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How to Conduct the Perfect Survey Using Interactive Voice Response

ivrWhatever the opinion of customers about IVR systems might be, they are very helpful for businesses. They help manage the call volumes of large processes and offer the self service options. This is all the business owners know about usage of interactive voice response systems. These systems can also be used aptly for conducting surveys and accumulating its data. But the results are good only when the businesses follow the best practices. The success of a survey depends entirely on the honesty of the customers. You have to let them give honest answers without any hassles at times matching their schedules. A well conducted survey is great for the future of your company. It can reveal the things that you never knew. Every successful brand tries to read the mind of their customer base and the market. If there is a gap in the market you should take that opportunity. So, before you conduct a survey using the IVR system do take stock of the below given tips.

 The Art of Asking Questions: If you want the survey to be successful always ensure that the customer experience is easy and positive. You might be tempted to ask the question “How much pleased you were with our services today?” But it is not the proper question as there is no measurable quantity put in front of the customer. The intention of any survey should be to get concrete results. So, ask the customer to rate your services on a scale of 10.

Repeated Testing is Essential: Asking the right questions in their simplest manner is an art and it cannot be learned overnight. What you can do is set a specific question and then play it and get it tested by others to understand the difficulty level of the question. May be you can also take the help of a friend who does not know anything about the services. Do not finalize a questionnaire until you have tested it again and again and got thumbs up from various corners.

Take Suggestions from Agents: This is an area where the brands commit a big mistake. They underestimate the knowledge of an agent. When an agent works for a brand for any number of days he/she forms a great idea about the customers and their feelings. They know just how to get the answers out of them, what are the best calling times and the areas that customers are having most problems with. So, the suggestions of an agent can help you immensely in setting the right questions and hitting the problem areas. Maybe, the agents can suggest certain questions that had skipped your mind!

Don’t Get the Customer Tensed: There are many surveys that fail due to their start. It is not known which genius started the practice of giving long statements before starting out a survey, but it does not do any good for the psychology of the customers. Long statements and complex figures give them a notion that the survey ahead is going to be a tough one and they have a tendency to hang up. There are various channels to provide information about your company, so leave alone the surveys for the intention they are meant to serve. Start the survey with a very small introduction and then get straight into questions. Start with the simplest or basic questions and move up to the more complex ones.

Too Many Options Get Customers Jumbled Up: There are certain surveys which do not come up with a clear cut result; it is because they have set too many options for a single question. When you give lots of options there are two problem areas: firstly, the customers get confused. It is hard to remember more than four options. So they find it difficult to select the best option. Secondly, the survey becomes unnecessarily long due to the abundance of options being read out. If a survey takes too much time then there is a high probability that the customers will not finish it and all your efforts go in vain. This is why you should give minimum options against a question. The maximum number of options that you may select is four.

Leave Scopes for Customer Comments: One of the key mistakes that brands commit in their survey process is leaving no scopes for the customers to leave some comments. Yes, you have set the questions for them and given the options, but they might have something to say for themselves. Encourage the customers to complete the survey and then record their opinion about the survey. Often the customers’ comments will tell you how successful the questionnaire was and areas that you missed out on. It is a part of continuous development.

Leave No Scopes for Middle Ground: Most of the customers like to select the Average answer. They do not want to criticize or applaud a service. This is where you have to be shrewd as well. Remove the “Average” option from your options. You can have options such as “Very Good, Good, Not Good, Poor”. What this will mean is the customer has to take a side – either good or poor. They cannot take the middle ground and leave your survey without a purpose.

Clear the Intention: Some of the surveys receive poor response as the customers end call because they feel it is another promotional call. So, as soon as the customer takes the call announce loud and clear that it is a call regarding customer satisfaction survey. Also tell the customers how their opinion can help the brand make its services more customer-centric.

Acting on the Results: Once the survey is completed, the real work starts for the brands and the assisting call centers. The interactive voice response system has now done its job and the results are lying in a server ready to be analyzed. But there is a tendency that the brands get a bit lazy in this regard. They show no urgency to act on the results. If the results do not instigate any action then what good it is to take all the pain? Make the changes before the horse has bolted.

Whether you are online retail store owner or the seller of telecom billing systems, survey is essential to improve your product or services. But the survey can yield best results when it is done the right way. Hope the above mentioned tips would help you set up the perfect survey for your brand. Have fun knowing your customers better!

Written By

Alicia Gray is an BPO and outsourcing industry analyst, and writes about technology. Currently working with one of the business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider. My role has been instrumental in assisting businesses to choose the right BPO Services. Since she has dealt with a plethora of customers during her professional life, she best understands customer relationship management, billing and oss software etc. She writes regularly on a variety of topics associated with customer service.

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