Does Visual IVR Really Help Callers? 5 Ideal Use Cases

Visual IVR combines voice-only IVR technology with a visual user interface for a personalized approach to customer support assistance. Customers interact with Visual IVR by dialing a number and opting to receive a shareable link to access an interactive page where they can resolve many of their customer service issues.

With traditional (or non-visual) IVRs, customers can only navigate an automated phone menu or ask to speak to a representative immediately. This forces them to wait for a while before the actual customer service process can begin.

If implemented correctly, visual IVR can deliver a number of key benefits, including:

• Improve your customers’ user experience and provide more self-service options.
• Make the customer journey better by removing the friction, confusion, and complexity that comes with traditional IVR.
• Improve agent efficiency and productivity.
• Improve customer convenience and satisfaction.
• Reduce call abandonment rates and average handle time.
• Improve first call resolution.
• Reduce wait times and call queues.

Building a good visual IVR is hard work, and it’s not always worth it. If it’s not done well, it can feel more cumbersome than other service options, such as chatbots or live chat with a human. Additionally, some callers may not like being redirected to another platform after making a call.

Still, visual IVR offers many advantages over traditional IVR, and when used correctly, it can have a huge impact. Specifically, there are five fairly clear use cases for leveraging visual IVR to improve the customer service experience.

1. Appointment Arrangement

The process of scheduling an appointment using Visual IVR is simple and straightforward. The customer calls, requests to receive a calendar link via SMS or other format, and then uses that link to schedule an appointment through the platform.

This process has many advantages over traditional scheduling methods.

Best of all, it allows customers to see the times and days that work for them on a visual calendar, so confusion is minimized and control is maximized.

At the same time, since the customer’s input is recorded and integrated with the team’s official calendar, it also reduces the amount of repetitive work for field agents, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.

Customers can also request SMS reminders for appointments to reduce the number of missed appointments.

2. Payment

To pay their bills using Visual IVR, customers need to call, request a link, and then use it to access the payment portal. There, they can pay any outstanding balance by navigating through the user interface and submitting the necessary card or bank details.

Visual IVR offers many advantages over traditional IVR for bill payment because it allows customers to see how much they owe before they complete any payments manually.

This reduces confusion around complex payments and increases customer satisfaction.

3. Customer Self-Service

In addition to real-world actions such as paying bills and scheduling appointments, visual IVR can also be used for observational or passive customer self-service options.

These self-service tasks include checking balances, checking account details and updating contact information.

At the end of the call, customers can request a visual IVR link and complete self-service tasks at their end. This minimizes confusion and makes their overall experience more pleasant.

4. Customer satisfaction survey

Customer satisfaction surveys often use visual IVR to make the process more personal and interactive.

While it is also possible to deliver customer satisfaction surveys to customers using traditional IVR, the visual IVR process offers different possibilities. Visual IVR allows customers to request a link via SMS or other format and provide feedback using an interactive web-based interface, rather than answering questions and pressing buttons on the phone.

Visual IVR offers many advantages over traditional IVR surveys as it can reduce completion time and increase response rates, helping businesses collect valuable data more efficiently.

5. E-commerce

Many aspects of e-commerce can be accomplished through visual IVR, including ordering and tracking products, renewing or canceling subscriptions, and activating products.

To access a visual IVR for e-commerce purposes, customers need to dial a number, request an interactive link, select an option, complete their task and submit.

All in all, visual IVR offers many advantages over traditional IVR in an e-commerce environment – such as providing a more proactive customer experience, reduced wait times, and less reliance on representative assistance.

This saves time for both the client and the agent.

Invest in a visual IVR to improve your customer service

From appointment scheduling to e-commerce and more, visual IVR can pay dividends for your contact center.

The key is implementing it in an effective way that actually makes sense for your customers.

Remember to minimize manual tasks and provide ample options so that your contact center can be more responsive, more useful, and more pleasant to interact with.