[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.For a call centre handlingthousands of calls a day, the ability to shave time off the call response mayresult in savings of US$120,000 to US$1 million plus a year per second ofaverage call time.Thus, the more I can get you to use the IVR, the moredramatic a cost benefit this technology will provide.Yet, there is much tosuggest that customers are trying to find these workarounds to circumventIVRs because they don t work the way they need them to.So if IVR doesn t work today, is there a way we might be able to re-engineer the IVR menu to be more effective?IVR menu designWhen you ring your bank s call centre, you might be forgiven for thinkingthat you ve stumbled upon an automated recording of its organisationstructure Press 1 for Retail Banking, Press 2 for Loans, Press 3 for CreditCards, and so on.Despite what you might think, IVR design is not exactly simple.Firstly, there are many menu options to classify and group into categoriesthat customers will choose from.If customers don t understand the menuoptions presented, they are more likely to try to circumvent the IVR system.122 BANK 2.0Additionally, the more options you try to fit on the IVR, the more complexit becomes, so what we have to try to do is select the most beneficial optionsfor both customers and the institution.Statistically, around 70 80 per cent of the calls today to call centresof most banks around the world focus on just five to six key call requests.These generally concern current/savings account balance (about 60 percent alone), credit card balance, recent transactions, bill payment and lostcredit card.Additional popular transactions, depending on location andmarket, might also be special offers and promotions, activation of debit,credit or ATM card, and application status for a loan or credit card.Companies primarily use IVR as a filtering mechanism to divertyour call to the right agent who can help you with the problem in a mostefficient manner, or in the best case scenario, solve your problem withouthuman interaction.IVR best practice dictates that there should be no morethan three layers between the customer and the CSR, but this has longbeen ignored by most banks.In their obsession to land the calls at the rightagent s desk to improve efficiency, banks and other institutions have abusedthe IVR system.The IVR tree has now grown so many branches that if youfind yourself on the wrong branch, it s often just easier to hang up and dialagain instead of shouting for help.Reviewing the following examples of typical IVR systems menu forvarious retail banks illustrates that the menu structures often bear absolutelyno relationship to actual traffic or analytics.The menu design is takingplace independent of call centre or IVR analytics, thus producing a menustructure that is not optimised based on actual likely utilisation.This islikely to add time to the call, frustrate customers unnecessarily and increasethe rate of failures or dropouts basically adding costs and reducing serviceperception for no good reason except that there is very little science appliedto the menu design.Table 4.1 lists a few examples of IVR menus.Citibank s IVR Menu tree (Figure 4.8, p.124) shows an admirableattempt to simplify the IVR flow based on likely transactions and yourstatus as a customer.The IVR menu itself is limited to a reasonable list ofoptions, never exceeding five options.Additionally, Citibank has institutednumerous individual dial-in options so that if you call the credit card line, Please Hang Up and Try Again  Contact Centres and IVRs123Table 4.1 Typical IVR systems across regionsBANK A: ASIA BANK B: MIDDLE- BANK C: USA BANK D: EUROPEEAST/NORTH AFRICAPromotions Account holder Products and Subscriberservices services servicesRates enquiry Credit card services Online banking GeneralinformationProducts and Report lost/stolen Bill payments Sales Agentsservices credit cardPhone, Internet Promotional Credit cards Credit, debitor self-service messages and ATM cardsbankingBranch or ATM Loans General e-forexlocations information customersOthers Rates/product Foreign exchangeinformationCredit card rewards OthersEnd callyou enter the IVR tree at the top of the credit card menu, avoiding theparent options of the common IVR.There are some other design considerations, however.Take the exampleof your ATM card.If you look at the back of the card, there is a customerhelp line or support line.Ideally, this is the number you would call ifyou stuck your card in an ATM machine and it refused to give you anycash.In this instance, the IVR menu tree that this number reaches wouldreasonably need to offer an option at the top level that has something todo with getting help for a malfunctioning card or finding a suitable ATM.Broadly the suggested action plan for the banks in respect of IVR trees is:1.Reduce IVR navigation to not more than four branches andfour options per branch, with one of the primary optionsbeing the ability to talk to a CSR.If you have more thanthis, then the IVR is simply too complex.2.Consider having different phone numbers for different IVRtrees.For example, when you call the number on your ATMcard it goes to an IVR tree that deals with ATM relatedenquiries ONLY.124 BANK 2.0Welcome MenuIf you want to know about Citibank productsIf you are an existing Citibank customerCredit Card Application Status Product Information Report Loss of Card1.Balance 2.Information on 5.Report Loss3.Application Query 4.OACInformation Bank/CC/Loan of Card> Simplified IVRS > Banking Menu > Credit Cards Menu Loans> Personal Loans Menu LOP on Credit Card > Home Loan Menu Auto LoansFigure 4.8 Citibank IVR tree (Credit: Citibank Website)3.Inform customers upfront of expected waiting times forboth self-service and service via live agent, thereforemanaging expectations.4.Look for ways to flatten the IVR, like training agents orimproving call centre dashboards, to handle a broader rangeof service calls [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]