Common Voice and Chat Script Problems – Part 1

Contact centers are complex and delivering quality voice and chat interactions is among one of the most challenging initiatives out there. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some relatively simple enhancements every company can make to improve performance. What is one of the most effective? Implementing script best practices to your voice and digital channels to make them easier to navigate and more customer friendly.

Clunky IVR and chatbot scripts, bad voice direction and overly wordy material can make your systems annoying, slow and difficult for caller engagement. And as we know, an interaction that frustrates customers is bad for business and bad for your overall brand image. Let’s take a look at some common script issues and simple ways you can fix them.

Your tone doesn’t match your brand

Have you ever felt chastised or talked down to by a company’s interactive voice response? Irritated at the voice or the cadence? It seems silly to be mad at a machine, right? However, this is a common issue for IVR users, and it starts with the script. Too often, the voice direction and tone don’t match the actor, the brand or the application.

Think about it this way… When you contact a hospital to inquire about a sick loved one, should the virtual assistant be stern and abrupt or calm and compassionate? When you need technical information, do you want to engage with a virtual assistant that has a bubbly, conversational tone, or a chatbot that gets to the point quickly and politely? The answer is to write your script to fit your customers, your application and your brand.

Your prompts are too complex

Often businesses rely on marketing or web content writers to craft their prompts. The first caution here is that the written word does not match the spoken work. The Voice User Interface (VUI) designer strikes a balance between being informative and keeping the IVR interaction simple to use. This whole process can feel a little confusing for the customer if not done correctly. How can you avoid this? Read your prompts out loud – If they sound strange, are difficult to speak or sound stilted to you, imagine how they will sound to the caller. They need to be changed. Your customer knows who they are calling and why, so make it easy for them to get where they want to be.

Your prompts are out of order

In addition, your prompts may be inadvertently complex because they are out of order. In most circumstances, place the most frequently selected prompts first. Afterwards, your callers hear the option they want and can move on. There are exceptions to this guideline. You may want to put self-service options first or arrange the options to minimize errors.