IVR is a robust instrument for managing name queues and enhancing buyer satisfaction, however it requires upkeep for optimum use. Common IVR testing is important to ensure your system is safe and works because it ought to. Testing additionally helps you enhance name flows, guarantee high quality, and perceive efficiency.
Listed here are the several types of IVR testing instruments you’ll want so as to run an environment friendly and profitable system.
Sorts of IVR testing instruments
1. Automated IVR testing instruments
These instruments automate the method of interacting along with your IVR system to get a way of what it could be like if an individual had been utilizing it. They simulate calls, navigate menus, enter information, and confirm responses so you’ll be able to establish factors the place potential points would possibly happen — with out having to take the time to undergo a complete bunch of eventualities your self.
Such a testing is very helpful when first organising your IVR system, because it received’t have been used but by lively callers. It’s additionally a good suggestion to run via automated testing any time you make any adjustments or additions to it, or combine new software program, like a CRM.
These three major areas of testing are referred to as useful testing, regression testing, and integration testing. Automated IVR testing instruments, equivalent to Cyara, can deal with all three of those areas.
2. IVR efficiency and cargo testing instruments
Whereas automated IVR testing instruments run via eventualities separately, efficiency and cargo testing instruments simulate a number of eventualities all on the similar time to see if the IVR system can deal with the amount.
These exams usually concentrate on the next:
- Load testing: Measures how nicely the IVR responds to a standard or peak load of simultaneous customers and information switch requests.
- Stress testing: Screens what occurs when the IVR will get a really heavy load or in a chronic method.
- Scalability testing: Checks how the system would adapt to adjustments within the measurement and complexity of the workload, equivalent to adjustments to the variety of customers or community site visitors.
The primary conditions the place you’ll use efficiency and cargo testing instruments are if you put a brand new system in place or if you’re anticipating upcoming durations of upper name volumes. They’re additionally nice if you wish to broaden your IVR’s capabilities however aren’t certain if the system will have the ability to deal with it.
In case you’re already experiencing issues, efficiency and cargo testing instruments will help you establish the supply of the issues and break up bottlenecks. Empirix Hammer is a noteworthy efficiency and cargo testing instrument value wanting into.
3. Voice high quality and speech recognition testing instruments
An IVR system is barely pretty much as good as its capability to work together with a caller and perceive what the caller says in return. That’s the place voice high quality and speech recognition testing instruments like Klearcom are available in.
First, voice high quality instruments consider the readability, consistency, and ease of understanding of the voice prompts that come from the IVR. Then, they search for points in pronunciation, audio high quality, and delays. Speech recognition testing instruments additionally consider how nicely the system understands what callers are saying to it.
The primary areas these instruments concentrate on are how precisely the system understands what’s being mentioned and the vary of responses the system can perceive — together with uncommon phrases, phrasings, dialects, accents, and audio with background noise.
Each voice high quality and speech recognition instruments are important if you’re growing your IVR since they assist be certain that the system can each converse and hear accurately. They’re particularly essential for companies which have a extremely interactive or complicated IVR system.
If clients need to combat a machine to get what they want, it’s extra possible that they may hand over and ask to talk to a consultant. To make issues worse, in these conditions, they’re possible already aggravated after they lastly get related with an agent.
4. IVR name circulation testing instruments
Name circulation testing instruments focus particularly on the sequence of actions inside an IVR system.
They make sure that all of the menus are arrange in ways in which make sense, that requests get routed to the precise division, and that there’s both a straightforward solution to attain a consultant or an in any other case straightforward solution to take care of an error if one thing sudden occurs inside a menu.
Much like automated IVR testing instruments, name circulation IVR testing instruments simulate calls. However slightly than mimicking potential buyer interactions, they methodically cycle via the menus. As such, they will let you know concerning the accuracy of name routing, the benefit and effectiveness of your navigation, and what occurs when one thing goes incorrect.
You’ll almost definitely wish to use name circulation testing instruments if you’re first organising your IVR and any time you replace your IVR or add one other menu layer to it. Name circulation testing instruments are additionally essential any time you combine different software program along with your IVR, since integrations can generally trigger unintended loops or useless ends in IVR methods.
An open-source name circulation testing instrument is out there on GitHub from person SketchingDev.
5. IVR safety testing instruments
IVR safety is a big deal. In case you’re solely capable of do one kind of IVR testing, it ought to in all probability be safety testing. These establish vulnerabilities in your system and guarantee that buyer and enterprise information stays protected.
They’ll additionally assist you to keep away from points with denial-of-service assaults, through which malicious actors flood your IVR system with so many calls that it turns into unusable.
There are three main sorts of IVR safety exams that companies can profit from:
- Vulnerability scans: These exams undergo every step of your IVR and search for locations that hackers might break into, steal info from, or in any other case exploit.
- Penetration exams: Penetration exams are carried out by simulating a wide range of identified assaults on the system and seeing how nicely or poorly it responds.
- Authentication exams: These exams are carried out to ensure your IVR can’t be tricked into releasing confidential information by somebody pretending to be another person.
Altogether, these exams give you a transparent image of your IVR’s vulnerability to assaults, letting you make selections about the way you wish to defend it.
It is best to use exams like ProCheckUp, a powerful instance within the discipline of IVR safety testing, commonly all through the lifetime of your IVR. It’s particularly essential to do safety testing after making any upgrades or adjustments, simply in case any safety points had been launched.
Utilizing IVR testing instruments vs hiring execs
It’s potential to make use of IVR testing instruments your self, however some individuals desire to rent technical consultants to deal with the evaluation. Think about the next elements when deciding whether or not to conduct your individual IVR testing or rent an expert:
- Your stage of experience: When you have prior expertise testing IVRs, then you definitely in all probability don’t want to rent an expert. Whereas it’s one thing you’ll be able to study, when time is an element and also you don’t have the information, then an expert could also be higher.
- Your sources: Your price range is a key consideration when deciding to make use of a DIY strategy in your IVR testing, as are your time and your competing priorities. Do you may have the price range to rent somebody? If not, do you may have the time and bandwidth to do it your self?
- The complexity of your IVR: In case your system is pretty easy, likelihood is you are able to do the testing your self with out an excessive amount of hassle. When you have a way more sophisticated system, it’s in all probability higher to outsource.
- The stakes for your small business: Think about how essential your IVR is to your small business operations and your relationships with clients. If one thing goes incorrect along with your IVR, can your small business deal with it, or would it not be massively disruptive? Equally, in case your clients’ information had been ever compromised, how a lot of an issue would it not be for your small business? The upper the stakes, the extra possible it’s you may benefit from an expert.
It’s essential to notice that the majority VoIP suppliers do their very own IVR testing and upkeep, so there’s no want so that you can fear about it for those who go that route. In case you’re utilizing a unique sort of enterprise cellphone system, you’ll have to find time for common testing, whether or not you do it your self or discover exterior assist.