Enhance Your IVR for Insurance Customer Retention

A study discovered that almost 75 percent of consumers were likely to switch to competitors following negative call experiences, whether inbound or outbound. E-Complish’s DirectPay, a customizable interactive voice response (IVR) system, lets you create unique greetings, messages, and prompts. It’s the quick and affordable way for any insurance member to make an IVR payment 24/7. Keep more users by avoiding mistakes that drive people away. Better communication alternatives will improve customer satisfaction and retention.

Limit Menu Options

Overwhelming busy customers who are in a hurry is unwise. Giving users a slew of lengthy selections may seem vital and convenient, but it makes their frustration mount when they want a quick answer or to make a quick payment. Extensive call menu levels might appear helpful but can actually lead to an increase in hangups before customers complete needed actions. So, simplify instead. Limit your menu items to between three and five brief choices in just two levels. Otherwise, you will confuse and lose clients.

Deliver Key Information Early

Customers need assistance promptly. If IVR messages start with useless information upfront and delay the most important details until the end, disappointed users will hang up and may choose another insurance company.

Use Laymen’s Terms

Industry jargon in announcements and prompts can baffle many customers. Ask people of various ages who are unfamiliar with insurance lingo to test your computerized phone system. Reword anything that’s hard to understand to universally recognized layman’s terms.

Make Prompts Relevant

Nonspecific automated voice prompts any other business or industry could use fail to set your establishment apart as unique and helpful. Your IVR is a branding tool that influences the first impression your organization makes. So, avoid generic, confusing, weak, and boring language.

Keep Voice and Volume Consistent

Changing voices, pitches, timbers, and volumes is jarring to listeners. That’s as unsettling as websites that switch from red to pink to orange backgrounds. Use one brand-consistent announcer that’s easy to understand, relatable, and trustworthy instead.

Maintain a Reasonable Speaking Pace

Listeners may not grasp all the necessary information in fast-talking messages. Repeated attempts to comprehend details correctly will frustrate them. Announcements that are too slow can sound patronizing and make customers lose interest. Keep all recordings at an average pace everyone should appreciate.

Address Users’ Priorities

Call centers that wonder why users complain about IVRs or select the wrong options need to experience the customer journey. Becoming a study participant reveals what patrons go through so you can keep acceptable features and fix inadequate ones.

Skip Non-Essential Compliance Notices

Even though IVRs remember to deliver compliance announcements and are cost-effective compared to live agents, turning yours into your lawyer spouting non-essential regulation messages is a pointless time waster. Also, skip legalese; long-winded and confusing statements make customers feel like you’re putting them on trial.

Alternate On-Hold Messages

Waiting for assistance irks busy people if they need to speak with a customer service agent. And hearing just one speech repeatedly every 30 seconds drives already displeased customers crazy.  Adding some variety with three alternating on-hold messages will avoid irritating impatient users further.

Play Neutral Background Music

Hearing loud, distracting music during on-hold periods annoys customers to the point of hanging up before completing their business. And anything not reflecting your brand image is a disservice to your company. Choose background selections that bring neutral reactions over ones that provoke aggravation.

Establish a Revision Plan

Your preliminary IVR objectives may be clear. But over time, they’re likely to fluctuate. Various factors can turn an original positive user experience into a negative one later. Decide how to manage inevitable changes when you implement your automated solution initially.

Request Feedback

Not letting customers share their opinions of your virtual agent is a problem many firms need to overcome. The best way to know which IVR aspects are helping and hurting your insurance business is by asking users for feedback. End calls with short surveys or simple questions to draw out patrons’ honest replies. Then upgrade your setup to accommodate the most frequent responses.

Review and Improve Your System Regularly

Treat your programmed attendant like an employee. Establish performance standards aligning with your call center or organizational objectives for it to meet. Examples include your IVR’s impact on satisfaction ratings and incorrect routing. Unless you measure your automated phone system’s success, you’ll never know whether it’s effective. Monitor announcements and prompts regularly, removing, replacing, and adding options immediately as necessary.

Schedule a consultation to learn more.