Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are changing the face of marketing, and they’re only getting more reliable and easy to use as time goes on. An IVR is a cloud-based phone system that is fully automated and gives callers menu options paired with pre-recorded instructions and details. By using their voices or keypad inputs, customers can choose whatever options they need and the menu will respond dynamically. 

 

This gives your business the ultimate flexibility to scale seamlessly and allows customers to navigate to the exact department or function they’re looking for. Additionally, many tasks can be fully automated. Things like taking payments, giving customers business hours, or handling order updates, and more. 

 

But as a marketer or advertiser, you might be trying to figure out how to leverage IVR in a meaningful way for your business. If you need to learn more about how your company can truly leverage and use IVR, we’re going to give you a clear picture of how in this article. 

 

IVR Technology Increases Efficiency

One of the first things that IVR helps with is the automated organization of calls. When you implement an IVR properly, it allows you to stop sending your marketing calls directly to a human being by default. Most marketing campaigns have their phone traffic going directly to a leader generator, salesperson, or receptionist right away, and this can be a mistake. 

 

When you have your phone traffic all going to a person (or team of people), you’re missing out on an opportunity to pre-qualify and warm up the lead first. For example, when you use an IVR, you could begin by implementing a simple menu that asks for the customer to let you know what product they’re interested in. 

 

In some cases, you can fully automate your sales process– however, for some sales, it might require the warm touch of a lead generator or salesperson. If this is the case, by using the customer’s menu input, your team will now have a better sense of what the customer is looking for before they take the call. 

 

One of the most beautiful features of having an IVR is that your business can now effectively be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Organizations can set up menus where customers can call in and check order statuses, account details, balances due, or other details– no matter what time of day it is– and that includes holidays and weekends.

 

This is just the beginning. You can also leverage IVR technology to control exactly where your calls are being routed, which can lead to a serious increase in sales. Let’s talk about that more in-depth next.

Identify Callers for the Ultimate Experience

One of the other major benefits of IVR is that your system will be able to identify who is calling in, which gives you a multitude of options as a marketer. 

 

If they’re a new customer, you can have a specific menu play that is designed to get them to convert more easily. If they’re a repeat customer, you can recognize the number they’re calling from and associate it with a customer profile. If you have the pertinent information for a repeat caller, you can even mention special days like their birthdays (or other meaningful dates). Either way, you can use customized greetings to create an impeccable customer service experience for any caller. 

 

As a marketer, you want customers to trust your brand and hold you in high regard when it comes to customer service. When you’re able to offer a customized, tailored experience, you’re able to set yourself apart from your competitors. 

 

IVR systems are smart enough to tailor-make a unique experience for each caller depending on the situation and specifics, and you can use this to your advantage to make customers happier, and improve the results of your marketing campaigns overall.

 

Use Different Routing Methods for More Sales

Since an IVR can recognize who is calling, there are ways to optimize and maximize this as a marketer. If you do have offers that are going to a live sales team, there are various ways to route the calls so that you and your sales team can be set up for the most success. 

Pre-Sale Routing

As an advertiser or marketer, you want to be sure that every lead you generate is given the full potential to become a sale. One of the most challenging problems that some marketers face is that they have no way to divide their leads out in any meaningful way when giving them to their sales team. Most sales teams just count the volume of the leads given and try to make it as even as possible, but that’s about as far as it goes. When your marketing campaigns are generating leads, it’s often down to luck of the draw in terms of which lead goes to which salesperson– but it doesn’t have to be that way. 

 

When you use IVR, you can route certain leads to specific sales agents based on the information that the lead inputs into the call menu. Does the customer’s input indicate they may be early on in their search and just “kicking tires”? Perhaps you’d want to route that lead to a newer salesperson. Or if the customer’s input suggests they’re further down in the sales funnel, or even more likely to make a larger purchase, you can have those calls routed to a more seasoned salesperson. 

 

You can also use this as an opportunity to incentivize your sales team: perhaps the person with the highest closing percentage from the previous week gets the chance to speak with qualified leads first. You can use your IVR to route specific calls to your top performing salesperson to make that happen.

 

This sort of routing doesn’t just have to apply to sales skill. You can also use it to segment your calls and funnel them to a specific certified person or expert. If a customer is looking for a particular product or service, you can optimally route them to someone who has expertise in that area. This also works well if there are various levels of certifications within your sales team. 

 

By utilizing pre-sale routing via IVR, you’ll be able to get the most out of your marketing dollars.

 

Post Sale Routing

There’s an old adage that says that it’s easier to sell someone who has already bought from you, and you can leverage this principle with the power of an IVR. Since your IVR will recognize repeat customers, you can give them priority routing over someone who hasn’t purchased from you yet. 

 

You can rank priority in various ways. Perhaps the people who have the most completed orders with you immediately go to the top of the sales queue. By giving these people white-glove customer service, you’re able to build even more trust and brand equity, which often leads to more sales. 

 

This can also make your life easier if your company uses any sort of account manager. Since the IVR knows who’s calling in, it can route customers to a specific person or sales team that they’re familiar with. This can be a powerful tool. Since a relationship is already built, the customer isn’t talking to a stranger each time they call in. And when your sales team can build a bond with a customer, a new sale can be much more smooth and simple. 

 

If you have any sort of tiered or different memberships for your company this is also a great way to get the correct customer to the specific support team that deals with their exact membership.

How Affiliate Marketers are Using IVR Menus

If you’re an affiliate marketer or advertiser, an IVR can be a very lucrative system for you to use. One of the easiest ways to take advantage of this is to monetize any of your existing affiliate phone numbers. In our experience, many affiliate marketers have websites or landing pages with phone numbers on them running offers. You can monetize these phone numbers by having these numbers go to an IVR call menu. By doing this, your menus can automate much of the sales process, and you’re able to scale your offer in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

 

Additionally, if you’re using SMS marketing and are sending out affiliate offers via SMS campaigns, you can monetize your DID phone numbers. Let’s say you send out a text using phone number 555-555-5555. If someone happens to call that number instead of texting back with their interest, no problem. You can have that call go directly to a call menu, which now gives you an option to monetize that customer’s interest instead of losing an opportunity.

 

For some affiliate marketers, they will run pay-per-call offers. These offers typically only pay you an affiliate fee if the customer stays on the line for a minimum amount of time. For example, some offers are “you get $20 if the customer stays on the line for 30 seconds or more.” When you send these types of calls to an IVR call menu you’re increasing your chances of the lead staying on the phone for the minimum amount of time. Another huge benefit of this sort of offer is that an IVR menu will let you scale it seamlessly. Your IVR can handle any amount of callers, so you won’t be limited by the logistics and overhead of needing to hire and pay operators. 

 

Finally, many people don’t realize that our IVR system– IVR.li–  can send text messages, which gives affiliates like you the flexibility to convert offers that you can send links to. By using IVR.li, you can do all of the above and more, which will unlock new and different ways to make affiliate revenue than you’d be able to do otherwise.

 

IVR.li is the Marketing and Advertising Tool You Need

If you want to learn even more about how you can use IVR.li to add jet fuel to your marketing and advertising campaigns, let’s talk. This article only covers some of the most basic methods of using an IVR, and truly, the opportunities are endless. 

 

Don’t wait. Start using IVR.li to get the flexibility and features you need to seamlessly make menus that will increase your conversions and efficiency. 

 

Start using IVR.li, the most robust, affordable call menu on the plant for only $9.00. What are you waiting for? Contact us now.