IVR Deflection: Switch to WhatsApp for business communication & optimize voice operations

When it comes to Customer Satisfaction, it’s imperative for a business to implement the strategies that result in high Customer Satisfaction Score & a good name for the business. A Business’ Call Center in order to reduce customer waiting time & holding time may look at increasing the number of agents at their Call Center or may even think of “deflecting” or redirecting current & future voice interactions to a channel that is cost-effective and overall enhances the customer experience.

What is IVR Deflection?

IVR deflection is the practice of re-routing a customer call to an alternative service channel. Businesses can turn to the web as their main channels but are increasingly seeing more customer activity in the mobile IVR, social channels & even messaging platform.

In IVR Deflection, a business offers customers an option to switch to other channels in case the wait time is exceedingly high or simply the business may want their customers to choose a channel that’s more convenient for the customers as well as cost-effective for the business.

New-age companies & seasoned enterprises are focusing their customer service efforts on emerging channels that can aid them with answering customer queries, rather than relying solely on the telephone and email to respond to customers’ queries, grievances, and inquiries. Therefore, IVR deflection is an innovative practice for a business to optimize their Call Center volumes & offer their customers new avenues that benefit both customers and their business.

Why choose WhatsApp as a platform for IVR Deflection

Boasting a 2 billion user base with 175 million messaging a business every day, WhatsApp is a communication platform that a business has to incorporate into its customer engagement strategy. For an average Joe, the platform has arrived as a main medium of communication to communicate with friends, family and colleagues. It’s no wonder that a person would like to communicate with a business to get their questions answered on WhatsApp too.

According to a recent study, **75% **of adults said “I want to be able to communicate with businesses in the same way that I communicate with friends and family through messaging”. Also, 85% of consumers agree that interacting with a business via messaging apps build relationships with a business. In the post-covid world of customer engagement, these very findings highlight the prudence that effective communication and easy accessibility to customers is what is defining brand loyalty & long-term relationships.

To help leverage the possibilities of business communication, WhatsApp apart from its free service for individuals to communicate has gotten in its ambit two more versions of WhatsApp for business. The first being WhatsApp for small businesses, which lets businesses communicate with their customers to solve queries & grievances, allowing one person from the business to respond to customer messages on a phone or in a browser.

However, there are no options for back-end integrations or getting the coveted green tick or verification.

The WhatsApp Business API, which can be deployed with the help of Knowlarity, a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, lets businesses leverage the full potential of WhatsApp. The coveted green tick is a possibility for branded businesses. The service lets businesses connect their agents as well as Bots to communicate with customers for sales, support etc. With integration with back-end systems & CRMs possible, the service is extremely beneficial for a business to help deploy IVR Deflection.

Benefits of IVR Deflection: Switch from Call to Text

Dissuading your customers from calling to solve their queries may sound counterintuitive. However, with the many business benefits that IVR Deflection offers, it’s prudent for businesses to align IVR Deflection along with their Calling Operations for further optimization of resources. Let’s look at the many benefits of IVR for your Business and Customers-

Load Management

Reduce traffic load on Call Center by moving cases that can be solved by Conversational Bots on WhatsApp. The strategy of moving to the channel of WhatsApp along with the deployment of WhatsApp is immensely beneficial for a business when they have customers calling in for queries that can be addressed via the FAQ & updates regarding an order. This lets the agents focus on queries that need the personal intervention of an agent. This leads to a boost in Customer Satisfaction KPIs and a reduction in average handling time, waiting time etc. Hence, resulting in optimization of Call Center Volume.

Quick Service, Satisfied Customers

The seamless transition from IVR to WhatsApp is not solely based on the aspect of load management but also on the reason that communicating with a business on WhatsApp can be immensely gratifying for a customer. Since queries are solved quickly and efficiently on the already familiar channel of WhatsApp, the overall experience of a customer with the business gets immensely rewarding for the business. The business can collect CSat/NPS Scores from the customer too. This leads to quicker resolution of queries and First Contact Resolution Rate, leading to repeat calls & queries from the Customer.

Agent Efficiency

Improve agent efficiency by shifting to WhatsApp where agents can handle more than 1 conversation at once (concurrency). This leads to an increase in agents’ productivity & optimization of human resources at the contact center. The agent is concurrently able to help more than one customer at a time.

Cost Savings for Business

WhatsApp as a channel is comparatively cost-efficient. Voice Calls are not only time consuming but also expensive. By deploying WhatsApp Business API, a business reduces costs by moving from a synchronous channel to the asynchronous channel of text-based WhatsApp messaging - one that is inexpensive to attend. This leads to high savings on Customer engagement.

IVR Deflection beyond Call Center optimization- There’s more to it

IVR Deflection is not only limited to deflecting calls from Call Center to WhatsApp for further communication. Let’s look at other paradigms for IVR Deflection

Connect to Customers with a Missed Call- A business can display their Number in print, online to deflect potential voice interactions and customers to their WhatsApp Business Number. The customer can simply give a missed call to the business to receive support messages from the business on WhatsApp regarding sales, grievances, product enquiries etc.

Collect NPS Score from Customers- Post an interaction with a customer, a business can simply send a message to the customer to rate their experience with the business with a simple message on WhatsApp. The business can let the customer simply end the call after getting their questions answered and not make them wait for long in order to get feedback. Most customers anyway end up cutting the call before rating the business. Hence it makes immense sense for the business to deploy IVR Deflection for NPS Score Collection

How to get WhatsApp Business API for your Business

WhatsApp Business API is an obvious choice for any business across any industry that’s looking to leverage the viabilities of business communication on WhatsApp. A business can connect to Knowlarity, a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, to get the WhatsApp Business API for their business. get a free demo!