Is your time and cost cutting automated service saving your customers time and costs?

Automated machines are the bane of my life I hate them, press 1 for….., press 2 for….. and so on, I can’t be the only person that wants to speak about something not ever mentioned in all the options I am given, can I?

What options is nearest to my query, well it could be option 3, or there again it could be option 4, no really I just want to speak to a human, oh no forgot, you can’t do that.

I press option 4 and it goes into more options none of which I want, but in frustration I press options 1, 2, and 3 all in quick succession, which doesn’t result in the fact that I get to speak to a human as I hoped, but that I get thrown back to the first menu and the first set of options, I am by this time slightly irritated.

I go back in, get past the first set of options and on the second lot,  press option 3, then option 1, the one that says I am thinking of leaving them and taking my business elsewhere and I get to speak to a human, by this time I am joyous.

However the human I get to speak to really doesn’t want to speak to me, in fact by the sound of her voice she doesn’t want to speak to anyone and wants to be anywhere but at work. Disinterested, bored and lifeless are a few of the adjectives a good customer service trainer could use for this particular employee, so there is no surprise when she offers to put me through to someone in another department who will help me, and cuts me off.

I dial in again, by this time I have lost about 20 minutes between the options, the music and the general hanging on, so no, I am not happy and am seriously thinking of going all over twitter and using hash tags like #Incompetent #CustomerService #Failure and so on, when I hear a polite, somewhat pleasant woman on the end of the line, can she help?

Well it turns out that this lady is the only one in the company as far as I can see who knows what she is doing, is able to speak to customers as though she really cares, comes across as totally competent and goes someway in rebuilding rapport.  I am now relieved to have found her and am fearful she might want to put me on hold or worst still transfer my call.

Fortunately she is able to help without passing me anywhere, and does so, promising that my query which she agrees is totally the fault of the company she works for, needs addressing and will be addressed by the end of the working day.  I am beside myself and in celebratory mode until she says, if my query isn’t sorted by the end of the day, I will need to call her back selecting option 5 but not to worry, it will be sorted, why am I not convinced?

Some hours later I am no longer happy and definitely not celebrating, the query wasn’t addressed I phoned using the option 5 as instructed and I am still waiting for someone to pick up the call, perhaps the nice lady who offered to help me is trying to help someone else, her tasks I am sure are mammoth.

Please if you are in business and you ever think we might need to contact you, forget the automated options on your answer phones we need to speak to humans and preferably those that want to speak to us!