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Tag: IVR

11 Benefits of Using an IVR System

Posted on by Meryl D'Sa-Wilson

Source: DepositPhotos.com - Lic#355937164 #27446420

As businesses grow across borders, so does the volume and complexity of customer interactions. Whether you’re serving local customers or international clients, handling inbound calls efficiently is critical to delivering high-quality support. That’s where an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system becomes essential—not just as an automation tool but as a strategic asset for global communication.

An IVR system acts as the first point of contact, guiding callers through menus, routing them to the right department, or enabling self-service—all without the need for a live agent. Below, we explore the key benefits of using IVR to support local and global business operations.

IVR System: Top 11 Benefits

An interactive voice response, or IVR system, is an automated voice response system that answers incoming calls, identifies the purpose of the calls, and assists the caller. It transfers calls to the appropriate department or provides self-serving options that customers can complete themselves. IVR phone systems cut down on time and money while improving the way a caller interacts with a company. Here are 11 ways a business can benefit from IVR service.

1. Prioritizes Calls Based on Value

IVR systems can be predetermined with rules to prioritize and route calls based on the caller and their needs. This way, you can route high-value customer calls to the most appropriate or qualified agent. If agents are unavailable, the caller will be first in the queue. Doing so ensures that your team does not lose an important caller’s business due to long wait times.

With IVR call flow builders, businesses can design tailored IVR routing strategies that reduce wait times, avoid misdirected calls, and ensure each caller reaches the best resource quickly.

2. Reduces Operational Costs

By automating routine inquiries and directing calls efficiently, IVR systems reduce the workload on your support teams. This minimizes the need for large customer service departments and allows agents to focus on high-value or complex interactions. The result is improved cost-efficiency without compromising service quality. Your team can then focus on more important issues and interacting with high-profile clients.

3. Enables 24/7 Customer Support

With an IVR system, your business can remain available outside regular business hours, on weekends, or across different time zones. You can route calls to agents in other regions, direct callers to voicemail, or provide pre-recorded information and self-service options. This ensures no inquiry is left unanswered, even when agents are offline.

4. Improves Efficiency and Increases First-Call Resolution Rates

Customers calling a business need answers fast. Customer service teams are constantly on the phone resolving issues. An interactive voice response system saves time for everyone by interacting with the customer, identifying their needs, and offering support either through pre-recorded messages or by transferring them to the right department. They can expedite calls, accurately transfer callers, help them complete certain actions, and schedule callbacks. These calls never go unanswered. Callers receive support in some form or the other, without time wasted.

Additionally, with well-designed call flows, IVRs can route callers to agents with the right skill set or department, improving the likelihood of resolving issues on the first call. This reduces the need for transfers or follow-ups—saving time for both agents and customers.

5. Supports and Improves Lead Conversion

Recent advancements in IVR technology have made it possible to use this tool for sales and lead generation. You can use IVR to survey or qualify leads, route high-value prospects to live sales reps, or collect information before a call is transferred. This approach saves time and focuses your team’s attention on higher-conversion opportunities.

6. Enables Global Call Routing Strategies

For international businesses, IVR plays a vital role in managing global calls effectively. You can route calls based on geography, language, business hours, or caller type. Paired with international phone numbers and advanced call routing rules, IVR helps deliver localized support and a consistent experience across markets.

7. Enhances Customer Experience with Personalization

Automation is the future of customer service. Modern IVRs go beyond menu prompts. They can use caller data—such as location, language preference, or account type—to personalize interactions and streamline support. This not only makes navigation easier for the caller but also leaves a stronger impression of your brand’s attentiveness.

Most providers offer IVR phone systems that can be customized on your end. Customize to improve caller experience through custom greetings, easy-to-understand prompts, and so on. This interaction should reflect an ideal interaction with your company. Callers who can easily navigate the system and get their concerns resolved quickly will only appreciate your brand even more.

8. Offers Scalable Self-Service Options

IVR systems can adapt to an organization and its customers’ changing needs and expectations. Cloud-based systems are highly customizable and have virtual communication features such as intelligent routing, multilingual capabilities, and more. As your business grows, you can add more to your IVR phone system to support your needs.

9. Delivers Actionable Insights with Analytics

Pairing your IVR system with AI-powered Call Insights provides visibility into call volume trends, call completion rates, and caller behavior. Features like call transcription and sentiment analysis help you evaluate agent performance and caller satisfaction, allowing you to continuously refine your support strategies.

10. Helps Gather Marketing and Feedback Insights

Marketing teams have used IVR to study customer behavior and preferences using phone surveys and conducting marketing research. You can gain insights into your audience’s likes and dislikes, their demographics, communication preferences, and more. This information can be used to serve them better.

11. Strengthens Your Brand’s Credibility

A professional IVR system gives the impression of an organized, responsive, and well-established business. It reinforces trust by ensuring that customers always reach the right place, no matter when or where they call. For companies serving international markets, this reliability is crucial to brand perception.

How United World Telecom Supports Global IVR Strategies

United World Telecom offers a flexible IVR system designed for international use. With our no-code IVR editor, you can build advanced call flows, support multilingual prompts, and route calls across teams or regions—all from a single platform. Whether you’re using international phone numbers, local 2-way voice, or integrating with advanced analytics tools, our IVR solution helps you deliver efficient, scalable customer support worldwide.

If you’re ready to upgrade how your business handles incoming calls, explore our solutions or connect with a telephony expert to get started.

IVR versus ACD: What is the Difference?

Posted on by Miguel Isabal

Source: DepositPhotos.com - Lic#247580390 ID#27446420

Both interactive voice response (IVR) and automatic call distribution (ACD) can help your business deal with high call volume more effectively. Both automated systems can direct callers to the right employee and also ensure a proper distribution of calls. You must understand the differences between IVR and ACD in order to choose the right solution for your business.

Read on for a detailed comparison of IVR and ACD.

IVR Versus ACD: Definitions

Interactive voice response and automatic call distribution are telephony automation tools that facilitate efficient call management. Both IVR and ACD can answer calls, distribute calls, and assist the callers. Both systems also provide assistance to employees and agents to help boost productivity.

Let’s discuss how these systems work and how they differ from each other.

how does ivr work

How Does IVR Work?

Many businesses use IVR to streamline their business calls and facilitate effective call management. Interactive voice response is a voice menu that automatically answers incoming calls and assists callers. More specifically, an IVR welcomes the caller and offers menu options to identify the purpose of their call. For example, Welcome to [company name], Press 1 for Customer Support, Press 2 for Sales, and so on.

Callers select the option by either entering a number through the dial pad. Then, the IVR directs them to another set of options or transfers them to the right department or agent. In fact, some advanced IVR menus may even allow callers to complete predetermined actions such as:

  • Activate a service or account
  • Process payments
  • Send callers to voicemail
  • Record a complaint
  • Provide company and product info

The IVR system ensures that callers reach the right department or can resolve issues by themselves. In fact, some callers may not even need to interact with an agent or employee. This frees employees up to work on more complicated issues and concerns. It can also help businesses save money on hiring staff as customers can resolve most issues on their own through the voice response system. Lastly, advanced IVR systems can even record and deliver real-time stats needed for tracking and studying important KPIs.

What is ACD?

ACD works similarly to IVR. However, automatic call distribution routes calls to the right agent or department based on pre-determined rules. These rules can be based on a variety of parameters such as area code or location of the call, the time the call comes in, skills required, and so on.

An ACD distributes calls based on rules input by the account manager. These rules and conditions determine how the calls will be routed. Some common routing strategies include:

  • Round robin: Distributes calls equally among agents so no one is over- or under-burdened.
  • Least-occupied agent: Sends calls to the least-occupied agent to ensure everyone is putting in the same amount of work.
  • Simultaneous ring: Routes incoming calls to simultaneously ring multiple phone numbers within a hunt group to ensure no call goes unanswered.
  • Programmed distribution: Routes calls based on specific rules such as location of caller, time of call, customer-agent history, language skills, etc.

IVR versus ACD: Difference

The terms IVR and ACD have often been used interchangeably as if they are the same systems. However, they are not. More specifically, IVR is a part of ACD and can conduct a variety of tasks within the system. So, how do they differ?

Interactive Voice Response Automatic Call Distribution
This technology allows users to receive information from the phone system. Users need to input preferences. This technology automatically routes calls to employees, agents, or departments based on predetermined rules.
Upon receiving a call, the IVR provides the caller with options and menus. Upon receiving a call, the ACD system uses the Dialed Number (DNIS) system to check the rules for processing the call.
This system can perform a variety of application functions such as activating services, customer info look-up, etc. The IVR system works within the ACD system.
Interaction with employees is not needed. If interaction with an employee is needed, then the ACD kicks in to transfer the call to the right employee.
Offered by phone service providers as well as virtual phone service providers. Offered by phone service providers as well as virtual phone service providers.
Available as a hosted service as well. Available as a hosted service as well.

Which Do You Need?

More than their differences, IVR and ACD systems complement each other. Together, both systems can provide a robust business phone solution. They can help you manage calls and high call traffic while ensuring you do not lose valuable clients. After all, a well-managed phone system can help you provide prompt and efficient customer service. A cloud or virtual call center software can help you utilize both IVR and ACD within your office phone system. Call us today to learn how you can use a cloud IVR system to offer better customer service!

Interactive Voice Response: Definition and Benefits

Posted on by Luke Genoyer

Source: DepositPhotos.com - Lic#89234634 ID#27446420

In this guide, you will learn everything there is to know about an Interactive Voice Response (IVR system).

What is Interactive Voice Response?

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated telephony system with call routing capabilities. An IVR system can answer incoming calls, provide callers with a set of menu options, and then based on caller inputs, route the calls to an appropriate recipient.

As soon as calls connect to an interactive voice response system, callers are greeted by a prerecorded voice menu. The callers can interact with the menu in order to be connected with the right department or representative. Interactive voice response is so common, it is highly likely you have interacted with one before.

Any business can benefit from a cloud IVR system. It helps collect caller information and transfers calls to the right departments, enabling outstanding customer service, while reducing operating costs.

How Does IVR work?

An IVR system gathers information from callers and then routes those calls to another phone number or extension. Basic IVR systems work by collecting user input through touch-tone selections. More advanced systems can gather user inputs in the form of spoken responses using voice recognition.

IVR is an automated approach to customer service that reduces customer hold times and boosts worker efficiency. Even the most basic interactive voice response system can save time and resources. Organizations now have a more efficient way to manage incoming calls.

Cloud IVR Systems

A hosted or cloud IVR system works over the cloud. You can get an IVR system from your phone service provider who hosts the service. This means that you do not have to worry about developing the service or maintaining it. Your provider takes care of this. Your business simply needs to create a phone tree to route calls as you need. You can go in and change these routing settings whenever required.

IVR Systems for the End-User

Interactive voice response enables callers to easily navigate a contact center and find the right solution for themselves. The end-user can interact with an IVR system using the touch-tone keypad on a phone, or in more advanced cases, through spoken words.

For example, the end-user will dial a phone number with IVR and be connected to a voice menu. The end-user is then asked to choose from a set of menu options, which he or she can respond to by pressing or saying “1, 2, 3, etc.” in order to get connected to the right department.

Basic IVR Versus Advanced IVR

IVR has two primary components that enable callers to interact with the system: DTMF and voice technology. DMTF, which stands for Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency, is a means of signaling to an IVR system using a telephone keypad. A basic IVR system enables callers to interact with a voice menu using DMTF.

More advanced systems use voice technology like natural language processing, to understand callers’ requests. Natural language processing is a type of conversational AI that enables computers to answer complex open-ended queries.

A more advanced cloud IVR software with voice technology will certainly impress callers, but even the most basic IVR can drastically improve customer experience by reducing callers’ common frustrations with a complex multi-level menu.

ivr software

The Technology Behind IVR Software

At a technical level, interactive voice response software uses the following technologies: telephony equipment, a database, and supporting infrastructure. The software needs to be enabled and then configured in order to work. These are the most relevant technologies:

  • TCP/IP: A set of communications protocols that enables computers to interact over a network.
  • Databases: IVR software needs access to a database in order to serve relevant information in real-time.
  • Web/Application Server: The server performs various key functions and is the core of an IVR software.

While the underlying technology is less relevant to end-users, it is still important to have an idea of how interactive voice response technology works.

IVR vs ACD

Oftentimes, the terms IVR and ACD are used interchangeably even though they are essentially different systems. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)  routes calls to the right department or agent based on rules set by the business. IVR is a part of an ACD system and helps route calls to the right location as determined by the account manager. You can try different routing strategies to ensure calls are answered by the right agent and callers are assisted quickly. More on call routing strategies below.

Common Hosted IVR Applications

With incredible flexibility, interactive voice response systems have many potential applications for businesses of all sizes. These are the most common use cases that we have seen in over twenty years of experience:

  • Set up a custom voice menu and touch-tone prompts
  • Greet callers with a pre-recorded message
  • Collect information about callers
  • Route callers to the right department or agent
  • Manage high call volumes
  • Prioritize calls based on certain criteria
  • Automate customer support

Cloud IVR Benefits

Over the past two decades, these are the seven most common benefits that IVR users have reported.

1. More Efficient Customer Service

Customers are impatient when they want service. They want timely answers to their questions and they want all their problems to be solved quickly!

IVR can help callers feel like they are being better attended to by increasing first contact resolution. FCR is the percentage of contacts that are resolved on the first interaction and it is a great measure of customer service performance. On average, businesses that use interactive voice response have much higher first contact resolution compared to businesses that do not.

Efficient call routing will lead to better customer service. By automatically routing calls to the right departments, all your customers’ requests can be quickly dealt with appropriately.

2. Workforce Automation

For many companies, IVR has already automated key roles in the workforce. An interactive voice response system can greet callers, gather their relevant information, and then route their calls to the right departments, thereby eliminating the need for live phone attendants.

Let’s face it – employees at a company are only human and we all make mistakes. Although never intentional, human error has been a major contributing cause of business accidents over the years. Our research shows that a fully automated business communication system can eliminate up to 100% of human error.

IVR also works for you 24/7. Regardless of whether staff is available, incoming calls will always get routed through properly to the right extension. As your business becomes more accessible to potential customers, revenue will also increase.

3. Higher Profits

Businesses of all sizes use IVR to increase profitability. Remember that operating profits are calculated by subtracting operating expenses from gross profits.
A cloud IVR system is able to automate certain key processes at a negligible cost so fewer employees are needed to manage the phone lines.

4. Manage High Call Volumes

Imagine if you could scale your business by leveraging your entire workforce at full productivity. An IVR system can help manage your high call volumes, while also being able to scale rapidly to meet your expected growth. It has the ability to serve multiple customers simultaneously so the rest of your employees can work on more productive activities.

5. Increased Agent Efficiency

By routing calls to the right extensions, agents spend less time transferring calls around and communicating back-and-forth with other agents. Increased agent efficiency has major benefits for all types of businesses.

First off, thanks to IVR, agents no longer need to waste valuable time on the phone collecting redundant information. A cloud IVR system can maximize agents’ time that is spent on the phone with customers. When your agents aren’t on the phone with customers, their time can be better spent on other revenue-generating activities.

Second, call center agents are able to specialize in various key functions thanks to IVR, and thus become more efficient in each role. It’s possible to route calls to different agents based on certain criteria. You can also maximize customer lifetime value by prioritizing callers from high-income regions.

Finally, an interactive voice response system provides call analytics that enables managers to monitor user performance and agent productivity. Unlock the full potential of your workforce with an IVR.

6. Wider Personalization

Studies show that more personalized customer service can boost revenue by 40%. We have determined that some potential customers can get turned off when they call a business only to hear a boring old ringback tone.

Luckily, IVR systems make it easy to personalize and enhance customer experience on the phone. Your callers will appreciate a more personalized experience when their calls get answered by a customized voice greeting followed by a list of highly-tailored menu options.

7. Professional Company Image

In today’s day and age, it’s especially important to make a good first impression. In fact, Forbes Magazine declared that potential customers will form an opinion of your business based on a variety of factors including phone calls.

Interactive voice response can create instant credibility for your business by promoting a professional image that is well-put-together.

How Does a Contact Center Use IVR?

Most contact centers already benefit from interactive voice response technology because it can streamline a great number of key business functions. Here are the most common ways contact centers use IVR.

Efficient Call Routing

An IVR system for call centers will gather key information from callers at the start of the interaction. After registering a response, the cloud IVR system will then direct callers to the appropriate departments. This helps satisfy customers by reducing the time spent on hold and it also maximizes the efficiency of agents in your contact center. Read our post about top IVR routing strategies to learn more.

Self-Service and AI

Self-service is the foundation of a good contact center experience. In fact, 81% of customers prefer to try self-service before reaching out to a live representative. Modern IVRs may use artificial intelligence to enable self-service.

Over time, artificial intelligence can further develop to fulfill increasingly complex needs and eliminate a large number of mundane tasks. You should also keep in mind that callers can interact with your voice response menu to get self-service at any time of day.

Advanced Speech Recognition

Modern voice response systems use advanced speech recognition to better serve callers. Advanced technologies like natural language processing enable cloud IVR systems to clearly understand callers’ requests and determine the reason for their calls. Harvard studies have shown the potential of NLP in contact centers.

CRM Integrations

Callers prefer not to repeat themselves. Luckily, CRM integrations exist that enable your IVR system to fetch relevant information about callers in real-time. This helps agents in your contact center deliver more personalized information to satisfy very specific needs. Call center integrations can also boost caller satisfaction by producing seasoned call center agents.

IVR Best Practices

When used incorrectly, your interactive voice response system could have a negative impact on your business. That’s why we recommend that our customers are mindful of their end-users. We recommend following these best practices to deliver a delightful IVR experience.

1. Research Your Audience

You should research your audience and your end-users before setting up IVR. Key research should involve figuring out which customers are most likely to interact with your voice response system. By doing this, you can create a more personalized experience with highly tailored menu options.

2. Survey Caller to Improve Your IVR Experience

Surveys can help determine how satisfied your customers are with the overall phone experience that you provide. It is important to regularly survey customers and elicit feedback and then implement their valuable suggestions. Surveys help businesses build better hosted IVR systems that callers actually enjoy using.

3. Use Natural Speech Recognition for Complex Applications

Natural language speech is more flexible than touch-tone interaction. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It is not always necessary for quicker transactions, but speech recognition can enhance more complex business applications.

4. Keep Your Menu Simple

It’s best to start with a simple IVR menu that is capable of handling your most common requests. Don’t try to automate very complex transactions until you get more comfortable using IVR.

We recommend a basic menu that greets callers and asks them to input a single-digit number that corresponds to a particular department. Industry studies show that callers prefer to interact with a phone menu that has four choices or fewer and a maximum of two levels.

5. Regular IVR Testing

Testing should be performed regularly to ensure that your menu is able to handle expected traffic and properly serve customer requests. There are various network testing methods that have been developed over the years which can help ensure that IVR technology does not become a weak link in your business’ customer experience.

Mistakes to Avoid

A good hosted IVR system that follows best practices can have unlimited business potential. A bad setup, on the other hand, will undoubtedly frustrate your customers. It’s important to set up everything properly. We recommend that you avoid these three common mistakes if you want to maximize the caller experience.

1. Hold Times That Exceed 45 Seconds

Customers are impatient and they don’t like to wait on hold. According to industry research, 60% of callers will hang up after just one minute on hold! We recommend that you do not keep your customers on hold for more than 45 seconds at a time.

2. Unreachable Live Agents

Not everyone will want to use your hosted IVR system. In fact, you could have the most user-friendly setup in the world, but there will always be a segment of your customers that prefers to speak with a live agent. That’s only logical, as there are certain requests from customers that don’t fall under any menu options and a computer could never help with.

That’s why we recommend that you avoid the mistake of having unreachable live agents. Your IVR menu should always contain an option to be transferred to a real-live agent. You shouldn’t bury this option too deeply in your menu, either, because this will always result in frustrated callers.

3. Complicated Menus

Potential buyers will be turned away by too many menu options or a voice response system that is too complex. We already know customers are impatient, so why list ten menu options that your callers have to sift through? We recommend that you keep your IVR menu simple with two levels at most and a maximum of four choices on each level. The possibilities, however, are nearly unlimited.

Reach out to us if you want to learn more about IVR and how it can help your business.

How To Create a Phone Survey with IVR

Posted on by Tom Senkus

Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#162768548 ID#110586676

As a business, you know that listening to your customers’ wants and needs will help you to survive in today’s fast-paced economy. However, not every customer is forthright enough to comment on your business’ operations. However, the best way to go about finding out about their experiences with your business and potential pain points is simply by asking them with a phone survey.

The Amazingness of Phone Surveys

A valuable resource for your business because you can get direct feedback from your customers, the power of phone surveys is monumental. This feedback, in turn, leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and – above all – shows that your customers’ opinions actually matter.

Thanks to advancements in cloud-based telephony and voice-recognition technology, you can optimize your phone surveys with IVR. Short for Interactive Voice Response, phone surveys with IVR offer recipients an easy way to provide feedback. Instead of online surveys, where participants can click through complicated questions with multiple choice answers, IVR-based phone surveys enable more direct communication. Either by simply pressing corresponding numbers or by using their voice, customers can provide honest feedback in the most efficient way possible.

Creating IVR Phone Surveys

In this article, we’ll cover how to create a phone survey with IVR to get the results your business needs to succeed, including:

  • Signing up with United World Telecom
  • Determining the Right Type of IVR Survey for Your Business
  • Best Practices for Creating IVR-based Phone Surveys

Signing Up With United World Telecom

The most obvious step to creating a phone survey with IVR is by utilizing United World Telecom’s services. United World Telcom’s top-notch IVR technology allows you to easily send polls and surveys to customers. Using United World Telecom’s API, you can also customize your IVR system to suit more complex needs. To learn more, read this article about IVR and contact United World Telecom to walk you through the process.

Determining the Right Type of IVR Phone Survey for Your Business

Not all phone surveys serve the same function. Phone surveys offer endless usages depending on the type that you choose. Let’s look at some of the most widely-used types:

Inbound IVR Phone Survey: Customers or leads receive an invitation to participate in a survey by calling a phone number. This is normally sent through email, letters, or other types of printed marketing material.
Call Transfer IVR Phone Survey: At the beginning of the call, current customers will receive invitations to participate. From there, they will transfer to a pre-recorded survey after their transaction or service call concludes. (Note: These are also referred to as “post-call IVR surveys”)
Outbound IVR Phone Survey: Invitations are broadcasted to a target audience (via radio, video, etc.) asking them to participate in a survey.

How To Create a Phone Survey with IVR
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#162781640 ID#191870774

Best Practices for Creating IVR-based Phone Surveys

Once you’ve determined what type of IVR phone survey you need, there are some best practices you should follow to get the best results and honest feedback. Below are several best practices to create engaging IVR surveys that achieve the results you want.

Determining Specific Goals for your IVR Phone Survey

Nothing causes customers more anguish than a survey that doesn’t seem to have a clear purpose. Before crafting a survey, you should brainstorm why you need the survey. It’s obvious that you want to improve your company by offering a phone survey, but you’ll want to target specific aspects of your company. For instance, you may want to improve customer service, so creating customer-service-oriented questions is a smart decision. Or, perhaps you want to determine which products your company should offer. For this, you want to ask them specifically what they would like to see improved and/or available.

Remain Concise Through the Process

The longer the survey, the fewer results you’re likely to achieve as customers will likely lose interest and drop off. Most phone surveys should take less than five minutes total – and for callers that have already been on the phone, that time is even shorter. Remember, it is better to get some feedback than none. Also, you’ll want to mention how long the survey takes. No one wants to get stuck on the phone or have a sense that it will never end.

Use Simple and Precise Language

Keep your phone surveys simple. Even if you deal with highly-technical products and services, avoid including words and phrases that aren’t normally used in everyday speech. The danger is that those surveyed might misinterpret these words/phrases and provide feedback that isn’t accurate.

Test Your Phone Survey

It’s a very wise idea to do a few dry-runs before launching an IVR phone survey. In other words, do not launch the survey until you’re confident it meets your criteria and flows well. You may notice that a specific question causes most people to drop off the survey. Or, you may want to add questions that clarify positive and negative responses.

With great service comes great power

Surveys are one of the best ways to gauge your customers’ experiences and get a feel for how they benefit from your services. With the information offered, we hope you will take advantage of the option of creating simple yet wholly user-friendly surveys via IVR. Effective and cost-friendly, this method can help you get the feedback you need to continuously provide great service and products that meet the needs of your clients.