We live in a world that is completely digitalized. Gone are the days when we had to stand in long queues to pay the water or electricity bill. Now we do not have to wait in long queues to buy movie tickets. Digitalization has also taken over the cloud telephony which means common man has an increased exposure to the internet and they have broader access to many services that are offered.
The call management system has also evolved with digitalization and the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) hasbeen introduced in various industries. An IVR is a phone system where a customer interacts with a programmed computer system which is taught to assist the customer and the customer inputs the keyboard values to select options or through speech recognition. Now-a-days appointment booking and reservations are done through the IVR.One such advancement of technology is the food and hospitality industry.For example if you want to dine in a fancy restaurant, without reserving a table it would be difficult to dine in that restaurant. Earlier you would have to call up the restaurant and wait for an agent to pick up to reserve a table. But now with the IVR, it would connect your call within few seconds and the IVR will give you the details of the available table and would also book the table.
The number used in most restaurants will be a toll free number so the customer is not charged when they call in to make reservations. This makes the restaurant more open to business and customers can call in to get more details about the timings and meal options.Since the number is toll free, customers would not think twice about making a call.Customer can not only make reservations but can also give valuable feedback.
Order Confirmations
Another important factor is that once the customer reserves a table, he would get a confirmation message immediately from the restaurant with the table number and date, time etc. The customer would get this right after he hangs up with the restaurant. This kind of customer service increases customer satisfaction and it is likely that the customer would dine in the same restaurant often.
Personalized Customer Service
As the IVR uses the pre-recorded voice recordings, the customers are well greeted and the calls are transferred to the right department.You can also have the IVR programmed in different languages so they can cater to different customers.With the IVR, Restaurants now can keep a track of all the customers who had called in to enquire about the hotel and use the details for sending out messages about promotional offers or reach out the customers to get their feedback about the dining experience so that they can improve their customer service.
Digitalization has made an impact in the health industry as well. We all know that hospitals are very crowded with long queues from meeting the doctor to purchasing medicines.With the IVR around it has become easier for patients to book appointments over the phone. Even if patients want to enquire about the timing or about a doctor they can call up the Toll free number and the IVR would give all the details required or else would route the call to an agent who can assist.
Appointment booking
The IVR initially greets the caller and then the caller can choose from the different options. The IVR then provides all the available time slots and the caller can pick up a slot convenient to them.Once the customer hangs up, he would get a confirmation message about the date and time of the appointment.Booking the appointment is done in quick and simple steps without waiting in long queues.
Call routing
Calls are also routed to different departments when callers have enquires. Huge hospitals would have different departments, so if a caller wants details about certain doctors, then the call is routed to the right department for assisting the customers.
Call Volume
As hospitals receive huge call volumes from enquires to booking and cancelling of an appointment, IVR can mange huge call volumes so instead of having many agents to just to pick up calls, a single IVR can handle many calls and assist the caller.
Reminders
The IVR can be programmed to provide reminders to patients’ either through outbound calls or through automated messages.
Be it any industry, large or small, having a call management system would help your business to grow.The call management system unifies all data and routes call to the right department,making it easier for you to serve your customers better.You can deploy a call management systemin your business in quick, easy, and at incredibly affordable prices with Minavo’s Vagent. It comes with a variety of features like Live Call Tracking, Call Recordings, Smart Call Routing,Voicemail, SMS alerts, Welcome Greeting to name a few.
