Debunking Common Myths about Automated Voice Messaging

Despite the prevalence of automated voice messaging, some organizations must still devote time to overcoming concerns about how an AVM solution can be more effective than live agents or a predictive dialer. These concerns typically center around three common myths:

1. AVM shouldn’t be the dominant contact strategy since many customers don’t like automation
2. In collections, AVM only works on low balance and fresh debt
3. The predictive dialer is more efficient and cost-effective

The purpose of this article is to dispel each of these myths, and arm businesses with the information needed to fully leverage AVM as an integral component of their customer contact strategies.

Myth #1: AVM Shouldn’t Be the Dominant Contact Strategy
Research suggests that AVM is growing in acceptance thanks to the increased use of the technology and to Generation Y and X’ers, who are even more comfortable with innovation. The fact is that a number of organizations already use AVM as their dominant contact strategy and have effectively shelved or replaced existing on-premise dialing solutions while growing their overall organizations. They’ve run extremely disciplined head-to-head tests to measure response rates and challenge this myth. So, what do these people know that others do not?

First, some who believe in the myth fear that customers will quickly hang up on automation. However, many, if not all of the people who hang up on AVM will also do so during the awkward pause a predictive dialer creates when connecting a caller to the contact center. In addition, although manual or predictive dialing may create more live conversations, only a small fraction consists of right parties who are willing and able to take action. By nature of the opt-in conversation via AVM, a significantly higher proportion are valuable contacts, which tends to cancel out the delta between the number of live conversations.

Second, sophisticated strategies and the use of data can influence customer responsiveness. Collections agencies using AVM as their dominant strategy utilize many different scripts, with different voices and options. Plus, they’ve analyzed data to uncover the best times and days to reach their customers, while also understanding which device to contact – home phone, business line or cell.