Interactive voice response (IVR) testing) is the process of validating that automated phone systems deliver the intended customer experience. Call Explorer is Cyara’s automated IVR testing feature that generates test scripts in real-time as you make manual calls, eliminating the need for tedious documentation and enabling instant test repeatability.
Key takeaways: benefits of automated IVR testing with Cyara
- Automatic test script generation — Test cases are created in real-time during manual calls, eliminating manual documentation.
- Reduced manual dialing — No need to repeat calls just to capture missed details.
- Faster defect resolution — Development teams can instantly reproduce issues with auto-generated test scripts.
- Immediate ROI — Test libraries are built automatically, delivering value on current projects rather than only future ones.
- Simplified root cause analysis — One-click test reruns help pinpoint and validate fixes quickly.
Recently, Cyara officially announced the release of Call Explorer. If you haven’t had the chance watch or read up on how this feature helps make it easier to shift from manual to automated IVR testing, you can learn more here.
In addition to making test case authoring (the process of creating detailed, repeatable test scripts) much easier, Cyara also helps to support teams of manual contact center and IVR testers. How?
Call Explorer aids manual contact centers
Until now, manual testers responsible for testing IVRs have faced significant challenges while other business teams benefit from automation. Historically, there has been no easy way to off-load or streamline the task of building libraries of test scenarios that are detailed and consistent enough to be repeated. Therefore, testers end up having to build these test cases manually, over and over again.
With test plans, detailed or sometimes not, in hand, they call into their company’s contact center, document the steps they take and the prompts they hear, and look for defects or opportunities where customer journeys could be improved. They must manually build their test cases step by step, provide proof their tests were completed, and, if defects were discovered, document and share the details so that development can reproduce the defect, then fix it.
To capture every detail accurately, these testers sometimes have to repeat calls. It takes time, concentration, repetition, and domain expertise, which is hard to come by if you are a new member of the team or you’ve been tasked with testing CX using a more unstructured, exploratory approach (testing without predefined scripts to discover unexpected issues).
This takes a lot of time, which means cost goes up and project timelines extend. For testing teams that do take the time to build these libraries, the return on investment typically happens on future projects, delaying the pay-off and making it hard to justify the effort.
It’s true what they say… a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s take a look at an illustration of this IVR testing process using the existing, manual approach.
Manual IVR testing vs. automated IVR testing
| Aspect | Manual IVR testing | Automated IVR testing |
| Time investment | High — requires repeated calls to capture details | Low — test scripts generated automatically in real-time |
| Documentation effort | Manual note-taking during every call | Automatic — full transcription captured without manual input |
| Repeatability | Difficult — requires rebuilding test cases each time | Easy — one-click test case rerun |
| Defect tracking | Manual documentation and communication to developers | Automatic — shareable test script links for instant reproduction |
| ROI timeline | Delayed — benefits realized only on future projects | Immediate — value delivered on current and future projects |
What does a manual approach to IVR testing look like?
Below are common steps that manual testers typically have to move through, the issues they may encounter along the way, and areas where repetition and inefficiency wreak havoc on productivity.
- Define the test plan — Create a list of tests to run and the data needed to run them. In many cases, these test plans lack detail and require deep application and domain knowledge, something that new-on-the-job testers or non-technical members of your team don’t usually have.
- Dial into the IVR — Start calling the IVR and taking the journeys your callers would take. This means literally dialing, from your home, mobile, desk, or desktop softphone, into your contact center.
- Document every detail — As you dial and follow the path to be tested, you must write or type every prompt you hear, every word you say, and every step you take. Miss something? Hang up and dial again. And again, if necessary.
- Report successful tests — If the experience was as it should be, report the test as successful. It’s often necessary to figure out a way to show your work and prove you’ve tested the identified customer journeys all the way to the end or interaction with a contact center agent. That takes time.
- Document defects manually — If during your manual test call you uncovered a defect, you must manually document every detail. What went wrong? When did it go wrong? How did you find the issues, and was it a user error, or an actual defect? Can you reproduce the problem? All those questions need to be answered, articulated into a report, and communicated to the development team so they can fix the error.
- Repeat the process — All done with one of your test calls. It’s time to start the process over again.
While that seems overly complicated and labor-intensive (and it is!) testing your IVRs to ensure that customer journeys are delivering the experiences that you have designed is non-negotiable. It’s a vital and extremely important aspect of flawless CX. And, until now, there hasn’t been a great way to support manual testers with automation.
We built Call Explorer to rectify this wrong and give manual testers a way to reduce the time, effort, and cost of building libraries full of test scenarios they can easily use immediately and in future automated testing campaigns. Because Call Explorer is automatically generating fully transcribed, repeatable test cases in real-time as a manual test call is made, testers can enjoy immediate and future benefits.
How does Call Explorer smooth out IVR testing?
Now, let’s revisit that visual process flow chart with Call Explorer assisting the process with automation.
- Start with the test plan — As before, define the test plan and make a manual test call. But here is where things change.
- Call Explorer captures details automatically — As you make that first, manual call into the contact center with Call Explorer, instead of having to simultaneously follow the defined test path, document every prompt, selection, and step taken, and listen for defects, Call Explorer works in the background to capture that detail for you. Now you can focus on things like quality of the interaction and ways this journey might be improved, instead of furiously scribbling notes!
- Report results easily — Call Explorer makes it easy to report your test progress and results, since you have an automatically generated test case file containing all the test call data you need.
- Accelerate defect resolution — If you did find an error along the way, Call Explorer has already logged the details of that defect you discovered. With that automatically generated test case, you can simply send your development team a link to the test script, which they can auto-run again to exactly reproduce the defect. That makes for lightning-fast root cause analysis (the process of identifying the underlying cause of a defect) and a faster resolution. Plus, it’s as easy as clicking “run” on that test case again to validate that the defect has been corrected!
With Call Explorer, IVR testing will never be the same. It will be faster, easier, and even better for your customers. Make the shift today and start making every test call count.
