Imagine you're trying to book a flight. You call the toll-free number and use the interactive voice response (IVR) to get through to bookings, but instead you are put through to the baggage area. You hang up and try again, but this time you wind up speaking to the airline lounge. Do you try a third time or call a competitor? I know what I would do.

The IVR is now a key component to delivering a great customer experience, so what steps should a business take to ensure these systems are working optimally? Do they take proactive measures, or just wait until a customer lets them know that something is broken? And, by the time it gets to this stage, how many customers may have been lost?

There are some businesses out there taking unnecessary risks when it comes to testing the reliability of their communications systems. Instead of performing extensive tests, they're leaving it up to their customers to find any problems. Put bluntly, they're rolling the dice by deciding to deploy systems that haven't been properly tested. This is the primary line of communication with their customers and, in many cases, it's also how they generate significant revenue, why would they put both customer satisfaction and revenue in jeopardy?

Businesses have quite a few useful options when it comes to proactive testing. We recently acquired IQ Services, a company that tests these environments on a scheduled basis to make sure they’re working properly. It’s an automated process that tests how long it takes to answer, makes sure that the correct responses are given, and even performs a massive stress test with up to 80,000 concurrent calls. (It’s very useful for scenarios such as a large healthcare provider going through open enrollment.) These testing solutions are the way that businesses can ensure that their systems are working reliably under heavy load without leaving anything to chance.

In a world where we think of people as risk-averse, it's interesting to observe anyone who chooses not to perform these tests. It's not necessarily a conscious decision if the situation were actually framed in a way where someone knew exactly what they were putting at risk, they'd probably make a better choice. You wouldn't buy car insurance after you already had an accident. It simply wouldn't do you much good at that point. The same thing applies to your communications systems. It only makes sense to take a proactive approach to make sure things are working as expected.

Now that you're aware of what's at risk if you don't perform these important tests, don't make the conscious decision to wait until something has already gone wrong. We're talking about the potential loss of millions of dollars per hour (or even per minute in certain cases). Some strategic planning can give you the peace of mind you’ll avoid catastrophic loss of revenue in the future. Whenever you do go live with a new feature, you can do so with confidence.

We've brought these new Testing Solutions into the Prognosis family. Above and beyond, we want to make sure people understand these capabilities are available. You don't have to be reactionary, there are proactive solutions to stop you from rolling the dice when it comes to your business and customers. Don't leave the livelihood of your organization to chance. Of course, if you're in the mood to gamble your money, there's always Vegas.

Thanks to IR Prognosis for the article.