Key takeaways
- Cyara Crawler automates IVR discovery, eliminating the need for manual call flow testing.
- The customer reduced phone numbers from 100 to 10 by identifying and removing duplicates.
- Crawler generates readable PDF documentation that is easier to maintain than legacy formats.
- Both business hours and after-hours experiences can be documented automatically.
- Staff time is freed to focus on higher-value migration tasks.
What is Cyara Crawler?
Cyara Crawler is an automated IVR discovery and mapping tool that systematically explores your interactive voice response (IVR) system to create comprehensive documentation and visual maps of your call flows, the paths customers take when navigating phone menu options.
As part of a recent IVR migration project, a Cyara customer needed a better understanding about their existing call flows as well as updated documentation. The results were significant: the customer reduced their phone numbers from 100 to just 10 by eliminating duplicates, while gaining complete visibility into their customer experience.
How Crawler works
Crawler is designed to ‘crawl’ your IVR to discover what’s there and create an interactive, visual map you can navigate, edit, and explore. It also creates documentation you can use for development. Using dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF), the signal tones generated when pressing phone keypad buttons, Crawler works by dialing the number for an IVR application and recording and transcribing the menu prompts. Extracting the available options, Crawler places subsequent calls and progressively records the paths through the IVR and produces an interactive map. Crawler can also pause and alert an operator when human intervention is needed to enter data; for example, an ID, PIN, or zip code.
After a successful customer project last year, the Cyara Professional Services team saw Crawler as a perfect tool for optimizing and improving the customer’s IVR migration project.
The challenge: outdated IVR documentation
The customer faced these specific challenges:
- Out of date, unmaintained documentation
- Uncertainty about existing call flows and their current state
The customer’s goals were to improve the customer experience they were providing by:
- Understanding their existing call flows
- Consolidating and reducing duplicate support phone numbers in use
- Being able to reuse existing call flows if applicable
- Creating better documentation
Results and time savings
The Cyara Professional Services team ran a Crawl before the IVR migration began, which revealed what was in the customer’s call flows. This allowed the customer to begin simplifying and reducing the number of phone numbers in use since there were many duplicates serving the same purpose. More Crawls were run to different depths of the IVR; some Crawled to two or three levels, while the deepest went to six. So far, the customer has been able to reduce the phone numbers available from 100 to ten.
The Professional Services team also documented the customer experience provided during both business hours and after hours, meaning it was checked twice. This would be a prohibitively time-consuming task if it was done manually.
Benefits
While the migration project is ongoing, the customer has already seen three key benefits:
- Call flow documentation in PDF format: The customer didn’t have the data in this format before. It is now more readable and easier to maintain.
- Visibility into the customer experience: The insight provided by Crawler exposed issues with the CX.
- Time savings: Without Crawler, someone would have to take the time to manually test the call flows. This would involve dialing each number multiple times to follow one path and keeping track of the results — a time-consuming and intricate task. Crawler has already saved the customer time, and allowed staff to focus on higher value tasks associated with the migration.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cyara Crawler?
Cyara Crawler is an automated IVR discovery and mapping tool that dials into an IVR, records and transcribes menu prompts, and produces an interactive, visual map of the entire call flow.
How does Crawler navigate an IVR system?
Crawler uses DTMF inputs to dial into an IVR application, extracts available menu options, and places subsequent calls to progressively record paths through the system. It can also pause and alert an operator when human input is needed, such as an ID, PIN, or ZIP code.
What problems does Crawler solve for IVR migration projects?
Crawler helps teams address outdated documentation and uncertainty about existing call flows, giving them a reliable baseline before migration begins. It also helps identify duplicate support phone numbers that can be consolidated.
How deep can Crawler map an IVR?
Crawler can be run to varying depths depending on the complexity of the IVR, with some crawls reaching two or three levels and others going as deep as six levels.
What documentation does Crawler produce?
Crawler generates call flow documentation in PDF format, making it more readable and easier to maintain than previously outdated or informal records.
How does Crawler save time compared to manual testing?
Manual testing requires staff to dial each number multiple times, follow individual paths, and track results, which is both time-consuming and complex. Crawler automates this process, freeing staff to focus on higher-value tasks associated with migration.
Can Crawler help reduce the number of support phone numbers in use?
Yes, Crawler exposes duplicate call flows serving the same purpose, enabling teams to consolidate phone numbers. In one customer project, the number of available phone numbers was reduced from 100 to ten.
Does Crawler check both business hours and after-hours call flows?
Yes, Cyara’s Professional Services team used Crawler to document the customer experience during both business hours and after hours, a task that would have been prohibitively time-consuming if done manually.
