Friday, September 21, 2007

Please listen carefully...

It seems like you can't call anywhere anymore without getting a recording menu system.

I understand. It helps route calls to people who can be the most appropriate for answering a caller's inquiry.

What I don't get, is the ones that always start off:

"Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed."

Since when? When did they change? Do you think that I wrote down the numbers I dialed when I called 6 months ago? Do you think that I wrote down the numbers when I called last week?

And if I called an hour ago, even if I did write down the numbers for "yes, I would like the menu in English, I have a technical question, I have a gizmo model 4..." have you changed the menu system since then?

Think about the time and money you are wasting, phone menu recorders. If you are footing the bill (800 numbers)... it's costing you money to say "we have a menu, don't randomly mash numbers hoping for a favorable result, this isn't a skating video game." If you aren't footing the bill, and your customers are calling you on their dime... now you are just trying to waste their time and money dealing with a problem with your product or service.

If you have questions about this, call me. If you get my voicemail, press 1, unless the menu options have changed.

2 comments:

dave said...

Yeah, that always bugs me.

However, one time I was calling the bank so often that I had memorized their calling system. I knew the six numbers I had to press, in order, to get where I needed to go. They were the same, day after day, even though the menu system constantly informed me that they had changed.

The Prime Simian said...

I dunno, dave. I think that may reinforce my thought. All it will take is for you to end up in the wrong place once to realize that they have changed their menu.
Other than that, them saying that is a waste of time.