Which one is Best Inbound IVR or Outbound IVR! Read This!

Globally, there are over 214 million businesses allowing customers to buy products from anywhere. To stand out from the crowd, you must well verse with Inbound IVR & Outbound IVR.

84% of respondents to a Forbes survey think artificial intelligence can give them a competitive edge and help them sustain themselves.

Customers can be current, loyal, former and prospective. To deal with these customers, one must have an inclusive and holistic customer service model. It may take time and effort but technology solutions such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can make this vision a reality.

Companies can engage all four types of customers with IVR calls, both inbound and outbound IVR. It is no longer easy to convert customers into loyal ones. It requires resources and time for your business to succeed. Here's how IVR helps you create an ideal customer friendly environment.

How Does IVR Work?

Over the past decade, IVR has evolved dramatically. For the initial routing of calls, customers used dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) dial pads to answer questions and enter information. A wide range of inbound call services and IVR containment efforts can help customers who dial your number for specific information, but outbound systems can also provide information or provide assistance.

What are inbound and outbound IVR?

Inbound IVR

IVRs help callers find solutions by guiding them through a variety of options. By using DTMF tones or voice recognition, it understands their concerns and routes them accordingly.

Businesses can benefit from inbound IVR in the following scenarios:

1.  Customer service automation 

Multi-tasking can be stressful for your agents, especially during rush hours. Inbound IVR can also help them handle large numbers of calls at once.

Mobile devices prompt callers to choose the most suitable option from a list of solutions. It intelligently routes them to agents based on how the call continues.

Shipping updates, payments, tracking delivery, and custom offers are just a few of the concerns that IVR can handle. Multi-level IVR systems can assist businesses with devoted customer support centres.

2. Sales facilitation 

For the convenience of customers, businesses can include their virtual numbers when sending out information about offers and deals through email and SMS.

As part of the IVR system, you can analyze the details of the incoming caller to determine if it qualifies as a pre-qualified lead. The lead can be routed to a relevant agent if it attains substantial scores on essential metrics.

Benefits of inbound IVR

1. Call routing with intelligence

Call routing in the contact center is highly effective when using Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Keeping self-service tools allows agents to devote more attention and understanding to calls requiring enhanced attention.

As a result, they will have less work to do and lower repetitive tasks like answering FAQs. As a result, first-time callers have a better experience because the waiting time is shorter and difficulties are less.

2. Cost-effectiveness and useful metrics

Besides recording incoming calls, inbound IVR calls can track other metrics, including call duration, wait times, first call resolution, and so forth

For loyal clients, your business should evaluate this metrics and add value to its customer experience model. By automating tasks, fewer agents requires with less infrastructure cost. It also decreases the burden of recruiting more agents.

Outbound IVR

The push and pull model is the most common strategy for customer acquisition.

Push marketing is when a business makes proactive efforts for customers to buy its products. Despite, when customers seek a brand's products because they make a positive difference in their lives, it is pull marketing.

Using outbound IVR service for pull marketing can help automate engagement activities via various sources like calls, email, social media, etc.

Scenarios where outbound IVR proves to be very useful for business include:

1. Organizing surveys

An outbound IVR can reduce the need for support agents by collecting customer feedback regularly.

To collect input from recent customers, outbound IVR automatically reaches out to them. Using IVR surveys is a helpful way to find out what consumers are thinking and feeling. It can start a tactful pull marketing campaign based on the insights you gain from this data.

2. Updates on promotional activities

An automated call or email can notify customers about the organization's plans. It is possible to play a prerecorded message on an outbound IVR call and prompt the customer to call another number to interact with an inbound IVR.

A method like this can help your business reach a wide audience of potential customers at a low cost and in a quick manner.

3. Reminding people of important dates

The outbound IVR service can remind customers and prospective buyers of pending payments, subscription renewals, etc. They can also use the IVR itself in outbound calling to complete tasks like bill payments.

It is also possible to send reminders to customers who were open to communicating with the brand but did not follow up. Assisting them with registration, informing them offers and promotions, and so on, will be the business' responsibility.

Outbound IVR is also helpful in enhancing pull marketing techniques apart from being easy and convenient.

Which is better: Inbound IVR or Outbound IVR?

There is no doubt that IVR phone system capabilities can automate and streamline the company's operations. It is up to you to decide what type of IVR is best for your business, whether it is inbound IVR or outbound IVR.

Marketers who want to reach more customers with outbound IVR systems are great for taking advantage of outbound call automation features. 

If other businesses choose, they can automate complex processes like payment notifications by using outbound IVR systems, which give them an instant and simple process.

Choosing an inbound IVR system is a good choice if your company does not proactively reach out to clients and receives most of its calls via incoming lines. Taking care of your users' queries is incredibly easy without hiring more agents because there are endless options you can try.

For you to make the best choice for your business, we hope this article helped you understand the differences between the Inbound IVR & Outbound IVR. Our blog offers more tips and advice on such topics!