All 6 kinds of IVR routing and when to make use of them

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) routing is a method to information callers to the agent, division or service middle greatest suited to reply their questions, resolve their issues and meet their particular wants.

The finish outcome? Increased buyer satisfaction and simplified name administration for your corporation.

IVR is a strategic software that advantages your callers by lowering wait occasions and enhancing service accuracy. With a well-optimized routing system, they’ll simply discover the division they’re on the lookout for with out being transferred from one agent to a different.

The key’s to design name flows that make the most of various kinds of IVR routing. Each serves a singular operate and has particular situations for which it’s best suited. Most firms use a couple of sort.

These are the six kinds of IVR routing that I’ll cowl:

1. Caller ID routing.
2. Data-directed routing.
3. Location-based routing.
4. Routing of menu choices.
5. Time-based routing.
6. Skills-based routing.

Most fashionable enterprise cellphone service and name middle software program embody built-in instruments to arrange primary IVR routing. Administrators can simply arrange IVR for a single workplace or a easy cellphone tree with out the assistance of a specialist. Complex IVR routing might require specialised help, in addition to third-party upgrades and integrations.

1. Caller ID routing

Caller ID routing makes use of the caller’s cellphone quantity to find out the very best route for the decision. This technique is greatest if it is advisable to create a customized expertise for frequent callers or prioritize essential prospects.

In that case, you may arrange your organization’s IVR system to acknowledge the cellphone numbers of current prospects or VIP prospects. When these prospects name, the system will route them on to a devoted account supervisor or precedence help staff.

This ensures that high-value prospects obtain fast, customized consideration, which ought to make them pleased.

Beyond that, you may additionally use caller ID routing to establish and redirect frequent callers to particular departments that they work together with regularly. This will simplify the caller journey by lowering the necessity to repeatedly navigate the IVR menu and also will assist your corporation handle name queues extra successfully.

In brief, caller ID routing is an effective method to provide a tailor-made expertise to high-value prospects or simplify service for current ones – each of which ought to strengthen buyer loyalty.

2. Direct knowledge routing

Data-directed routing makes use of earlier buyer interactions to enhance name flows and create a extra customized expertise for callers. By accessing buyer knowledge akin to buy historical past, account data or earlier service requests, one of these IVR routing intelligently directs the decision to essentially the most acceptable agent or division.

Callers recognized by account historical past as overdue will be routed to collections, for instance, or routed primarily based on real-time data akin to account standing or service degree agreements. From there, prospects can get data or make a cost utilizing the IVR.

Bypassing common inquiry channels saves caller time. It additionally ensures that they’re talking with an agent who’s already conversant in their particular wants.

Callers will respect data-driven routing as a result of it personalizes service and reduces the necessity to repeatedly present the identical data. Like the opposite routing varieties on this checklist, if you happen to use it appropriately, you may see greater satisfaction charges and in the end better buyer loyalty.

3. Location-based routing

In location-based routing, the IVR system makes use of the geographic location of the caller to route the decision to the closest or most acceptable service middle or consultant.

This technique may be very helpful if your organization has a number of regional places of work or service areas, because it ensures that callers obtain localized help tailor-made to their particular area.

Let’s say you run a retail chain with shops throughout the nation. You can use location-based routing to make sure callers are related to the shop closest to them geographically.

This method additionally permits you to precisely convey region-specific data, akin to native promotions or stock. Likewise, when you’ve got a region-specific service-based enterprise, akin to a utility firm, your callers will be mechanically related to native places of work for extra related help.

Overall, location-based routing provides callers a extra customized expertise whereas serving to your corporation handle name volumes extra effectively between totally different areas.

4. Routing menu choices

This is likely one of the most acquainted kinds of IVR routing. As the identify suggests, callers are provided a wide range of menu choices to select from. Based on their picks, their name is routed to essentially the most acceptable agent or division.

The advantage of this technique is that this can be very versatile and will be personalized to fulfill a variety of service wants. For instance, a utility firm may use routing menu choices to categorize calls into billing, outage reporting, or common inquiries.

By urgent the corresponding quantity on the keypad, callers can shortly go to the suitable division with out having to talk to an middleman. This not solely hurries up the decision dealing with course of, but in addition ensures that callers are related to the brokers greatest geared up to resolve their particular points.

Menu choices may also be nice for enhancing effectivity. It will be designed to scale back excessive name queue occasions throughout peak hours by distributing calls primarily based on the kind of request. During a promotional interval, for instance, a retail enterprise might need a devoted menu choice only for promotional questions, which is useful if you happen to count on a rise in a lot of these calls.

5. Skills-based routing

Skills-based routing is considered one of a number of essential options of name middle software program. It’s about connecting your callers with essentially the most certified agent potential. This is particularly useful if a buyer has a extra technical challenge or wants further steering that requires help from considered one of your extra skilled brokers.

This sort of IVR routing analyzes the caller’s enter or profile, then routes the decision to an agent or division with the required experience.

This technique is particularly efficient for expertise or software program firms, or any enterprise whose calls are likely to require specialised information or administration.

Your expertise firm may use skill-based routing to route technical help requests on to your IT specialists or route billing-related calls on to the finance division.

Because this routing technique shortly connects callers to somebody with the abilities wanted to assist them, it will probably assist resolve their points extra effectively, which implies greater ranges of buyer satisfaction on your name middle.

Skill-based routing may also be programmed with a language part or choice. For instance, a caller with a choice for Spanish might be directed to a Spanish-speaking agent, making the service extra accessible and customized.

6. Time-based routing

Time-based routing is precisely what it feels like. This IVR system routes calls primarily based on the present time of day.

Does your organization must deal with calls throughout non-business hours or when totally different shifts are working? Time-based routing is especially efficient for these use circumstances. It permits you to set predefined guidelines that mechanically ahead calls to the right vacation spot relying on the time they’re acquired.

This is easy sufficient for places of work with commonplace enterprise hours. For digital contact facilities, companies that function throughout a number of time zones, and different organizations with distributed workforces, this routing technique turns into completely important. If your organization receives an after-hours customer support name in a single time zone, it might be routed to an workplace in a unique location the place brokers are nonetheless working.

Likewise, on weekends or holidays, calls will be forwarded to cell numbers or voicemail. This method, buyer requests will not be left unattended.

Time-based routing is an effective way to enhance buyer expertise by lowering wait occasions and guaranteeing that issues are addressed promptly, no matter what time prospects name.