‘Customers don’t like self-service technologies.’ Time was when this had more than an element of truth, as we all regaled friends and colleagues with ‘war stories’ of poor customer service, long holding queues and having to constantly repeat information before getting through to a call agent.

The problem was – and still is in some cases – the adoption of IVR and related solutions designed to save the business money, with little or no thought for the customer experience. And, as research has shown, the problem customers have is not with the inherent technology, but with poor implementation.

It is not surprising therefore that today, as the execution of IVR and speech recognition solutions have become more practical and flexible, companies are confidently adopting such technologies to improve both internal call centre costs and customer service quality.

End-user focus

The fact is that, implemented and set up correctly, the underlying technologies have always been efficient. Rather, the problem in terms of poor end-user experience has sat firmly in the area of menu design.

This has typically been evidenced in one of two ways. In the drive to achieve cost savings, many businesses historically used internally-driven logic in designing menues and workflows, with little or no consideration on how this would impact on the user.

For the same reason, others have tried to use IVR and speech-based applications to automate too many functions previously handled by a live agent. In each case, the result has been the same: the user has been faced with a bewildering array of choices, described in ways which they do not understand. The best self-service solutions, by contrast, are those which seek to automate a limited number of applications, each offering a restricted number of options.

More with less

The goal for most businesses today is to achieve more with less. For some, the primary goal will be to improve profitability or turnover, while for others it will be to service more customers, take more orders or increase the number of calls handled: in each case however, this has to be secured with fewer resources, typically in the form of less hardware, software or reduced staffing levels.

Any solution which can support this objective therefore has to be attractive. And this is precisely where self-service, in the form of an IVR or voice portal application, has achieved greatest impact.

Whether a traditional touch-tone solution in which the caller simply punches in digits on their phone keypad, or a more sophisticated full speech recognition system, self-service has been recognised as particularly valuable for those businesses handling a high proportion of rudimentary calls involving numeric responses.

So, in the case of utilities or telephone banking dealing with a large number of subscribers or customers, for example, it offers a convenient alternative for straightforward enquiries relating to payments, current balances or change of address details. And, from our own experience, businesses have typically been able to drive as much as 60-70 per cent of such traffic via a self-service option.

Implemented effectively, this has shown to be to the benefit of both the supplier and end-customer. For, as surveys regularly show, users are not inherently averse to IVR or speech recognition applications – indeed, the 24/7 availability they offer is recognised by many as a key advantage: what they object to are poor examples of self-service automation, which result in a poor customer experience.

So what are the pitfalls to avoid in selecting a solution that may offer internal efficiency gains, but at the expense of customer service, so putting existing loyalty under potentially fatal strain?

The first is creating a poor menu structure for the user: the most sophisticated self-service technology will count for nothing if the menu structure is not designed with the customer experience in mind. After all, there are many tales of stories of callers stuck in the nightmare of endless loops, or with complex menu options which simply don’t relate to their enquiry – all of which is avoidable. The design thus needs careful thought, though some simple rules will help here, such as offering a sequence of no more than three sets of options, each containing a maximum of four choices.

The second is to adopt a system with limited flexibility. By contrast, the ability to manage and change menus locally, without the need for expensive training or recourse to similarly costly and time-consuming third-party consultancy is critical. Many businesses need to reflect sudden changes in circumstance – for example, in the case of a water company, a sudden outage in supply caused by a burst water main – by rapidly incorporating relevant messages in their automated response mechanism.

Again, it is all too easy for users to lack trust in a self-service implementation. For example, in calls involving financial transactions or the provision of personal details, it is especially important to give the user confidence that information has been correctly and securely received and acted upon, by playing back and verifying both the transaction and any supporting detail.

And finally, one of the fundamental benefits for vendor and customer alike is speed of response. If a self-service interaction actually takes longer than speaking to a live agent therefore, such advantage is lost.

The ‘bad old days’ when self-service was seen purely in terms of cost savings have been superseded by a clear recognition of how it can help deliver the positive end-user experience essential in achieving real differentiation in highly competitive markets.

Some companies may choose not to go the self-service route, either because their customer interactions are typically complex or for reasons of company policy, in wishing to retain an exclusively personal relationship in every case.

Yet even here, a balance must be struck between the quality and cost of the service provided. It may well be therefore that an integrated self-service solution offering the end-user the opportunity to switch to a live agent at any stage, will offer the ideal flexibility, speed, cost effectiveness - and, in the case of the latest speech recognition systems, a strongly personalised service - to provide the best of both worlds.

This can be trialled with little risk and at low cost. Integrated communication solutions based on an all-in-one architecture are likely to include self-service options as part of the standard platform, enabling companies to undertake strictly controlled testing - with minimal financial exposure or potential damage to customer service quality.

Today’s customers are increasingly savvy and comfortable with using modern IVR or speech-based technologies, implemented effectively. They recognise the benefits to be had in terms of speed and convenience in using automated solutions, so avoiding holding queues when resolving simple queries.

In delivering better service at lower cost, the result is that rare beast: the win/win solution.

Richard Brown, managing director/VP sales EMEA, is responsible for growing Interactive Intelligence’s regional presence, primarily via the recruitment and enablement of a strong reseller channel. He previously held senior management positions at Aspect Communications, Apropos Technology and Mitel Communications and most recently was co-founder and managing director of channel services company, Red Electron. Company: Interactive Intelligence