Best And Worst Of Phone Self-Service Design, 2009

Forrester applied its IVR Review methodology to the phone self-service experiences at 16 US firms — four each of the largest auto insurers, discount retailers, footwear manufacturers, and online travel agencies. Among the generally weak phone self-service experiences, Nike earned the only passing overall score. As a group, the auto insurers outperformed the other industries, but the last-place industry, discount retailers, lagged the top performers by only two points. Despite the many flaws, we also uncovered several best practices, such as Orbitz's anticipation of customer needs, 21st Century Insurance's clear menu options, and Nike's helpful presentation of information. To improve phone self-service experiences, firms should evaluate their own IVRs, take advantage of the right applications to manage customer service costs, and design their IVR experiences with other channels in mind.