When a customer calls your business, a few actions can occur. The most standard option is to ring a phone or a group of phones in your office and if nobody answers, the customer is sent to voicemail. Often times only a receptionist phone or specific employees for answering phones are rung. If your office is busy and receives many calls, this can result in calls going to voicemail and frustrated customers.
There is another way, The Auto Attendant or IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Everyone has experienced an IVR, it is the familiar, press One for this and Two for that announcements that you often hear with larger companies. A properly setup auto attendant can be very effective at routing calls. The Auto Attendant can even enhance the customer experience your company provides. Instead of the caller waiting for 30 seconds and hitting a voicemail, the customer can route directly to the department or person, no waiting for an answer and a transfer.
Making the transitions from a ring group on an incoming call to an Auto Attendant can be very simple and straight forward with a few key steps.
- Create a single layer menu with a minimal set of options. Do not place menu below menu, this will annoy your inbound callers
- Allow Direct Dial to your extensions from the IVR. Often times you will hear “or if you know your parties extension you may dial it at any time”. This allows your employees to provide direct access to the callers from the IVR
- Write a Script out on Paper, and then read it out loud several time to make sure the word flow properly
- Make sure each Option you offer has and ending route, i.e. no answer in sales, goto sales Voicemail.
- Figure out what you want to do with callers that press Invalid Options or Do Not press any options. This can be a SPAM call filtering technique, by sending callers that do not press any buttons back to the start of the IVR, you will stop all robo calling coming in to your office.
- Create a Day and Night Auto Attendant, each with a unique message. This will provide more concise after hours routing of your calls.
- Hire a professional to make your recording. This is much more affordable than people think and can provide a very professional appearance to your callers.
With those tips you are set to create a great Auto Attendant (IVR) for your business. If your phone system does not offer Auto Attendant features or your provider is trying to charge you an additional fee, Contact Us Today! Give us a call 480-571-4454 Option 1 for sales. (you can also see how our IVR works and sounds)