4 min read5 Best Practices to Boost your Call Flow

Call Flow is the structure of your IVR that defines the path followed by your customer when he gives you a phone call. It is usually represented by a tree system with several types of pages (Prompts, Menus, Voicemails, …). It is necessary for you to have an optimal Call Flow, so that you can deliver a high-level customer experience. Click here to get 3 more useful tips about this.

Now you also have to boost your Call Flow and make it more dynamic. Which certainly means quality, but also enthusiasm and easier interaction that would all be allowed by your Call Flow. Your IVR is like your profile picture, and thus it is worth any commercial argument to make someone want to deal with you. So here are 5 best practices to boost your Call Flow that you can consume without any moderation.

Optimize your Homepage

When your customer gives you a call, the first seconds are crucial for him and for you as well. Then be sure to bring him the most satisfying customer experience by choosing a relevant homepage for your Call Flow.

For example, you can define a prompt, menu or transfer homepage, depending on your business or the needs expressed by your customers. To select your homepage, click on the red button at the top of your Call Flow or your page listing.

Think about call redirection before voicemail

In general, using only voicemails is hardly considered successful among customers, because they take on their own time to call companies. Thus give them the human customer experience they are looking for, and configure your Call Flow to redirect phone calls to another standard if your agents happen to be unavailable to speak.

You can set a call redirection by editing the Transfer page this phone number is related to. The first or second destination you choose then can be the same or not, depending on if the first standard is busy or does not answer. Thus you have more chances to answer your customers’ phone call and get them satisfied.

Take care of your audio files

Just like in a face-to-face interaction, your customer will be more receptive to a pleasant audio file. According to a poll mentioned by Hubspot, 23% of people who participated by hearing an audio message said they had been positively influenced by the voice they heard, and only 11% said the same because of the message itself. So, would that be a recorded message or a waiting track, you just have to get rid of every imperfect detail.

When configuring your Call Flow, listen to your audio tracks twice before getting the message displayed, even if your audios seemed to be perfect during recording. To listen an audio file in your Call Flow, get to the “Audios” tab and click on the file you wish to listen. Also take in consideration the volume and the tone you can hear in your audio file. You can test it directly by making phone call attempts in the Test version of your application.

Make your DTMF menus easier

If you drain all your customer’s concentration on the multiple choices you give in your menus, you have few chances to keep him by your side after this. Ideally, a DTMF menu offers no more than 3 options. Anyway, beyond 5, your customer will hardly memorize everything.

Though, if you wish to display many options, no panic! Just think about how you get from the Schema 1 to the Schema 2 below: for example, in your interface, you can make a logical distribution, so that you have no more one but two steps in your menu!

Adapt your Call Flow to your opening hours

Now many companies offer to receive their inbound phone calls even when they are closed. Then make yourself unique by creating a Calendar page in your Call Flow. This type of page allows you to configure your opening hours in a very detailed way. You can set your opening hours per day, and add your exceptional closing days as well.

Your IVR also gives you the opportunity to react differently depending on if the calls are received during your opening or closing hours. For example, they will be redirected to another standard if your customers call you during the classical opening hours, and they will be sent to voicemail if they are received during your closing hours. Thus you can offer your customers a positive experience during no less than 365 days a year!