Telestax Blog

Call Center Boosts Data Accuracy with IVR and SMS

Auto insurance call center uses IVR and SMS to measure call center effectiveness, get actionable feedback to improve agent performance, and increase customer response.

Located in a global transportation hub, a company with over 300 call center agents provides automobile and fire insurance services. The insurance provider sought to deliver an improved user experience for its 600,000 customers.

In order to ensure a high-level of service, the organization needed accurate insight into each call to evaluate individual agents and their ability to handle difficult insurance claims and other requests. This type of data is valuable as it can inform everything from employee training to technology improvements, significantly cutting down on call times and streamlining operations.

Improving Response with SMS

Typically, after a customer called to make an insurance claim or inquiry, that customer would be asked to complete a short questionnaire regarding the quality of their service. While the customers initially agreed to the survey, the email questionnaire would arrive hours after the call. The organization speculated that the poor open rates they observed with the survey was due to the time delay, as well as the use of email as the delivery method.

Using IVR and SMS the Insurance Provider can now:

  • Measure call center effectiveness
  • Obtain actionable feedback to improve agent performance
  • Increase survey responses

The insurance provider opted for a solution that could engage with the customer immediately, leveraging interactive voice response (IVR) and short message service (SMS). According to the analyst firm Gartner, the average open rate for email is around 20 percent, while the average SMS, or text open rate can be as high as 98 percent.

Connecting the Right Data to the Right Agent

With the new solution, agents were able to transfer customers to an IVR system that was already populated with their unique agent ID at the close of the call. The customers entered their phone number to receive an SMS with a link to a short survey featuring questions about their customer experience with the agent. This not only gave the customer a fast, convenient way to provide feedback, but the survey response was directly associated with the right call, so that feedback could be acted upon with the correct agent.

The data from each survey was then compiled in a CSV file that was used to create a database of rankings for each agent.

Powerful Results

Not only was the data more complete and actionable, survey open rates improved significantly. The insurance provider was able to effectively evaluate call center agents with the goal of ensuring a world-class experience for their customers.

What’s Next

Using Telestax Restcomm APIs and standalone applications, more and more providers are delivering the communications solutions that enterprise customers need to meet their business goals. Organizations can scale data collection initiatives while reducing infrastructure expenses, setup time, and maintenance with the power and flexibility of communications platform as a service (CPaaS). With CPaaS, IVR takes to the cloud, reaching more customers faster and with reduced costs. Enterprises can scale their efforts to include thousands more participants, target IVR call flows, and collect more robust data, in addition to gaining programmable SMS, voice, text, and chat capabilities. CPaaS allows providers to digitally transform their business, leveraging data in new and innovative ways that drive results.

Download a printable version of this case study complete with call flow diagram or contact info@telestax.com to learn more about Telestax IVR and CPaaS solutions available today.

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