Thanks for your advice. This is really interesting. We have intelligent routing enabled via APIs to streamline customer experience somewhat but nothing as sophisticated as NLU and voice bots. Just confirming this means moving to a speech activated IVR with intent recognition? This should help improve skills-based enquiry management as we are experiencing instances of number mashing from customers not wanting to listen to all the options and can also imagine the self service options would become more targeted. Would a voice bots be more effective compared to a pre-recorded audio file played when it matches a particular intent? What is the difference here?
Also, how do you manage the identification and verification component well with this IVR set up? Is it all voice recognition?
Original Message:
Sent: 10-01-2025 07:54
From: Cameron Tomlin
Subject: Deflection strategies that work well?
Hello Deepa,
While I look forward to the community providing feedback I do have some advice to offer.
Instead of pre-recorded messages, consider implementing Natural Language Understanding (NLU) powered voice bots. These solutions can be better understand customer intent and provide more dynamic conversational experiences. The "design once, deploy anywhere" concept allows for consistent experience across voice and digital channels.
Some key success factors to consider, focus on intent recognition rather than simple menu options, enable natural conversation flow instead of rigid IVR paths, ensure seamless handover to live agents when needed.
We recommend implementing intelligent voice bots that can understand natural language and customer intent, capture key information in conversation slots, provide immediate assistance for common requests and route to appropriate agents when necessary.
Using modern voice bot strategy provides several benefits including, improved containment rates through better self-service options, enhanced customer experience with reduced wait times, better first contact resolution through improved intent recognition and reduced operational costs while maintaining service quality.
Hope this helps!
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Cameron
Online Community Manager/Moderator
Original Message:
Sent: 10-01-2025 06:33
From: Deepa Galaiya
Subject: Deflection strategies that work well?
Hi Everyone,
I am keen to hear how others in the community are approaching call deflection, particularly through voice bots or voice agents that handle FAQ style enquiries via IVR. Have these solutions helped reduce transactional interactions effectively? What's the customer experience been like?
To share a bit about our journey. we have embedded pre-recorded audio messages in our IVR also offered via SMS, encouraging customers to self-serve on our digital platform. After reviewing a few months of data, we've found that these deflections aren't driving the outcomes we expected which is a shame as it may create more friction in the customer journey.
We are now exploring alternative approaches and would love to learn from your experience. What has worked well for you? Any lessons learned or creative ideas you would recommend?
Cheers,
#Unsure/Other
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Deepa Galaiya
Product Owner, Customer Interactions
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