Interactive Voice Response BSC: What Should This Business Scorecard Contain?

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Measurement is essential for every aspect of customer interaction, even for machines. This can be done easily with an Interactive Voice Response BSC or scorecard. Check additional information about Interactive Voice Response bsc.

Technology has made the life of a customer service representative easier. The development of the Interactive Voice Response system has made considerable amount of savings in terms of staff expenditure and this is felt by major companies that have customer operating centers or call centers. In line with this, the same companies have also developed an Interactive Voice Response BSC or balanced scorecard to check whether the deployed information technology application really fits the needs of the customers who call. In fact, many companies are now using Interactive Voice Response system to extend the hours of customer service operation, especially so if they cannot afford to staff employees for 24 hours a day.

An Interactive Voice Response system is nothing more than a selection of actions in a given set of menus so customers can serve themselves, especially if the concern is pretty basic. Anyone who has called a big company knows this. The process is that the customers dial in and they get greeted by an automated response. They are then led to select which functionality they want, and each functionality feature has a corresponding number that the customers should press.

Not all Interactive Voice Response systems or IVRs are good. For the same reason, there is a need to develop a business scorecard tailor fit to measuring the performance of this process or technology. It is a sad fact of reality that there are a lot of abandoned customer service calls because many IVRs are designed in a way that makes it too hard for customers to reach a live agent. As a result of frustration, the customers just hang up the phone and they discard the product or service. And this, of course, translates to lost business.

Poor design is one of the many culprits of a bad IVR system. That being said, design should be one of the major factors of the scorecard for IVRs, especially when it is still under the project phase. Ideally, any IVR system should not present complexity to the customer. However, it is a sad fact that companies tend to provide the live agent option as a last resort. Ideally, customers should be given to talk to a customer service representative at the start of the call.

The next thing that should be included in the score card is the IVR Abandonment Rate. This is equivalent to the number of calls in which the customers hang up prior to making the actual selection in the IVR. Divide these calls by the total number of calls for any given specific period and then multiply it by 100 to get the percentage. This figure will give any manager a picture of how effective the IVR system is. The lower the abandonment rate is, the better.

Lastly, one should identify in the Interactive Voice Response BSC or business scorecard the cost per call. This is the only way one can figure out if the IVR in place is financially efficient. To get this number, one should divide the total cost by the total number of calls.

If you are interested in Interactive Voice Response bsc, check this link to find out more about interactive voice response metrics. Also, you can check other articles in BSC software category.

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