The North American market for hosted outbound integrated voice response services is set to more than double, from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013. The global market is shifting toward a more personalized, directed method of enterprise communication with customers, while enterprises are looking for ways to maintain increased levels of communication while controlling costs.
Outbound integrated voice response (IVR), the next generation contact center technology used for automated, phone-based outbound communications, originates and executes outbound calls with customers. At present, it is used primarily for proactive communications, allowing enterprises to reach out to customers through outbound call campaigns that use a combination of pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech, interactive DTMF (dual tone multiple-frequency, i.e. touch-tone) and/or speech recognition applications. Speech recognition and DTMF are used as the primary interfaces and can verify customer details, complete transactions, and help to route calls to a live customer services agent.
Spending on hosted outbound IVR services in North America will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years, as more firms leverage outbound communications to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. Some of the early adopters for these services include financial services organizations, for debt collections and billing.
Travel and tourism companies have also been quick to take up the technology, using it to provide information about flights. This added level of customer contact can provide a competitive advantage. The healthcare industry is also deploying outbound IVR to send prescription refill, medication dose or appointment reminders to patients. Proactive communications help to reduce administrative costs in this sector by reducing the number of missed appointments.
As adoption of the technology increases, outbound IVR will be commonly used with SMS, MMS, emails and direct mail for proactive customer communications. Unlike these other technologies, outbound IVR provides a greater level of sophistication for verification and notification, by allowing the caller's identity to be verified and recording receipt of notification.
Customers are becoming more mobile and more demanding about the level of customer service that they receive. Outbound services can be used to help reduce pressure on customer service agents and provide a service that would not otherwise be economically viable. An example of this is when alerting customers of flight delays, which are time sensitive and require many calls to be made in a short time period.
Many types of transaction can be carried out entirely via an IVR system, which reduces the need for customer service personnel. Processes which can be completed via IVR include checking a bank balance, checking flight details, or paying a bill. The call is routed back to a customer service agent only when the customer needs further assistance, therefore enabling agents to spend their time speaking with customers that need specific assistance or have more complex inquiries.
Although outbound speech applications are being developed and installed today, the majority of deployments use simple DTMF applications, such as identity confirmation, prescription reminders and overdraft notifications. However, the number of outbound speech applications is set to grow through 2013 as enterprises demand greater sophistication and intuitive design from their outbound IVR solution.
With the growth of the market solutions will mature and a greater number of enterprises will begin to use the technology to proactively reach out to customers. Vendors are beginning to offer outbound IVR alongside inbound IVR solutions, and the market is changing to include email and SMS as part of multi-channel customer service solutions. Using this approach, communications can be carried out according to their time dependency and customer preferences.
Although the market for outbound IVR is in its early stages, there is strong uptake. Going forward high growth will be maintained in the market for years to come as enterprises look to increase levels of communication with their customers.