Callers often want to accomplish multiple tasks within an IVR. It is poor design practice to force callers to hang up and call the IVR again after they have successfully accomplished the first task. Additionally, callers often want to “quasi-self service”, first self-servicing for the first option and then opting out to an agent for a more complex customer need. Both of these scenarios can best be facilitated by offering an End-Task Menu.

Whether a designer offers an End-Task Menu should depend on the client's expectations that (1) affinities exist between multiple tasks and (2) an analysis of repeat callers' behaviors (if this data exists). Task affinities are tasks that group naturally together to the point that callers often perform two or more sequentially. The act of checking one's bank balance before withdrawing money from an ATM or paying a bill is an example of tasks that have affinities for one another. Another example might be a banking IVR presents an account balance amount but the caller wants to know specifically if that account balance includes a specific check number. Callers in this scenario often want to speak with an agent in order to get clarification.

End-Task Menus permit callers to accomplish more than one task without hanging up and calling again. They also permit callers to accomplish a target task and then seek additional live agent support without worrying about how to ask for access to an agent.

Also see:

Skip the List of Commands
What Not to Include at the Beginning