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What is the Meaning of IVR, and How Does It Boost Profitability?

This article was published on August 2, 2021

As enterprises grow, so do their communication challenges. Networks continue to take on more and more traffic while they keep teams and departments in close touch with clients and stakeholders. If your enterprise is getting bigger, you may be wondering, "What is IVR, and how can this technology help my business telephony scale with growth?"

What Is the Meaning of IVR?

Interactive voice response (IVR) is the voice-driven menu system that allows incoming callers to select pathways to the departments and information that can best answer their questions. IVR can do this for dozens — even hundreds — of calls at once, improving the experience as it goes. Additionally, IVR integration into platforms such as Salesforce allows IVR systems to add a supplemental layer of insights into their already advanced routing features.

Here's a look at some of the ways IVR drives efficiency and boosts an organization's bottom line:

 

 

 

IVR and Enterprise Efficiency

Goodbye, cumbersome switchboards! IVR is built on a foundation of automation, helping to increase profitability and positive outcomes for the bottom line of larger companies. However, even smaller enterprises can benefit from automating processes.

Handling a large number of calls and connecting callers with the right services used to take rooms full of waiting operators. With IVR, a centralized digital hub can handle that. The potential for managing high-volume traffic is enormous, too. Studies from the IEEE show IVR can serve as a building block for projects as large as smart cities, helping automate business processes as organizations scale up.

With IVR, even a smaller company within the enterprise ecosystem can present a sophisticated and international-class call experience for clients and prospects.

Building a Better User Experience

Key to IVR's benefits is the concept of improved user experiences. From a customer relationship point of view, so much rides on the ways the enterprise welcomes and introduces incoming calls to its network of resources. With that in mind, cutting through a maze of departments and titles means stakeholders are better and more quickly connected to the exact resources they need.

 

Making the right impression across client relationships counts for a lot. With IVR, even a smaller company within the enterprise ecosystem can present a sophisticated and international-class call experience for clients and prospects. Nuance and attention to detail are competitive factors, and when your business telecommunications sound and work just like the experiences at your biggest competitors, that drives customer confidence and trust.

Expanding the Boundaries of Remote Communication

IVR allows geographic flexibility, meaning you can call a selected number from any phone in the world and, with the right credentials, access voicemail, join conference calls, or leave voicemails for your colleagues. However, that's table stakes, really. An even more powerful advantage lies in IVR's ability to call any external number from your baseline work extension — the recipient sees the incoming call as coming from your office line. You can work from wherever and craft the experience so it carries the same gravitas as an in-office call.

 

From IVR's earliest iterations to today, the root of the technology gives callers access to computer data by means of their own voices. This approach to communications solutions has been growing as the demands of business evolve. Now that you know what IVR is, it’s time to put it to work for your organization.

Learn more about how your enterprise can add and build on IVR technology. Tap into Vonage resources and contact a representative for additional insights.

 

Vonage Staff

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