Started My Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System

[nightkingdoms]

I've been using Google Voice since I turned my company into an LLC. It's been going well for a free service but I wanted something that offered more than just ringing a set of numbers and forwarding text messages.

I've heard of an online service called Twilio (http://www.twilio.com) a while back. It was an interesting concept, but never went into it more. Recently rediscovered it and finally got around to reading into it more and playing with a trial account. I do a lot of programming in PHP so their services appeal to me having fine control over a call.

I played around with it and built a pretty stable IVR system (IVRs are those automated voice systems with the phone menus). What sets this apart from most IVRs, though, is that I am able to integrate it with some of my online systems already.

So far it has the ability to check a repair status and their notes (using the same data as my online status tool). It also allows payment of an invoice by looking it up, grabbing its remaining balance, taking credit card/check information over the phone, then applying that information directly to an invoice as a recorded payment on that invoice in my ERM system. It even gives the caller a confirmation number (same as the one added to the invoice).

There's also the option to request a call back without leaving a phone number that sends a text message to me. Beyond that, I just made some simple menus and added a we-no-speaky-spanish line at the end. Two of the menu options make calls out for talking to real people. One option does voicemail which gets transcribed and emailed to my ticketing system with the audio link.

Eventually I'd like to add some more features such as receiving text/email payment confirmation, a ringdown list of multiple techs in a predefined order, web-integrated call logs/dialing/sms, etc. Also eventually want to do a call me option... Visitor visits my web site, types in their number and clicks send, their phone rings and they answer, then it calls me and we're both connected as if they called me to begin with.

Does anyone else use Twilio or another IVR system? I'd be interested in what your experiences are or what you'd be interested in doing with it if you could build one.

Thanks guys!

 

[strollin]

I'm very familiar with IVR systems. In the late 90's, I worked for 6 years as a software engineer for a company that produced an IVR system (best company I ever worked for). Twilio is interesting in that it has a different pricing model which appears to charge on a per call basis, the IVR abilities are included in that cost. The product I helped develop was something that you purchased outright ($50K) and installed into your own phone system.

The Twilio system looks like a good fit for small business.

 

[nightkingdoms]

Well last night I did a quick-and-dirty MySQL database to log all the info for the calls so at least they're recorded somewhere. Finally got it to work correctly and will definitely need to change it later, but at least I have something to record thing in the meantime.

I did notice, however, that there's a small difference between the documentation and the actual data being POSTed. At the end of a call, it's supposed to do a POST to the script with the same session ID and the outcome of the call (e.g. completed, missed, etc.). It does that, but one of the variables never come through. One of them was duration of the call in seconds.

I already record the date/time at the start of the call and the last time it was updated including the last POST so it's easier in PHP for me to deal with than seconds only. So, that's OK. Just a few differences I noticed.

Very interested in what Twilio has to offer and definitely going forward with it. Already got a long-lasting number and started forwarding everything through it so we'll see what happens. I really, really like the ability to do all of this in a language I'm very familiar with so the possibilities are endless. There's a very narrow learning curve for their XML variant TwiML so that's not a problem. =O)

 

[npinc]

There's nothing more annoying, and gets a hang-up quicker, than an IVR system. The only people that like them are the people that make them. It's almost certain death for a small business. You're not that big. Get a live person on the phone.

 

[layoric]

There's nothing more annoying, and gets a hang-up quicker, than an IVR system. The only people that like them are the people that make them. It's almost certain death for a small business. You're not that big. Get a live person on the phone.

Really? I have one, and don't get that many calls, but I see the logs, so I know what calls are from people or telemarketers, or whatever. It's a GODSEND for eliminating those telemarketer calls!

There's a few small businesses around here that have them, and they're still around. I can see your side, however. Although I have the logs to see the calls which do or do not come through, I may try turning it off for a week or so to see the difference.

As for the original post - I have a simple menu system which is an option to play information audio files, with the first option being to get right through to a technician (me). I figured setting it up this way would be less irritating to callers, keep those automated calls away, and finally provide additional information that would be always available (such as directions).

 

[nightkingdoms]

It's personally been my experience that the people that complain the most abouts IVRs are three-fold. Either a) they have so many tree menus on it that they could build a forest, b) the features of the menu are placed to eliminate something a person should be speaking with you about, or c) the person calling always demands a person no matter what.

In cases of A and B, I'm not replacing the person and the menus are small and simple. The menu options give the person things they may want or need that can be accessed faster than a person can.

As far as C, it's been my personal experience that these are the clients that are more demanding in the first place, the ones that complain about everything and get irate if things don't go exactly as they want 24/7. These would be the problem clients that want to haggle on prices, nit pick what you are doing/not doing, breathe down your neck while you're working on their computer and call you as soon as you left because you "missed" something even if you confirmed all their needs before you left.

These types of clients, they can hang up on me. I'm good with that. These types of clients cost me more air time, more drive time and want everything for free and right now-right now. Those clients I usually drop after the first job is completed because they cost you more in every area in the long run.

My IVR will be just extending the capabilities of the online services to phone and SMS in a simple manner. The client will always be able to get a person from choosing any of a few options on the first menu. If they're that impatient with a 4-8 second delay on talking to a person, they're going to go ballistic if I'm backed up or can't drop everything I'm doing and instantaneously teleport to their front door.

 

[npinc]

Actually, you're wrong on all counts.

You forgot the key factor. Human beings are that. Human beings. They don't want to be treated like sheep or herded like cattle. They don't want impersonal service. They get that from the big companies. People want, crave, to speak to other people. They're not interested in your machine and frequently, if they can't press 0 right away and get a live person, hang up.

One of the things that we know led to our success was that there were always live people to answer the phones. There are phones in every office, two in the shop and one in reception with several lines, often ringing two or three at a time. There's someone there to answer them. Even after hours there's an emergency number if they need it. I actually watched several computer shops close down... And one of our services spiked through the roof...the number one complaint from customers? "They never answered their phone".

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

 

[nightkingdoms]

First, there's no reason to start a pissing match. I said from my personal experience, which is an opinion. Just because in your situation, in your area and with your clientele you had a different outcome doesn't mean that it doesn't work or wouldn't be benificial given different circumstances. Your personal experience -- and by definition, an opinion -- isn't fact and therefore I'm not being proven anything, especially proving me outright wrong.

My clients like how I do business and my years in business reflect that after almost 14 years. And I'm barely 30, so let's not try to bring up that I'm out of touch with technology due to age. I evaluate and adapt quickly and use technology to my advantage at a very small footprint financially which minimizes my overhead dramatically. My clients always know they can reach someone and when I've approached some of my clients about the idea they've said they like it.

And actually, this feedback provided the reason for the existence of the first two options for the IVR. My clients wanted quick, 24/7 access to their repair status and payments without using a computer. They also didn't want to talk to a person to "burden" them with a quick thing they could normally do online. I'm don't normally do things simply because it's "cool". I do them because they have a purpose, saves money, or makes me more of it.

As far as being "herded" or being impersonal, if it makes the "big" companies less money, they wouldn't be doing it either. Their accountants would be ****** at the sum of the revenue loss.

 

[npinc]

And that's fair. This isn't a pissing match. Like I said, your mileage may vary.

Now that you have a look at a different side, if you're noticing a drop or an increase in hangups, this conversation might help give some guidance on that. If not, well....Awesome!

 

[drpcfix]

My two cents - I think IVRs are REALLY cool.. I try to put one in for everything, and I have some cool twilio stuff hooked up too.. we have sms approvals and such for tickets

One fun thing I did was turn our CRM into a caller ID lookup source for our asterisk PBX, so when a customer calls our phones show their name - and it came from whatever we entered in the ticketing system..

BUT - I also agree that a live answer wins, we have our phones ring about 45 seconds before rolling over to an IVR, and for the repair shop we keep it super simple - "Ring us again if it's during business hours, or leave us a message"

I found people will pick up the phone and start dialing, the first live answer that says they are available will get more of the jobs - when you have direct competition coming at you from every side.

However - our MSP department relies on IVR heavily to slow down inbound phone calls - we don't want thousands of clients calling us and getting a live answer for every little thing. For them we have queues with 45 minute timeouts and breakout menus to let them hang up - it talks them through making a ticket online and such while they wait for us to free up

Keep up the good work on the IVR -

 

[strollin]

I read an article recently (sorry, don't have the link) that was talking about how many companies nowadays are not providing any way to call them and want all contact to be done via website, Twitter, email, etc... They claim that the younger generation prefers the internet to the phone and that it's too expensive to staff a call center.

IVRs can be created that are useful and quickly navigated or they can be done poorly to the point that the user is completely frustrated. I've experienced both.

 

[nightkingdoms]

drpcfix: The way I have this setup now is as an intermediary, so it answers first. When the caller wants computer support or talk to the web hosting/design sales people it rings them. The sales is just one number but for the support it rings each tech in order of availability and drops to my answering service if no one answers. This will eventually eliminate voicemail entirely unless the customer explicitly asks for it. The answering service says either all the techs are currently busy servicing other clients or if it's after hours they say that and someone will get back with them soon.

strollin: A lot of web-based companies do this. Square is chief among them and one of the most-used that I know of that has no phone number. The 20-ish year old clients that I have do repair lookups and payments online, hence the reason why my site is fully mobile compatible and has a full client area, etc. Besdies the younger generations, the people that like the online client area the most? Businesses. Quick, 24/7 access to everything and all records are available for download or tracking.

The clients requesting the repair status and payments over the phone are the 60+ year old clients that I have, mostly. Some of them for good reason. When the repair status checking online thing was brought up, one client said I don't have any smartphones or other computers, you have my only computer. So they started the ball by saying it'd be nice to be able to check the status online.

The payment thing actually started by a couple paranoid (older) clients that said they don't trust paying online or with a person over the phone. But, they'll gladly do it over the phone with an IVR because that's how they pay their phone or cable bill. *shrugs* lol

 

[npinc]

Well, night, you know your business best. It sounds like you know your market quite well. If it fits, why not I s'pose.

 

[nightkingdoms]

Well npinc, one of the biggest things I've always done is take new and interesting technologies and see if I can fit it in my business somewhere. Then, instead of guessing if clients would even want or buy a new service, I straight-out ask them.

My clients are the best in the world and give the greatest feedback for my business to grow. I explain what it is, what it can do for them and then I simply listen and answer any questions they have. I always have an open door policy. If they have any questions, comments or ideas I make it a point (and reinforce it) to never hesitate to let me know.

You may know what is needed to meet your clients' needs, but your clients will always be your greatest resource in managing your business to make it bigger, get more revenue and get happier clients in the long run. ;O)

 

[Maniaman]

I would love to have an automated phone system at my shop, even if it was as simple as "Press 1 for computer repair", "Press 2 for websites", "Press 0 if you are a telemarketer trying to sell us something"

Unfortunately in our community I feel like an automated system would instantly turn people off. There are a lot of older people in our community, many of which I feel would *hate* an automated phone system.

Me on the other hand, I would love anything that makes me have to answer the phone less.

 

[Tucson Techie]

I guess if you're so busy and have so many callers you actually need an IVR system, then I can see the benefits of them. Also it WOULD be nice to be able to skirt around those infernal telemarketers. But unless you really have the need, I'd stay away from them for now at least. Every call is a potential sale. I've found that your ability to convert a lead from your website or business directory into a sale depends enormously on the customer's initial experience with their first contact. And if that first contact is 1. A receptionist who knows nothing about computers and therefore cannot intelligently answer the customers questions, or 2. worse, a third-party answering service who knows even less, or 3. an automated IVR system that stands in the way like a traffic cop, the customer is more likely just to move on the next company that will answer the phone with a live human being. The customer has too many choices to make things at all difficult for them.

I won't even use a receptionist for this reason. My experience is that most customers, especially the good ones with money, want to discuss what their issue is with an actual tech and they don't to jump through hoops to do this. They're feeling the company out. If the first contact is a pain it's usually safe to assume everything else with the company will be as well.

 

[nightkingdoms]

Well it's all really just an experiment at this point. To see what happens and how it goes. The IVR is pretty simple and has, generally, just the first menu. Hitting options 3, 4 or 0 will immediately transfer the call to a person (actually, a group of people, but that's besides the point lol), so basically 6 seconds after dialing the number which is the same amount of time as one phone ring.

And I see you're in Tucson. I'm in Phoenix. =O) The amount of competition in this area is ridiculous, but there's pizza techs up the wazoo here because every little computer science major thinks it qualifies him to do, well, anything with computers. #1 complaint in this area is actually answering the phone in the first place. Potential clients always get voicemail and it's usually their personal voicemail because a lot of them are pizza techs. #2 complaint is the tech actually showing up or on time. #3 is the tech ever giving back the clients' computers. The list goes on and on.

Overall the biggest impression most people around here get is that most of the people they call are doing it on the side or are disorganized to the point that it impacts their service. A good example is one of my partner tech companies (we service each others' clients if either of us can't cover the client on our schedule, but "pretend" to be each other's business). His business is managed via text messages and hundreds of notepad files all over his desktop... No, I'm not kidding. He's pretty successful and has been around for a dozen years so he's not small or a pizza tech by any means. The problem is, his own clients have complaints about him that make him sound like a pizza tech. Doesn't always answer the phone, disorganized, shows up late/reschedules, the list could go on and on.

This is why you usually see a client go to Geek Squad... They've experienced the pizza techs who could do it for less either by the impression given to them or got burned by something they did. They figure they're not going to deal with the little guy... Just to get burned by Geek Squad, but that's a different story. haha

While I agree with you on the fact that the #1 thing you need to do is answer that phone and never try to send a person to voicemail, I'm betting on this little interrupt to a) give my existing clients additional options they didn't have before, b) something that answers 24/7 regardless of time or busy-ness for the day, c) give a far better first impression than the majority of businesses they've already called who all went to voicemail or were completely unprofessional.

Sure, I will probably lose some people that hear the IVR and just hang up. So far that's a good thing... According to my logs 2 of my most-annoying clients that I'm already on the verge of firing hang up as soon as they hear it. Another who constantly tries to haggle me on prices (who I'm also going to fire) does the same thing. Everyone else that's called has just gone through, chose their option, and went on their way. (Literally, I only have one menu. lol) So, so far, so good. I'm going to keep monitoring it, but so far it's going OK and I'm hoping it separates me from the pizza techs as well. If it doesn't work out, that's fine because I can do whatever I want with that Twilio number (a couple $$'s a month isn't much investment lol). But we'll see.

 

[nightkingdoms]

Well so far, so good. Have had it up for a couple weeks and no problems yet. One of the guys that calls me day-in and day-out that stopped calling after the IVR system is back. He went on Craigslist, found a guy that would "fix anything for just $30, money back guarenteed". Needless to say, didn't fix it and doesn't have his $30 back. lol

I asked him about it and he said he didn't like IVRs in general, just assumed it was a long, drawn out process and hung up. When he came back he actually listened to it in order to get to me, chose his option and I answered immediately. He actually liked the options that he heard and that it still was easy to get a hold of me.

So the menu hasn't really been changed much since launching it. However I'm now playing around with the idea of automated appointment reminder calls or texts and extending the repair status check to automation by text message as well. Eventually I will be implementing the click-to-call idea so someone can enter their number online, the system calls them, tells them they're contacting a tech and ring all of our phones. It will tell the tech who answers that they are calling from the web site.

Also, I now have a toll free number that points to the same IVR system now for my out of state clients.

Just wanted to give a quick update. =O)