We don’t think it would be going out on a limb to say that customers think interactive voice responses (IVRs) need a reboot.

In fact, a recent survey reported more than half of customers said exactly that when questioned about their experiences with automated services across a range of organizations.

One bad experience can go a long way to erasing several satisfactory ones if social media feedback is anything to go by. The trouble is, not all voice bots are created equal. And one with limited functionality, primed on keywords alone, can easily cause unnecessary frustration for customers and callers.

Since COVID, we’ve become accustomed to reaching out to banks, retailers and healthcare providers whenever, and whatever, need arises. The concept of “office hours” has been eroded to the point of extinction. If a company’s care team is not “on,” it is in trouble.

This shift is not just being fueled by customer expectation that businesses will be “always on.” The grimace and bear it tolerance with which we once endured old school foibles like Muzak, “Your call is very important to us,” or dead air is generational too. Millennials want answers and they want them now. (Gen Z wanted them before there was even a question.)

The solution is upgrading to the new breed of next-generation virtual agents.

Financial services, healthcare and retail all benefit from customized, fine-tuned models and task sets. Our experience shows that the most successful contact centers are hybrid by design, based on a dynamic partnership of experienced human agents and more intuitive, leading-edge AI. Migrating contact center systems to the cloud is now, in our view, essential if high caller expectations are to be met.

And while high functionality is certainly making the work of contact centers more complex, that’s not a reason to give up on core processes. For instance, proper routing to the right person at the right time goes an awfully long way toward a more satisfying customer experience.

The basics—done better—is a great place to start.