Almost everyone would rather talk to a real person than automated communications when they call a company, according to a new study by B2B research firm Clutch. Of 501 people surveyed, 88% said they preferred speaking to humans and 72% said they usually speak to a human after encountering an IVR menu.
IVR has come a long way but consumers still find it frustrating when they have questions that automated responses can’t answer. To reach a human as quickly as possible, 70% said they pressed zero and 65% said they used the words “operator” or “agent.”
Related: 3 Tips for a Successful IVR Deployment
Common IVR compliants
Reasons given for disliking IVR menus include:
- 69% said listening to irrelevant options
- 67% pointed to the inability to articulate an issue correctly
- 43% missed the lack of human interaction
- 15% were confused by menu options
Chris Connnelly, vice president of product marketing at Empirix partner Genesys, said: “Companies still need human representatives to handle the complexities of certain voice interactions that cannot be satisfactorily synthesized and automated.”
IVRs should enhance CX
IVR menus should enhance customer interactions, not replace the need for humans. The stakes are high for companies that fail to get it right. When Americans have a poor customer experience, they tell 15 others on average. If a competitor’s prices are comparable, 47% of customers will take their business elsewhere within a day. Recruiting new customers costs 5 times more than retaining existing ones.
White Paper: The Future of IVR Customer Service Assurance
Automated end-to-end testing and monitoring detects and prevents issues across your contact center IVR applications, infrastructure and networks before your customers are affected. Learn more about our contact assurance solutions here.
Taming CX Disruption with Automated, Collaborative Testing
More on IVR assurance
There’s More to Contact Centers Than IVR Technology
When we talk about contact center assurance, interactive voice response (IVR) technology tends to monopolize the conversation. Almost everyone knows what a nightmare problematic IVR menus can be. If someone…
Frost & Sullivan Chooses Empirix for 2019 Best Practice Award
Frost & Sullivan, a globally recognized research and consulting firm, has picked Empirix as the 2019 Best Practice Award for Global Network Test and Monitoring Product Line Strategy Leadership. Empirix…
3 Tips for a Successful IVR Deployment
This post was co-authored by longtime Empirix partner, Genesys. Read the rest here. IT and contact center leaders are embracing hybrid. Cloud-based applications, including IVR, often boast lower TCO than…
Solve the Challenges Putting Customer Experience at Risk in Your Contact Center
With unlimited access to information, today’s customers are educated. They know what they want, they want it fast and loyalty is optional. In fact, 47% of customers will take their…