can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greetThe sales pitch for interactive voice response (IVR) is very compelling - being able to offer 24-hour service to customers without human intervention. However, a large number of IVR applications fail to work well. Jonty Pearce looks at seven of the greatest sins!

1. No option to speak to a person
The biggest trap is that IVR entices the unwary into the lure of being able to provide service to the customer with no human intervention. IVR vendors are often guilty of selling this offering. While IVR can be of great help, providing a self-service facility to regular customers, it is not the complete panacea. IVR works best in two areas - playing options to route calls to the best agent group and self-service to a closed group of frequent callers. Automating beyond this level can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greet

l to work well. Jonty Pearce looks at seven of the greatest sins!

1. No option to speak to a person
The biggest trap is that IVR entices the unwary into the lure of being able to provide service to the customer with no human intervention. IVR vendors are often guilty of selling this offering. While IVR can be of great help, providing a self-service facility to regular customers, it is not the complete panacea. IVR works best in two areas - playing options to route calls to the best agent group and self-service to a closed group of frequent callers. Automating beyond this level can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greet

service to the customer with no human intervention. IVR vendors are often guilty of selling this offering. While IVR can be of great help, providing a self-service facility to regular customers, it is not the complete panacea. IVR works best in two areas - playing options to route calls to the best agent group and self-service to a closed group of frequent callers. Automating beyond this level can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greetis not the complete panacea. IVR works best in two areas - playing options to route calls to the best agent group and self-service to a closed group of frequent callers. Automating beyond this level can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greet can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greet a sales opportunity with a pre-recorded voice!

2. Poor or No hand off to an agent
A frequent trap is not allowing people to connect to an agent. Cost is often the reason given for this. For example, a well-known mobile phone company publishes a number to call if you have questions with your bill. But, it does not allow the option to transfer the call to an agent to discuss the problem. When transferring to an agent the customer details should be transferred with the call. It is bad customer service to ask for the same details again.

3. Poor menu prompt structure
This is widespread. The golden rule states that you should never have more than five options on a voice menu. There should also be no more than two levels of menu. This should be treated as an absolute