What is an Outbound IVR?

IVR stands for interactive voice response and is technology commonly used in contact centers. Most people are familiar with inbound IVRs - they play a recorded greeting when you call customer support and then provide a series of menu options. Outbound IVRs are lesser known, but still play a vital role in many contact centers by sending proactive, personalized messages to customers via phone, text or email. In that respect, outbound IVRs are related to predictive dialers, because they can operate in multiple channels and process requests without human intervention.

As an example, a cable company can use an outbound IVR to automatically call new customers to remind them about their upcoming installation appointments. The system may use artificial intelligence (AI) to customize the message with the date and time of the appointment and other relevant information. Some outbound IVRs will let customers interact with them using automatic speech recognition (ASR). In this example, the customer could reschedule their appointment through the IVR - no agent needed. But if the customer does feel like they need human interaction, the outbound IVR can connect them to a service representative at any time.

In the above scenario, the cable company can realize significant, measurable benefits by reducing costly missed appointments. Outbound IVRs can also provide other benefits. For example, they can improve the customer experience by facilitating proactive notifications such as those required by recalls. When integrated with the right systems, the outbound IVR can identify the customers who are impacted, personalize the messages for each customer, and automatically send out the communications – and do all this without the need to involve a costly live agent.

Given the right business needs, an outbound IVR can help organizations be more efficient and proactive.