Bringing IVR to the Mobile Environment

Other scenarios that lend themselves to native apps featuring IVR include gaining access to recent healthcare insurance benefits activity or managing travel arrangements and associated mileage plan accounts. “If it’s something that will be used on a regular basis and it reduces inquiries into the contact center, then it’s worth the development effort,” Farquhar says. 

But as companies weigh whether to write IVR-enabled apps that will likely require tweaks to run across multiple mobile operating systems—and updates to accommodate new system versions down the road—another option to consider is a mobile-optimized website. “Some companies assume they need an application when an optimized mobile page is sufficient,” Farquhar says.

Reaching Mobile IVR Success?

Turning IVR into a broader reality on mobile will require attention to two primary components: the development effort and the customer experience. “One challenge in the industry is that you have different technologies, such as mobile, websites, call centers, and voice,” Farquhar says. 

With multiple providers boasting deep experience in one or more areas, there are many good products to choose among. That range of choices also makes developers’ jobs more difficult. If they are to integrate IVR systems across all of those varied solutions, it “creates additional work to replicate everything across different platforms,” Farquhar says. 

The more IVR providers can consolidate or minimize their footprint, he says, the more “they can use the same application program interface, the same API, and deliver voice, email, text, etc., across the different channels, which reduces the development effort.”

The other side of the coin, of course, is the user experience. If IVR is to be successful in the mobile realm, Gostl says, a strong focus on the user experience will need to drive the migration. Simply copying the existing architecture probably won’t create a positive response from mobile users. “Look at the IVR script and menus,” he suggests. “In theory, you can move one for one, but you’re going to have to rethink the user experience.” 

Gostl anticipates that users, not technology, will present the greatest challenge. “How do you present a pleasant user experience that makes people want to give up the button and instead want to talk to the machine?” he asks. Navigation and other aspects of the interface must be constructed to prioritize ease of use and an experience that’s intuitive.

Many Benefits, Many Challenges

Those focused on the customer experience have often bemoaned the challenges of digital adoption. Their company is rolling out digital assets—self-service portals and FAQs, among others—but call volumes don’t seem to be impacted. “That’s where something like visual IVR is critical,” du Toit says. 

For example, visual IVR can seamlessly lead callers into digital channels while literally showing them how digital channels can resolve their issues. “It’s fostering digital habits and also giving voice callers a sense of how to self-serve digitally,” he says, adding that his team sees up to a 50 percent increase in self-service with visual over voice IVR. 

Du Toit also believes part of the impact comes from digital’s more pleasing, more flexible form factor. “It’s also being able to bring up more data and easily personalize the interaction,” he says. Callers less often find themselves routed down call trees that aren’t relevant to them. The end result could be fewer zero-outs. “People are navigating to the right section visually, and if they do want to talk to someone, we know where to route them,” du Toit says. Callers can be connected with a billing agent, a customer service representative, or technical help based on their location in the call tree and previous inputs. “It’s quite a big reduction in zero-outs,” du Toit says.