In Part 1 of my 2 part series on outbound IVR for service companies and utility providers, I discussed how these companies are using outbound IVR for appointment reminders, to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and the benefits gained from utilizing outbound IVR.

In Part 2, I will discuss how service organizations and utility providers use outbound IVR to assist in sales and marketing.

Sales Acceleration

Businesses have found that advertising through direct mail, magazines and email no longer produces the results they used to.
Do you open every commercial e-mail that you receive? Do you read all of the unsolicited direct mail pieces that show up in your mailbox? What about ads in magazines? Probably not, right?

Do you answer your phone? If you’re like most people, the answer is a resounding “yes”. That’s why service company’s and utility providers are utilizing Outbound IVR solutions. Let’s compare Outbound IVR to other popular forms of delivering a marketing message

Outbound IVR vs. SMS Message Delivery

SMS

• Limited to delivering messages to mobile phones
• Not every mobile user subscribes to SMS
• Only 40% to 60% of customers share their mobile telephone number with service providers

Outbound IVR

• Is interactive and can deliver messages, verify appointments & orders, conduct surveys, route customers to a business office or call center
•  Communicates with any phone whether it be mobile, home or business
• 100% of customers share some sort of contact telephone number that Outbound IVR can contact

Outbound IVR vs. Broadcast Email Platforms

Broadcast Email Platforms

• Consumers are overloaded with the number of emails they receive both in their business and personal email accounts
• Many individuals use spam filters which automatically delete ads or bulk mail
• To avoid receiving unwanted email, many customers do not share their email address

Outbound IVR

•  100% of customers share some sort of contact telephone number where they can be contacted
• Outbound IVR can be set-up to deliver messages or surveys to either “live” individuals, voicemail or both “live” individuals and voicemail
• Outbound IVR can route callers directly to a business office or contact center
• Outbound IVR reaches more individuals than any other method of contact. It is not uncommon on a well scripted Outbound IVR campaign to have 50% or more of the individuals called listen to all or part of the message and respond

Improved Bottom Line with Outbound IVR

Pre-recorded phone calls are a great way for service organizations to market products or services with minimal investment of time and money. Instead of spending a fortune on having live call center agents “fat fingering” outbound calls to prospective customers, a service company can create a high-quality call blast just minutes, effectively delivering their message and saving them thousands of dollars. When customers are interested in their message, the “press 1 to transfer” feature helps them take advantage of that interest by connecting them to their prospect immediately. With the money they save by using Outbound IVR services, they can invest more heavily in new services and features or inbound customer support, all things their customers will appreciate.

Hosted Outbound IVR

Rather than purchasing expensive equipment for Outbound IVR and hiring technicians to manage it, many service companies and utility providers are utilizing hosted Outbound IVR solutions. With a hosted solution, an organization can focus on their core competency and allow their hosted provider to manage their campaigns and surveys. Costs for hosted Outbound IVR range from 3 cents to 10 cents per minute, depending on the provider, with minimal set-up fees.