Customers should find navigating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system easy and quick. If not, wait times seem longer, frustration increases, and your customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings may suffer. This created a serious problem for a mid-sized e-commerce company we collaborated with, affecting both their financial performance and reputation.
Problem:
The retailer, “ShopStream,” was dealing with an increasing number of consumer complaints that were specifically related to their phone support IVR. Consumers complained about becoming trapped in prolonged menus, waiting a long time between choosing an option and hearing the next prompt, and finally hanging up before speaking with an agent or finishing a self-service activity. This resulted in unhappy consumers submitting bad reviews in addition to failing to qualify for sales or support resolutions.
The internal team at ShopStream tried manual testing, but because of their IVR’s various layers and conditional routing, it was impossible to reliably identify the locations of the delays across all possible caller journeys. They were aware that there was a problem with the response time of their IVR system, but they lacked the resources to properly track it and identify the bottlenecks. They required a method to guarantee an excellent initial user experience for audio calls and 24/7 phone number accessibility.
Solution:
ShopStream used Phone Number Monitoring’s automated IVR testing service to address these problems. They made extensive use of the specific IVR system response time monitor function because they understood how important it was to have correct performance data. This wasn’t just about checking if the line connected; it was about timing the delay at each stage of the IVR interaction—from the initial greeting to menu option playback, DTMF input recognition, and the lag before the subsequent prompt or transfer.
ShopStream was able to set up automated test scripts that replicated actual customer journeys through their intricate IVR tree due to the service. As a proactive phone connection testing service, these tests were planned to run regularly, 24/7. Importantly, testing was conducted from several different geographical regions. This provided real user experience monitoring for voice calls by simulating the various geographic locations of their customers and assisting in determining whether performance problems were systematic or local. Consistently navigating the IVR, recording the duration of each step, and flagging any interactions that exceeded predetermined performance standards were all possible with the automated system.
Results:
The service provided by Phone Number Monitoring quickly bore fruit. Certain IVR nodes and database lookups that were regularly resulting in multi-second delays were found by the automated testing. A particular database query for order status information within the IVR, for instance, was timing out under moderate traffic, resulting in substantial hangups, according to the monitoring. This intermittent problem had frequently gone unnoticed by manual testing.
ShopStream’s IT staff was able to minimize these particular bottlenecks, increase the effectiveness of database queries, and adjust the time of IVR prompt playbacks with the use of this detailed performance data. ShopStream had a notable improvement within weeks of putting the modifications based on the monitoring data into practice. There was a notable 30% reduction in the average time required to navigate the core IVR menu during a simulated test call.
Customer feedback was directly associated with this decrease in IVR navigating time. The next quarter had a 15% boost in ShopStream’s CSAT ratings, particularly those pertaining to their phone support service. Additionally, they noticed that the number of abandoned calls within the IVR system had significantly decreased, suggesting that fewer consumers left out of frustration. The continuous call performance analytics for businesses provided by the Phone Number Monitoring dashboard offered clear, data-driven evidence of the beneficial effect, which also justified the investment and offered continuing insights for additional optimization. To keep their customers satisfied and their phone lines operating efficiently, ShopStream now depends on this automated technology to provide a smooth and responsive IVR experience.
