Tips to Encourage Higher Pick Up and Call Complete Rates

As you roll out your IVR communications, you may encounter some hurdles and your contacts may not be responding  or participating in the communications leading to low response rates.

Below are tips that you integrate to your new and existing Voice/IVR communication to encourage high response rates

Clear and Concise Audios

Make sure your audios are clear, concise and easy ­to ­understand.

Do not use different voices and volumes throughout the IVR communication. Changes in pitch, tone and volume could be alarming to a customer who is keen on listening to the information being played back to them

For surveys, when recording questions, clearly specify the desired response format and how you would like the respondent to respond.

For example: "Are you male or female? If male, press 1. If female, press 2 on the handset or keypad"

Introduce the Call

Provide a quick intro explaining who you are,why the respondent is receiving the call, what value the call will have for both the organization and the respondent. This should be a short audio as you also should not overload the respondents with lengthy introduction

For example: "Good morning! This is an automatic call from [ Organization ]. Please answer this brief X ­question survey so we can best serve you. [ Audio for question 1 ]"

Provide a Way To End The Call

For surveys, you should provide your respondents with a way to end the call without necessarily clicking on the end/hang up button on their phones. This option could be part of your introduction and would give the contact an alternative if they do not wish to participate in the phone call

This could be a key data point when it comes to analyzing the response results once the survey has been closed. You could also use this data to identify who you may wish to follow on why they did not want to participate in the previous call or why they did not find it useful

Thank Them for Their Time

Record a quick thank you message which will be played at the conclusion of the survey. Optionally, you can also include contact information if respondent wishes to follow up with your organization.

Test! Test! Test!

Testing the audio survey with local staff before launch is vital. Ask at least 2- 5 people to test your survey to help you catch and correct problems before you distribute.

Use this time to perfect the wording and clarity of the audio survey. If anyone finds any question or interaction confusing, deal with this before any real respondents receive the survey.

Run‐up and Sensitization

If existing communication channels or touch-points are available with the audience for your IVR call, use them to prepare respondents for what to expect.

For example In a group meeting or through agents on the ground, you can explain that your organization will be doing some audio surveys, and explain that the respondent will receive a call that will play a recorded message, and how to respond to the questions.

If an SMS channel is available, use it to notify respondents who will soon receive the survey of what time the call will come in, and perhaps some short text on how to respond, and the importance of responding.

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