Contact Solutions touts its IVR 'colossus'

Automated customer support specialist Contact Solutions Inc. issued a case study that affirms the value of interactive voice response (IVR) systems in satisfying cardholders and reducing overhead costs for prepaid card service providers. Contact Solutions illustrated its point by recounting how it helped a government agency streamline its customer service for a government benefit program that utilized general purpose reloadable prepaid cards.

According to the case study, Colossal prepaid program achieves 95% self-service…and what that means to CSAT, an unnamed government agency turned to Contact Solutions to implement a large-scale customer service program that would be able to handle 150 million inbound calls per year. The agency employed an outsourcing company that chose Contact Solutions.

The Reston, Va.-based customer self service firm deployed its customized IVR for the government agency's program, which serviced 3.6 million active cardholders, representing a whopping 5 percent of the total prepaid card activity in the United States. The result was that the program registered a 95 percent customer satisfaction rating (CSAT).

"High self-service rates (95 percent over hundreds of millions of calls) are a sign that beneficiaries appreciate the ability to quickly and easily self-manage their inquiries," Contact Solutions said.

Beyond a high CSAT, the benefits of Contact Solutions' IVR are multi-sided. "Recipients save time in self-service, and get live agent support when they really need it," the firm explained. But the advantage to the government agency is quantifiable, as incoming calls to verify deposits were reduced by 11.4 percent, as well as faster − meaning automated − problem resolutions that resulted in a decreased need for customer care representatives to call customers back, Contact Solutions said.

Editorial Note:

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