I guess I’m not the only one that is fed up with the proliferation of these automated phone-answering systems that just about every big company is now employing. “Press 1 for billing,” “Press 2 for customer service,” “Press 3 for technical support.” You know what I’m talking about.
One of the biggest problems I have with these phone-answering systems is that much of the time, the choices that I am offered by the system do not match up very well with he reason for my call. That leaves me having to guess which option will get me closest to the people I need to talk to in order to answer my question or solve my problem.
It’s bad enough that we have to deal with these robo-operators when we contact major corporations by telephone, but now smaller businesses are starting to use these systems as well.
My mother related her recent experience contacting her doctor’s office by phone and being greeting by one of these robo-operator systems. My mom is 77 years old and is not terribly comfortable with things that require her to press buttons – computers and TV remote controls are good examples.
To say she was infuriated by her experience after dealing with the robo-answering system at her doctor’s office is an understatement. After the system lead her through a series of pressing buttons, the system began to ask her questions like her name and date-of-birth. It was at that point where my mom lost her patience and somehow figured out how to get a real live human on the phone.
Just today a read about another frustrated consumer who had a bad experience with a major pay-TV company. The fellow needed some technical help with his equipment and after calling and jumping through all the hoops the company’s robo-operator system demanded of him he was disconnected by the system at least three times just as he was (supposedly) about to be connected to the technical support department. Each time he had to wait on hold for 10 or 15 minutes just to get to the tech support department only to be disconnected just as he thought he was about to get a technical support specialist on the line.
A little trick some people recommend is to press the “0” (zero) button repeatedly when you are on the line with one of these robo-operator systems which may result in your call being routed to a real person. I’ve used this trick myself and have had some success with it in the past.
Some of these robo-operator systems have voice-recognition technology and allow you to say things like “billing” or “technical help” in order to get your call routed to the department you want to talk to. One company I deal with also allows you to say “representative” if you want to be connected to a person and I’ve had success saying that word repeatedly during my call.
I can see the value of these robo-operator systems for big companies that handle a lot if incoming calls. I’m sure they save the company a lot of time and money in the long run since many of these systems allow customers to retrieve basic information without having to take up the time of one of the company’s employees, and let’s face it, some people are not terribly bright and are calling to ask very simple questions that can be answered by a robo-operator.
I’ve actually had positive experiences with robo-operator systems when I’ve wanted to do something such as checking my account balance. I’d much rather make a call and press a few buttons to get basic information like that than talk to some customer service representative that is going to ask me my name, address, phone number, birth date and God-knows-what-else.
On the other hand, these robo-operators need to make it very easy for customers to get to a real person quickly. I’m sure there are companies that are doing it right already by making the system announce the method a customer can use to get to a real person at any time during the call. You know, “Press zero at any time during this call to talk to a customer service representative.” That kind of thing.
Putting a message like that in place would greatly reduce frustration for people like my mom who does not like talking to machines. Companies need to realize that not everyone is an iPhone-carrying, Facebook-loving, web-surfing 21-year-old. My mom comes from a generation where a real person always answered the telephone no matter how big or what kind of company was being contacted.
Although I’m no spring chicken, I was immersed in the world of technology when I was hired by a major computer company right out of high school some 30-plus years ago. As a result, I evolved along with technology as it progressed through the decades and I am very comfortable with it. Companies need to realize that is not the case for everyone and people like my 77-year-old mother aren’t interested in listening to a machine tell her to press a half-dozen buttons and provide all kinds of information before she is allowed to speak with a real person.
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