Corporate digital transformation timelines have accelerated over the past two years, and the cloud has been instrumental in retail service innovation. The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed consumer shopping and service expectations. Today, consumers want to interact with brands on their channels of choice — and they want to use self-service to do it.

In a recent episode of “Customer Experience Insights,” Lisa Goodson, Retail Industry Executive at Genesys, and Bob Barrows, Head of Partnerships at Genesys AppFoundry® partner Zappix, discussed visual IVR and how it’s transforming and simplifying the retail customer experience (CX). In the podcast, they explore the benefits of moving voice customers to a digital and visual experience using on-demand apps, SMS, video and email.

Consumers’ Need for Speed

Speed is essential in delivering great customer experiences. According to the Genesys “State of customer experience” report, only 20% of consumers find it acceptable to wait longer than five minutes on hold. However, CX leaders aren’t necessarily making the cut. They report an average wait time during normal hours of 10 minutes.

Retailers must keep up with consumer demands for new channels, faster service and a more seamless experience. The increasing exposure to — and use of — digital channels is driving these expectations for more connected, personalized, convenient and timely retail experiences.

Today, retailers need a more strategic and comprehensive approach in how they offer omnichannel engagement in the cloud, how they elevate customers between channels and how they manage the customer data across all channels.

Shifting Channel Preferences

Traditionally, voice has been the predominant and preferred channel. That’s still true today; however, the use of voice is shifting greatly by generation. According to the NTT “2020 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report,” consumers over 50 prefer phone/voice calls while younger generations (50 years and under) tend to prefer digital assistants and automation. And, many corporate phone systems are IVR-based, which don’t allow consumers to easily self-service.

Retail businesses are trying to figure out the right channel mix and formula to meet customers’ needs for self-service. And they want to do this while supporting faster sales conversions, improving service processes, and enhancing their agents’ productivity and efficiency.

Visual IVR Delivers a Truly Digital Engagement

Visual IVR takes the typical voice channel, the IVR path, and turns it into an omnichannel interaction. It adds a visual layer to it and transforms that into a truly digital engagement between the customer and the business.

Consumers are overloaded with native applications on their mobile devices — each with a unique password for every business in which they interact. Visual IVR is an on-demand app; when a customer calls a contact center, they can seamlessly self-service by choosing to be sent an SMS link to an on-demand mobile app. This allows them to engage with the company through a web browser. Visual IVR taps into all the smartphone capabilities, allowing them access to information via signature panels or play a video — all within the on demand self-care app. Visual IVR takes use cases for why a customer calls a retailer and puts those services in front customers visually so they can self-serve quickly, instead of connecting to an agent.

The Genesys Cloud™ platform, combined with the power of the Zappix Visual IVR solution, makes the entire customer experience fluid and seamless. If customers need to speak to an agent, they can interact with the Visual IVR solution as they wait for an agent.

Giving customers the ability to interact with you on their channel of choice is important. But it’s even more important to engage with and transition customers from one channel to the other.

To learn more about the Visual IVR solution and hear some success stories, listen to the podcast.