill but humans do)
Thus, as already mentioned, by reason of both the factors, the overall performance of your marketing agency boosts. And it helps you achieve new successes in your field of work.
Thus, if the entire discussion resonates with you, definitely choose an IVR solution and streamline the workflow of your business. It will increase the effectiveness of your overall business efforts, providing better results.
However, before you plunge into deriving any conclusions, consider the size of your business as well. It is also a crucial factor. Therefore, consider the following section.
Business Size and IVR Effectiveness
Now, you very well know that deployment of IVR under certain business conditions leads to enhanced workflow and thus high levels of productivity. However, this is not true in every case. If your business is a very small one, the technology is hardly going to produce any tangible difference.
In other words, it is not going to work as we have discussed above. Here, you need to ask yourself one more question. What is the cost of generating one lead with human agents? Suppose you have computed this cost. Now, compare the cost with that of a lead when generated with an IVR set-up in place. This comparison will help you make an informed decision: if the cost with IVR is less, get the service and vice-versa.
Overall, if you are not a big corporation requiring to make, receive, or manage calls on a daily basis in huge volumes, you need to consider purchasing IVR solutions more cautiously. However, the cost comparison technique mentioned above will assist you in the process.
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