What Is Visual IVR? Benefits, Use Cases & Top Providers

Customers get frustrated due to long waiting times and lengthy call menus of the traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems. These issues can result in poor customer experience and increased customer dissatisfaction. However, with the advanced visual interactive voice response system, businesses can improve their customer experience.

This IVR system provides visual menus which improve self-service capabilities and simplify navigation. With the combination of voice prompts and visual menus visual IVR quickly addresses customers issues and improves overall efficiency of your business processes.

Let’s explore how visual IVR differs from conventional IVR, how it works, and its benefits for your business.

What Is Visual IVR?

Visual interactive voice response (IVR) is an advanced customer service technology that combines visual IVR prompts and a visual interface to guide customers during support processes. It is also called Graphical Content Routing (GCR).

The purpose of visual IVR is to streamline customer interactions, reduce call times, and improve self-service rates while providing a human assistance option when needed.

With this advanced technology, customers can get visual-based customer support when filling out new forms, submitting documents, scheduling service appointments, or verifying bank account details. However, in most cases, callers experience a visual interactive voice response session (VIVR) on the mobile app or desktop using a preferred web browser.

VIVR offers several on-screen customer support services, including automated chatbots, FAQs, forms and files, multiple-choice questions, uploaded photos, clickable links, and product/service documentation.

Typically, customers access visual IVR systems by calling a business and choosing to receive a text message with a link to the Visual IVR interface. This approach, known as

How Does Visual IVR Work?

Visual IVR enables customers to navigate menus quickly using a support channel and any device they have. The process of visual IVR working starts when someone calls your business phone system, and the system records that number. After that, the system asks the caller if they want to receive a text message with a link to the self-service VIVR interface.

This is known as call intercept, and its purpose is to automate routine interactions. It allows customers to explore menus using their preferred support channel and device.

Like a menu-driven interface, VIVR allows users to navigate through the IVR system by clicking and tapping, and they do not need to listen to any IVR options. Moreover, VIVR also works well with the conventional IVR depending on your provider or whether you are shifting to a Voice over Internet Protocol phone system. This way, you can use your existing scripts, and customers can also have the option to choose between standard IVR and new visual IVR.

Visual IVR Vs Conventional IVR

A standard IVR directs and routes calls to the appropriate agent. However, a visual IVR can manage the entire customer interaction without connecting to a live agent, usually on the first call.

Visual IVR eliminates many factors that cause frustrations in customers as it allows them to:

Avoid lengthy call menus
Choose from multiple options on their screen
Connect to a live agent just by clicking a button
Access IVR on digital and voice communication channels
Complete complex support inquiries without connecting to any live agent
Schedule customers callbacks

Benefits Of Using Visual IVR

Visual IVR offers numerous benefits to agents, customers and business owners. Here, we are describing the most significant benefits:

i. Better Customer Experience

Visual IVR is a solution that can improve customer experience and engagement by reducing customers’ frustration due to long hold and wait times, explaining their issue to the same agent, or lack of immediate response to inquiries.

It allows customers 24/7 access to customer support across voice and digital channels. Moreover, customers can resolve their own issues according to their schedule without talking to a live agent.

In addition, visual IVR is accessible as a one-time mobile app on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones so that customers can choose communication channels and devices according to their preferences. It makes customer support easily accessible anywhere with an internet connection. Above all, a visual IVR speeds up the whole support process, which ultimately leads to improved customer satisfaction.

ii. Lower Operating Costs and Boost Sales

Visual IVR not only keeps customers satisfied but also reduces your business’s operating costs. With the self-service VIVR, businesses do not need to hire additional agents to handle high call volumes even during peak call times such as annual sales events, holidays, or incident management.

Furthermore, visual IVR collects customer data before connecting them to a live agent, reducing the average cost per call.

As it is a cloud-based technology, you do not need to pay for on-site equipment, hardware, maintenance, or in-house IT teams. It can also create opportunities for cross-selling by adding clickable ads and promotional banners in the VIVR interface. You can also tailor your offers according to customer behaviour, account history, or demographics to increase the likelihood of closing a deal.

iii. Enhance Agents Productivity

As VIVR handles simple customer issues and automates basic tasks, agents have more time to focus on resolving more complex customer needs, creating stronger relationships with customers, making sales calls, and developing new ideas to grow their businesses.

Moreover, visual IVR easily integrates with third-party CRMs and other business applications. Customers have access to customer data and all the tools to provide high-quality and efficient customer support. Your customer representatives can easily access call scripts, knowledge base data, and message templates within the VIVR interface.

iv. Greater Insight to Agents Activity

Visual IVR gathers and analyzes real-time customer and agent data to track IVR call containment, pinpoint workflow bottlenecks, identify gaps in agent training, and provide managers with a comprehensive overview of daily call center operations.

Key metrics and KPIs that a VIVR provides include cost per call, average agent talk time, inbound and outbound call volume, call abandonment rate, NPS and CSAT score and call queue length.

These insights also provide details of the customer journey, which help identify behavioural trends, points of entry and abandonment, and more.

Automated surveys sent to customers after calls allow customers to rate customer service quality and provide feedback and advice for improvement. This way, your business can know your customer base deeply and identify problems because they get worse.

v. Reduced Customers Effort

Visual IVR streamlines the customer experience by offering a faster, more intuitive way to access information and assistance. Customers can visually browse and select options about 25% quicker than navigating spoken menus.

This technology captures caller intent and authentication details upfront, eliminating the need for customers to repeat information to representatives. It seamlessly integrates self-service options with the ability to connect to live support quickly when needed.

What Are the Drawbacks Of Visual IVR?

Although visual IVR offers numerous benefits like improving customer services and saving agents time by automating support processes, it has some drawbacks that you must consider.

Visual IVR is not seamless like any digital customer self-service tool, such as advanced chatbots, live agent chat messaging, or an online knowledge base with FAQs.
With artificial intelligence’s increased role in customer experience, automated voice bots and chatbots can handle more complex customer service issues. These advances in SaaS technology will eventually make visual IVR obsolete.
Visual IVR is device-dependent, as it needs a screen-enabled device, which limits its accessibility through traditional landlines and phones.
Implementing visual IVR requires an initial investment, which may be too high for certain businesses.
As visual IVR is a digital technology the system may experience technical issues which ultimately affect your customer service.
Visual IVR can only assist with specific customer issues for which it is programmed.

Which Businesses Can Use Visual IVR?

Like standard IVR, visual IVR can be used by many businesses regardless of their size, industry, daily call volume, and target market.

Here’s how Visual IVR can support different industries:

Postal Services: Track and update package deliveries, report missing packages, or reroute packages to a new location.
Banking and Finance: Manage debt collection, check balances, verify transactions, pay bills, apply for loans, and more.
Telemarketing: Conduct customer satisfaction surveys, onboard new clients, train employee prospect leads, enable customer self-service, identify upselling opportunities, schedule follow-up calls, access video tutorials, and submit ticketing forms.
Retailers: Send abandoned cart reminders, assist with online orders and tracking, handle subscription renewals or cancellations, support product activations, provide store locations and hours, and more.
Healthcare: Schedule and remind about appointments, process insurance, manage pre-appointment forms, handle bill payments, refill prescriptions, offer patient education and aftercare, track IoT devices, and log symptoms.
Utility Services and Other Providers: Allow bill payments, schedule or confirm appointments, send outage notifications, manage service requests, and handle cancellations.
Shipping and Logistics: Provide shipment tracking, schedule final mile deliveries, send notifications, and manage drivers in real-time.

Final Words - What Is Visual IVR

Visual IVR is a transformative technology that enhances customer experience by simplifying interactions, reducing wait times, and offering intuitive self-service options. Blending visual menus with traditional voice prompts provides a seamless, efficient solution for managing customer queries across various industries.

Its benefits, including improved customer satisfaction, lower operational costs, enhanced agent productivity, and valuable insights, make it an ideal choice for businesses aiming to modernize their customer service operations. Despite some limitations, such as device dependency and initial setup costs, the advantages of implementing Visual IVR far outweigh its drawbacks, making it a valuable investment for businesses seeking to elevate their support processes and drive operational efficiency.