National Customer Service Week - 5th to 9th October 2020

The Institute of Customer Service’ annual National Customer Service Week returns for 2020.

The ICS, uses National Customer Service week to highlight the importance of great customer service, not just from a customers point of view but also a business perspective to show that great customer service can have a direct impact on your bottomline.

This year it’s even more important to celebrate the colleagues who’ve provided exceptional customer services throughout this challenging year.

Here’s the agenda for National Customer Service Week 2020:

Monday – Insight: Knowing your customer and how to deliver to them

Tuesday – Capability & Skills: Identifying and nurturing customer service skills in your organisation

Wednesday – Recognition: Celebrate your customer service heroes

Thursday – Leadership: Championing customer service in the boardroom

Friday – Trust, Ethics & Sustainability: Building brand reputation through your actions

Get involved in National Customer Service Week here

National Customer Service Week 2020

Haringey Council - Case Study

Haringey Council tell us about the fantastic results we achieved for them as a result of a complete re-design of their IVR experience.

Haringey council were struggling with ever-increasing call volumes and needed to educate callers about self service channels such as the online portal.

Sam and Stephanie tell explain all in the video below. You can view the full Case Study here

How can we help you?

To find out how we can help improve your caller experience call us on 0800 852 7720, book a consultation, or email hello@ivr-recordings.co.uk to see how we can help you.

How to Review & Improve Your IVR

Our Customer Experience Consultant Steve Hindley discusses How to Review and Improve Your IVR, along with the benefits of improving your caller experience in the latest Call Centre Helper article #customerjourney #cxtips #cxstrategy

Lavish Alice Testimonial

Fashion brand Lavish Alice required a more efficient way to manage inbound phone enquiries and improve the customer experience.

Amanda Harrison discusses how professional IVR voice messaging has helped manage customer expectations and ensure customers have the right information at the right time to help with their enquiry.

How can we help you?

To find out how we can help improve your caller experience call us on 0800 852 7720, book a consultation, or email hello@ivr-recordings.co.uk to see how we can help you.

Review Your IVR Experience

What kind of first impression does your IVR give callers?

Following on from last week’s webinar, Modernising The IVR with Call Centre Helper Magazine and Talkdesk, we thought it would be useful to share some of the points we covered.

How to Review Your IVR Experience

The best way to review your IVR experience is to pick up your mobile and dial the phone number of the IVR you want to evaluate…

Take a walk in your callers shoes

Take off our corporate hat and forget everything you know about your organisation and it’s internal processes, for the full experience, oh and be honest.

1. Navigation Time

   How long are your welcome and compliance messages? Could they be shorter?
   Your customers will love you for making them as succinct and relevant as possible.

2. Main Menu Options

   Are you bombarding callers with too many options?

   Keep your main menu as short as possible, ideally less than 5 options.

3. Multiple Layers

   How many sub menus does your IVR system have?

   Used well, sub menus can make the caller journey feel quicker and more interactive.
   Ideally your IVR call flows should have no more than 3 layers including the main menu.

4. On Brand Messaging

   Are all your IVR Messages recorded with the same professional voiceover artist who matches your company brand?
   Do your scripts match the language and phrases on your website, social media channels and other corporate communications?

5. Call Queue Experience

   How long do your callers spend in the queue before speaking to an agent?

   What type of music and messages do they listen to?

   If the music is a 30 second clip of an 80’s synth track that came with your contact centre solution and that’s interspersed with one voice message apologising for the wait, you’ll soon frustrate callers and your abandonment rate will climb up.

6. Contact Centre KPIs

   Your KPIs point to areas that need improvement, a high number of internal transfers highlights that your IVR menu options are confusing callers. Likewise if callers are abandoning when in the call queue then your music and messaging needs to be improved.

So there you have it: the top 6 areas of your IVR to review today.

If you’d like us to perform a free no-obligation IVR Review just complete the form here

Modernising The IVR

On Thursday 14th May our Customer Experience Consultant Steve Hindley will be participating in the Call Centre Helper webinar…

Modernising The IVR

Steve Hindley from IVR Recordings and Fernando Santos from Talkdesk be discussing common IVR pitfalls, how to review the effectiveness of your IVR and look at current and future innovations in IVR technology and what they mean for your organisation and the customer experience.

On the webinar we’ll be discussing:

• Common IVR pitfalls

• How to review the effectiveness of your IVR

• The impact your IVR has on customer experience

• How to utilise the latest IVR innovations to your advantage

Steve Hindley
Customer Experience Consultant
IVR Recordings & iNarrator
LinkedIn

How to manage customer expectations during Coronavirus

It is so important to communicate effectively with your prospects and customers at this time, read on for some interesting facts from the early 1900s and ideas on how to manage customer expectations today during COVID-19.

What we can learn from the early 1900s

The advert below was printed in 1910, back then the world was suffering with outbreaks of diphtheria, smallpox and meningitis, yet the words feel oddly resonant given today’s circumstances.

“People who are in quarantine are not isolated if they have a Bell Telephone.

The Bell Service brings cheer and encouragement to the sick, and is of value in countless other ways.”

Advert for the telephone in 1910

When Spanish Flu broke out in 1918, for isolating communities around the world, the phone promised to help life to continue as normally as possible. One thing hasn’t changed and that’s our need to stay connected. We’re lucky that in 2020 that’s a lot easier thanks to all the modern communications methods we now have. However, back in the late 1910s and early 1920s, the use of the phone in your own home was still a luxury.

During times of quarantine in the early 1900s, the phone did serve as a means of keeping people going for a time, with businesses taking orders over the phone or education being provided via a call, there are definite similarities to today’s situation.

Newspaper article from 1918 reporting ‘Teaching by phone beats flu quarantine’

Back then radio had not reached its Golden Era, so the main way for people to keep in touch was via the telephone; and whilst automatic dialling had been invented it wasn’t yet widely rolled out and telephone systems still relied on human operators to make manual connections for callers.

Switchboard operators were vulnerable due to the cramped working conditions, they were hit hard by the flu. Reports from the time show around 1,000 telephone operators were off work along with 1,400 police officers in the UK.

With call volumes increasing and operator numbers depleting, The New York Telephone Company cut service to half it’s public payphones and sent letters to customers asking them to only use their telephone for emergencies.

They also ran newspaper adverts stating:

“DON’T TELEPHONE UNLESS IT’S ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY”

Michigan State Telephone Company also took out ads asking customers to limit calls so they could:

"Handle with promptness and dispatch the essential business of the community”

Maybe we should return to extremely polite telephone messaging like this!

2020 - The COVID-19 impact

Many of the items above ring true of the situation we find ourselves in today.

Companies across the UK at the minute are urging customers not to phone unless absolutely necessary, to help them manage high call volumes with limited staff.

Mortgage companies, banks, internet providers to name a few, are releasing updates online and moving to live chat and email as a preferred forms of communication.

If you have tried to contact some companies by phone recently, you might have noticed an update in their In-Queue Messaging to keep customers informed.

Customers are anxious

It is understandable that given the current circumstances, customers are more anxious. Everyone is getting used to a dramatic shift in our normal daily lives, a new work environment, new colleagues (who double as spouses or pets…) and of course looming fear of becoming furloughed or having financial worries.

During these times customers are seeking reassurance.

As a result now more than ever, communication is hugely important.

Whether that’s B2B, B2C or personal calls, we want to stay in the loop and feel connected. It’s great to see the mobile network providers are putting emergency measures in place and announcing benefits for key workers (EE) or supplying connectivity for the Nightingale Hospitals (Vodafone) and as well as keeping the rest of the population connected.

Whilst this is a learning curve for us all, your contact centre still needs to be represented appropriately and do everything possible to retain customers at a time where there is a huge impact to business.

So, whilst you might want to keep call volumes at a minimum to help staff cope under new pressures, what could your IVR Messages and In-Queue Announcements be telling callers, so they don’t need to speak with someone directly unless it’s really urgent?

Here are a few ideas:

• Deflect callers to more appropriate channels - self service, live chat, email

• Are you experiencing delays in services that customers should know about to manage their expectations?

• Have you seen an increase in certain questions being asked that you could answer in your on hold messaging?

• Do you need to reassure callers that you’re running as normal?

• Are you completely closed for the foreseeable?

• Are you doing something great to help your community and looking to raise awareness?

We’re in a lot stronger a position than the world was when Spanish Flu struck, we’re more resilient and advanced both in terms of health and technology but we still have to choose our words carefully to ensure we communicate effectively.

How can we can help you?

Steve Hindley
CX Consultant

Your contact centre IVR voice messages should be helping you manage call volumes at this tricky time…

If not then we’re here to help give us a call on 0800 852 7720 or fill out the contact form here

COVID-19 Update April 2020

We hope you’re safe and well and adjusting to new ways of working.

IVR Recordings is operating as normal and all our voiceover artists are available to record new IVR Messages.

If you’re trying to manage increased call volumes then take a look at these example COVID-19 IVR Messages.

As always we’re here to support existing and new client improve their caller IVR journey and customer experience.

Give us a call on 0800 852 7720

5 ways to prepare your contact centre for Coronavirus

The outbreak of Coronavirus has caused global uncertainty, businesses are working out how to plan for the coming weeks, so we’ve put together 5 ways you can prepare your contact centre to deal with COVID-19.

5 ways to prepare your contact centre for Coronavirus

1. Business Continuity Plan

If you have a written business continuity plan (and you should) then review it with your team. Is it still fit for purpose? Are there any additional factors to consider?

2. Is Home Working Possible?

If you’re utilising a cloud based telephony solution, remote working should be possible. Your agents will need a laptop and headset to get up and running, and access to your business admin systems. Don’t expect agents to be as productive when working from home and if schools close, agents could have children at home… which leads us neatly on to…

3. Adjust Working Patterns

Consider splitting your contact centre agents into smaller teams, with different shift patterns; this way if an agent becomes ill you can hopefully contain the spread. Don’t leave treats and food out at the end of workstations and ensure meeting and training rooms, keyboards and phones are cleaned after every use.

4. Keep your team updated

Your agents will have lots of “what happens if…” questions. So let them know what to do if they get ill - don’t come into work, and what sick pay they are entitled to (this is likely to be a priority for most staff).

Share your business continuity plan with staff so they can plan ahead for working from home or new shift patterns.

5. Keep Callers Updated & Encourage Channel Shift

The quickest and easiest way to keep callers up to date is by utilising professionally recorded IVR Messages. You can use messages to encourage callers to self serve online or if their enquiry isn’t urgent call back at a later date. If you use Livechat or email support, now’s the time to start promoting these other channels, and for most agents this would be easier to do at home than taking calls (see point 2).

Do you have the correct IVR Emergency Messages to load on to your IVR Platform?

Coronavirus Contact Centre IVR Messages

High Call Volumes - Channel Shift

Welcome to [COMPANY NAME]. We’re receiving more calls than usual due to Coronavirus, which means wait times are higher than we’d like. Answers to most questions can be found on our website [YOUR WEB ADDRESS]. Please stay on the line and we’ll be with you as soon as possible.

High Call Volumes - Urgent Calls Only

Welcome to [COMPANY NAME]. We’re receiving more calls than usual and due to the Coronavirus precautions we have less team members available to take calls, which means wait times are higher than we’d like. Answers to most questions can be found on our website [YOUR WEB ADDRESS]. If your call isn’t urgent, please check the website and call back when normal service resumes.

Closed - Pandemic Message

Welcome to [COMPANY NAME]. Our phone lines are currently closed due to the Coronavirus restrictions imposed by the government. However our customer service team are available to help with all enquiries via Live Chat at [YOUR WEBSITE] dot co dot uk. We will post regular service updates to our website. Thanks for calling [YOUR COMPANY NAME]… Goodbye.

Order Your Messages Here

Coronavirus Message Pack

£195.00

Plan ahead and get your BCP messages recorded by us.

Package includes 3 messages:

1x High Call Volumes - Channel Shift

1x High Call Volumes - Urgent Calls Only

1x Closed Due to Pandemic

Quantity:

Add To Cart

Custom IVR Voice Message Recording Service

IVR Recordings specialises in professional voice message recordings for contact centres.

To discuss your contact centre IVR voice requirements or CX project give us a call on 0800 052 7720.

Check out Steve’s latest article on LinkedIn - Managing Customer Expectations With Phone Messages Whist Remote Working

IVR Recordings Supporting Speed of Sight

Here at IVR Recordings we’ve been supporting Speed of Sight with professional voice messaging services for the past 4 years.

To support this great charity further and help them provide more driving experiences to blind and disabled drivers we’ve joined the Inspire 25 Club.

About Speed of Sight

Speed Of Sight is the UK’s only charity providing the gift of driving to blind and disabled people.

Speed Of Sight relies on the generosity of its supporters to help us provide life-changing driving opportunities to blind and disabled people across the UK.

Speed of Sight makes the impossible, POSSIBLE.

The charity was co-founded in 2012 by John Galloway and Mike Newman the "‘fastest blind man in the world” and world record holder for land, sea and air.

Born completely blind, Mike always had a passion for cars, so much so, it was his life’s ambition to become a racing driver. But, as you can imagine, this ambition came with many challenges. No blind person in history had ever achieved this goal.

However, just because he is disabled, doesn’t mean he’s UNABLE.

Mike worked tirelessly to live his dream, and through grit and determination to succeed, he worked alongside a local Jaguar dealership, to acquire a racing car that would enable him to do it.

Fast-forward over a decade, and Super Human, Mike Newman is a 9 times World Record Holder and currently the fastest blind man on land and water on the planet.

Would you like to support Speed of Sight? Click here to join the Inspire 25 Club.

Speed of Sight Driving Experienced

Providing driving experienced to (dis)abled and blind children and adults

Speed of Sight

Providing driving experienced to (dis)abled and blind children and adults

Speed of Sight

Providing driving experienced to (dis)abled and blind children and adults

Mike Newman

Mike is Co-Founder of Speed of Sight Driving Charity and multiple World record holder.