"Your call is very important to us. Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed."
This familiar greeting triggers the all-too-familiar frustration of being trapped in an interactive voice response (IVR) "doom loop," endlessly navigating through a sea of options without resolution. IVR has been a staple of customer service for decades, but from the consumer's point of view, it hasn't delivered a great experience. Three in five consumers
IVR's point of failure
Where did IVR go wrong? Its original premise was to make the call experience easier and more efficient for both sides of the equation, walking the line between self-service and hands-on customer service. However, too many legacy IVR systems are poorly designed, overly complicated, and leave no room for personalization.
Traditional IVR systems' main point of failure is that they are tethered to rules-based scripts. These scripts can only account for a limited number of customer scenarios, meaning any customer need that falls outside that scope is left in contact center limbo. Cue the doom loop.
Can we talk? The resurrection of voice
And yet, voice is making a comeback. Consider the rise of podcasts as the dominant way to learn, be entertained, and consume news. Voice messages, rebranded by Gen Z as "
With the resurgence of voice as an engagement channel, insurance organizations are wise to examine IVR's relevance more closely. Emerging advances in AI, customer behavior analysis, and cloud-based telephony solutions will soon be able to solve many of the legacy challenges, making IVR systems not only relevant but also highly engaging and more efficient.
The good news is that the traditional IVR system is rapidly evolving due to advances in AI—more specifically, generative AI (GenAI) and natural language processing (NLP).
AI and NLP: The game-changers for voice
Generative AI (GenAI) has the potential to completely reinvent the customer experience (CX) across the board, but most dramatically for voice. By eliminating the dependency on static scripts and harnessing the power of natural language processing (NLP), GenAI will usher in a new era of personalized, efficient, and intelligent IVR systems.
NLP, a machine learning technology that can interpret, manipulate, and understand human languages, can process large volumes of voice and text data from various communication channels, such as emails, text messages, social media newsfeeds, video, audio, and more. It can automatically process this data, analyze the intent or sentiment behind the message, and respond in real time to human communication.
While both Gen AI and NLP deal with language processing, the critical difference is that NLP focuses on understanding and interpreting language. GenAI aims to create new content, such as text messages, emails, or audio, based on patterns learned from existing data. Essentially, NLP is about comprehension, while GenAI is about generation. Combining these two technologies and applying them to IVR will give carriers a robust IVR system with the ability to listen, interpret, analyze, and generate a more human response than ever before.
Gen AI and NLP technologies will significantly improve insurance company IVR systems by enabling more natural, personalized, and efficient interactions with customers through features like understanding complex queries, generating relevant responses, analyzing sentiment, and proactively providing information based on customer data. This will ultimately lead to improved customer satisfaction and reduced call handling times.
Six ways AI-powered IVR can boost policyholder retention
Yes, voice as a communications channel is returning, but with modern twists leveraging evolving technology and consumer behavior. Here's how these technologies will boost the quality and efficiency of insurance IVR systems:
- Improve accessibility and inclusion. With advances in NLP and Real-Time Translation (RTT), insureds who have previously avoided voice calls will be able to use an IVR seamlessly, even if they don't speak English or have a hearing impairment. For those with visual impairments or limited literacy, AI-assisted voice interaction is essential, making digital content and services more accessible.
- Improve personalization. AI-powered IVR systems will generate tailored responses to each customer's call by analyzing an insured's policy data and previous interactions. They will provide proactive suggestions and relevant information, creating a more engaging and efficient CX. Creating a highly personalized experience for insureds will help boost retention, even if they call in with a problem or complaint.
- Ability to answer more complex questions. AI-powered IVR systems will interpret complex language during calls by enabling a more natural language flow. That includes slang, idioms, and variations in phrasing. The new generation of IVR will have the power to understand the meaning behind a customer's question, even if it's not phrased in a standard way.
- Ability to interpret tone and escalate to a human agent. Advanced speech recognition and conversational AI will be able to pick up on the tone of a human voice and register whether a caller is angry, upset, or in distress, quickly escalate a call, and route it to a human agent. This will be especially valuable in cases such as auto accidents or property damage losses when emotions run high.
- Support human agents and resolve issues faster. When a complex or sensitive call needs to be escalated to a human agent, AI will provide the necessary support to ensure a smooth transition and speedy resolution to the call. AI will quickly provide a synopsis of the topic of the call and background information on the insured, such as policy information and more.
The revival of voice communication isn't about replacing text messages, customer portals, mobile apps, or other self-service channels in the insurance omnichannel mix. Instead, it's about using powerful, next-generation technology to create a richer, more flexible omnichannel experience tailored to your insureds' preferences. IVR will finally be able to deliver on its promises. Indeed, not all of your policyholders will pick up the phone every time they need help, but the ones who will call you should have as high-quality of an experience as those who use your customer portal or mobile app.
The key with the next iteration of IVR is to eliminate the rigid rules of interaction so you don't send your insureds into a dreaded doom loop. AI-powered IVRs will do that and more. In turn, insureds can build trust, knowing that their carrier is responding to their individual needs in a way that sounds so natural it feels like a human-to-human interaction.
