Intermittent technological issues are among the most frustrating; they occur occasionally, affect certain individuals, and cannot be replicated on demand. This is especially difficult with complex systems like IVRs. Callers may become stuck and unable to finish their jobs due to sporadic IVR fails, but they will vanish by the time an IT specialist attempts to reproduce the problem. This exact problem was encountered by a healthcare provider who was having trouble identifying elusive IVR problems that were affecting patient access to appointments and information.
Problem:
“Medicare Connect,” a healthcare provider, handled a large number of patient calls, including those for appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and health information access, using its IVR system. Patients started to occasionally report that self-service options did not operate, that they were trapped in the IVR, or that they had periods of dead air after making a selection. These problems were extremely inconsistent.
The system would frequently function flawlessly when the IT staff attempted to call in, therefore certain problems were initially dismissed as user error. But when internal metrics track failed inbound calls on business lines, they saw a trend of callers cutting off precisely in the IVR loop, pointing to a more widespread, albeit intermittent, issue. Troubleshooting these transient issues manually was inefficient and unsuccessful. They required a consistent, dependable method for identifying and recording inaccessible phone numbers (or IVR options) in their system.
Solution:
MediCare Connect implemented Phone Number Monitoring, specifically leveraging the power of phone tree (IVR) testing automation to tackle these elusive problems. Unlike manual testing, the automated system was configured to run frequent, automated checks across every single menu option and path within their IVR, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This provided a constant stream of data on the IVR’s performance and functionality.
A DTMF input not being detected, a prompt not playing back, or a connection to a backend database timing out are examples of IVR flow failures that the monitoring system was particularly configured to identify in addition to call setup problems. The precise moment of the failure, the route taken through the IVR, and the particular issue encountered were all included in the detailed error information that was automatically recorded. Additionally, the system was configured to automatically troubleshoot VoIP phone issues that could be compromising the IVR’s functionality, like jitter or latency affecting DTMF detection or prompt playback.
Results:
The automated, continuous testing was quite helpful in identifying the intermittent problems. The algorithm was able to identify the temporary failures that manual testing failed to detect by continuously checking all IVR pathways. For instance, the monitoring revealed that specific database lookups within the IVR (such as validating insurance information) were intermittently timing out under severe load at various times of the day. Additionally, it identified sporadic carrier-level connection issues that appeared as failed transfers or disconnected calls and only impacted particular call pathways or geographic origination points.
The data was presented in a comprehensive voice system health monitoring dashboard, which helped MediCare Connect’s IT team visualize the patterns of failures, correlating them with specific times, IVR paths, or even external factors. This allowed them to detect and log unreachable phone numbers (or IVR options) within the system that were only occasionally failing.
Equipped with this tangible, data-driven evidence, they were able to identify the underlying reasons for the sporadic problems and give their IVR vendor and telecom provider precise, useful information for fixing them. In addition to enhancing patient access and decreasing frustrating support calls pertaining to IVR usability, the deployment of an automated IVR testing service for continuous monitoring significantly reduced the frequency of intermittent IVR failures.
