Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Enghouse Interactive Mobile IVR Navigator

November 07, 2014

Sometimes we take what is essentially contact center solutions plumbing for granted. In fact, we have all become so accustomed to interfacing with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities that we are surprised when we call an organization that we don’t hear an automated menu of connection options.


Well what about if we could have visualization of those options? Better yet, what if organization could develop applications that enabled the aforementioned visualization on our smartphones and tablets?

In what may be an instance where to steal a line from the genie in Aladdin, “Your wish, is my command!” Indeed, this is true both literally and figuratively. And, it is coming to market from IVR solutions provider Enghouse with the launch of Mobile IVR Navigator, a mobile app that visually navigates customers through an organization's customer service options by providing what is called an IVR-like experience.

"We are elated to introduce this breakthrough product to the marketplace, which represents a true industry innovation in customer interaction technology," said Christoph Mosing, president, Enghouse Interactive. "Customers today want and expect to make use of 'anytime, anywhere' technology that enables them to contact businesses when they want and by whatever means they choose.

"The ability to visualize and manipulate the Mobile IVR menu sets a new standard for how mobile users can engage an organization."

Mobile IVR Navigator is touted as being easy to create and deploy with the specific goal of reducing costs, customer effort and frustration. It is built on top of the company's IVR platform, Enghouse Interactive Communication Portal.

How it works

The Mobile IVR Navigator is actually rather elegant in its simplicity. It takes any call flow and presents it visually on smartphone or tablet screens. Customers can see the menus and prompts rather than wait to listen to them and act according to their needs. This is beneficial for customers and contact centers since it reduces the overall interaction cycle time by eliminating customer frustration time which should translate into happier interactions.

On the customer frustration elimination front, what the Mobile IVR Navigator allows is for users to enter transaction details such as account number and date of birth, enabling them to quickly get access to the information they need through self-service, or to promptly gain a place in a queue for an agent with the necessary skills to address their needs.

On the agent side it further reduces customer contact times by capturing key information prior to any actual engagement between agent and caller. Additional functionality for creating a more context-rich interaction include allowing the caller and agent to share documents, pictures and other pertinent data prior to live interaction. And, Enghouse notes that Mobile IVR Navigator also, “Drives efficiencies for businesses by enabling customer calls to be fielded interactively with user-friendly self-service, which reduces the number of calls that ultimately reach the contact center.” Also noteworthy is that when live interaction is required, customers can request an immediate callback to their mobile device, saving them time and shaving valuable minutes off mobile transactions.

The business value that accrues on the business side of things is quite evident. Enghouse is highlighting the fact that along with all of the other benefits, because mobile interaction is not queued on the more expensive telephony port, business users can add mobile navigation without increasing the voice capacity on the IVR platform. Plus, it is integration friendly with various back office systems.

All of this is certainly good news for both businesses and we as users. As most of our interactions with the brands we use are originated on our mobile devices, having the ability to speedily interact is something I for one hope I encounter as often as possible and sooner rather than later. 




Edited by Stefania Viscusi



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