With most customers now shifting to online shopping (Torkington, 2021), it’s crucial for you to ensure that your business stays competitive with payment processing. Aside from regular payment methods, you also need to embrace new technologies such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) payments and find high-risk merchant account providers that offer these services.
But what exactly is IVR and why does it make perfect sense as a payment processing method?
What Is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?
IVR payment is essentially computer technology that allows customers to process payments over the phone without the need for human interaction.
Instead of talking to agents in call centers, IVR uses voice prompts to guide customers through processing payments for orders, making this system faster and more convenient.
The Benefits of Using IVR
Also known as a telephone payment system, IVR has proven to be very beneficial in a lot of ways:
IVR payment systems are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This helps you ensure that all payments will be processed without the need to hire real people.
Running a business is already very expensive, so having to hire people to take calls and process payments over the phone adds to your expenses. With IVR, you only need to invest in the system and you won’t have to worry about staffing problems again.
Customer satisfaction. Dealing with customers over the phone can be tricky if human interaction is involved. While it’s definitely useful, having an automated system will speed up transactions because there are no conversations and everything is straightforward.
The customer is guided through a clear process where they just click on options and the transaction is done within just a few minutes. This helps keep customer satisfaction high without spending a lot of your capital.
Some customers prefer to process transactions over the phone instead of through a website because they’re more guided on how to go about making their payments.
Almost everyone also has phones, so IVR is a much more convenient method of processing payments, especially for international payments where multiple languages are required.
Time management. With IVR, it’s easier for you to conserve your man-hours and delegate your team to tasks that serve the core purpose of your business. You get to manage your time well while making sure that your customers’ needs are always attended to.
If you want to stay relevant and competitive, you need to be as flexible as you can in running your business. By giving your customers options with payment processing, you’re showing them that you value their loyalty to you, which helps them stick with you in the long run.
So, how exactly can you embrace IVR payments into your system? The first step is finding a good payment processing partner that can offer you IVR payment as an option for your customers.
Your payment processing partner will play a crucial role in making sure that this system stays efficient even if your orders and customers will increase over time.
Citation
Torkington, S. (2021, July 7). The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour forever – and online shopping looks set to stay. World Economic Forum
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