Automating processes often means humans no longer have to do them. It sounds great for businesses but bad for workers. To many, that word sounds like they’re about to lose their job.
Call center agents, however, are always in high demand. Automation to them means eliminating the worst parts of their job, allowing them to focus on delivering high-quality customer experiences.
Outbound IVR does just that.
What is an outbound IVR?
When you call a company phone number and use a pre-recorded navigation menu, you’re interacting with an inbound interactive voice response (IVR) system. It’s a fully automated process designed to help connect callers to the right person.
An outbound IVR, on the other hand, schedules and makes outgoing calls. It’s typically used for things like:
- Appointment reminders.
- Collecting overdue payments.
- Prescription refill reminders.
- Surveys and feedback.
- Emergency alerts.
- Marketing and promotions.
- School announcements.
- Standard notifications.
All of these things happen hundreds of times all over the world every day. Manually calling all of these people is incredibly time consuming, not to mention boring and unengaging.
What used to be some of the most boring work for call center agents can now be automated entirely.
Plus, the recipient can interact with the system too.
They can confirm, cancel, or reschedule an appointment, pay an overdue balance, answer survey questions, and fill their prescriptions without having to talk to anyone.
How does outbound IVR work?
Typically, outbound IVR is connected to your CRM software, which houses contact information, prescription dates, payment terms, and other details that tell it who to call and when. It may take some time to set up.
But you only have to do it once — the system handles the rest until it runs out of numbers or you tell it to stop.
Aside from a list of numbers to call, all you need is a prerecorded message or preconfigured phone tree and an auto dialer.
There are multiple types of dialers to choose from:
- Predictive dialers use algorithms and pattern recognition to automatically place multiple simultaneous calls at times it predicts an agent will be available if needed.
- Power dialers also dial customers automatically, but they only make calls when there’s at least one available agent on standby. This could be helpful if you expect the call to lead to the recipient talking to someone.
- Progressive dialers automatically call one number on your list at a time. It’s similar to a predictive dialer, but slows things down to a pace that may be better for smaller teams.
- Preview dialers provide customer information to available agents before dialing, giving them the option of skipping or placing the call.
The type of dialer you choose can have a major impact. For something like emergency alerts or announcements, a predictive dialer may work well because most people won’t need to talk to anyone.
Using that same dialer could be a problem if you’re using it for collecting payments or appointment reminders. You run the risk of too many people trying to talk to a live agent at the same time. If that happens, they’ll have to wait, which can be a frustrating experience.
In those cases, a power or progressive dialer makes more sense.
If the list you have has contacts that don’t actually need to be contacted, a preview dialer means agents can skip unnecessary calls.
Once someone answers, your outbound IVR plays a prerecorded message. It may also present a list of options and a prerecorded message for each if recipient input is required.
In practice, it could say “Hello, this is Jones Family Dentistry. You have an upcoming appointment. Press 1 to confirm or 2 to reschedule.”
If they press 1, it’ll play the message you chose for that option.
For those that need to reschedule, your system will connect them with an agent using the call routing and automatic call distribution rules you use.
Everyone wins with outbound IVR
It’s not often you get automation that benefits everyone. However, outbound dialers save companies time and money, save agents from the monotony of hundreds of identical calls, and give customers speedier service.
Benefits for contact centers
Outbound IVR enables contact centers to reach and help more customers in less time. Not only does it reduce friction as your business grows, it lowers the risk of agent burnout at the same time.
Plus, your existing agents won’t have to worry about mundane outbound calls, allowing them to handle a higher volume of customers with more pressing matters.
On a smaller scale, it can be helpful during busier times of the year when you’re likely to make a higher number of outbound calls, like back to school, holidays, or severe weather season.
Aside from scalability, it costs far less to deploy outbound IVR than hire additional agents.
Instead of paying full-time salaries, covering benefits, and navigating PTO with new agents, you can use that money to enrich the agents you already have.
Major benefits aside, you’ll have consistent and professional messaging with no misspoken words or incorrect information.
Why agents love outbound IVR
Beyond automating repetitive tasks, outbound IVR helps agents be more productive in other ways. Rather than feeling bogged down with work that doesn’t require much thought, they can handle more meaningful activities that keep them actively engaged.
When they’re engaged, they’re more likely to have a sense of fulfillment, leading to heightened morale and lower turnover rates.
They’ll also have more opportunities to develop new skills, whether that’s through handling complex interactions or taking part in training programs that cover things like:
- Active listening.
- Management skills.
- Script writing.
- Project management.
- Campaign ideation.
- Problem solving.
- Conflict resolution.
- Automation and leveraging AI.
Not only do these types of skills make employees feel valuable and accomplished, they’re also able to contribute to their team in a more meaningful way while improving service quality.
Happy agents are better equipped to connect with the customers they serve.
Customers enjoy the benefits too
The people you’re calling are often just as busy as you are — they don’t want to receive unsolicited calls any more than you want to make them.
Even if they are about things like appointment reminders, announcements, or alerts.
However, uniform and succinct pre-recorded messages can make them feel more relaxed knowing they don’t have to talk to anyone to confirm their appointment, answer survey questions, refill a prescription, or make a payment.
It’s also more flexible and convenient. Rather than calling and waiting in a long call queue, they can rely on your reminders and notifications, then handle it right away.
That trickles down to other callers as well. Those with simple problems won’t be waiting in line along with everyone else, leading to shorter wait times. As such, outbound IVR benefits every customer, even those that don’t interact with it directly.