IVR/VRU Benchmarking

[mr.ellison]

I'm beginning a Six Sigma project on increasing VRU/IVR calls resolved, and am having a difficult time getting info on best-in-class (financial services) or best practices. It doesn't look like anyone is measuring calls RESOLVED by the VRU, only calls handled. Is anyone out there measuring this, or know where I might look next?

[Michcall]

The only way I've seen measurement of call resolution through an IVR is an assumptive measurement that "calls handled" minus "number of callers who opt out to an agent" equals calls resolved. Perhaps your IVR vendor can provide you with some industry standards or norms surrounding this.

You could also prompt callers prior to disconnecting the call to answer the question "Did this information answer your question?" or "resolve your concern?"

I think you may also need to look at your definition of "calls resolved" An IVR can answer questions, provide information, collect information or manage transactions, but not all of those activities "resolve calls". In the financial services industry as an example, my bank may allow me to do IVR banking (balance inquiry, transfer funds, review cleared checks, etc.). If I bounce a check and do a balance inquiry to see why, the IVR didn't solve my problem, but it did complete the transaction I asked it to do and give me info to solve the problem. If I just call in to do a balance inquiry, then it did solve my problem of not knowing how much cash I have. So, the IVR gave out the same information, but in one case a problem was solved, but in the other it was not.

[aholden]

While we don't specifically measure IVR/VRU call resolution, you might find the Voice Performance Index which looks at the Quality of Experience for the customer and the end-to-end performance of voice applications: transaction failure rates, average call length, and customer "delays." The VPI surveys various industries including Banking, Brokerage firms, and Credit Card companies. There is also a white paper addressing the "Top 20 Reasons Contact Center Voice Applications Don't Scale." This information can be found at:
http://performance.empirix.com/voiceindex/