Giving your callers the run-around?

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the Auto-Attendant and On-Hold messages at some companies.

I mean, who are they kidding, is your call really “very important to us”?

THE   CUSTOMER

“Good morning! Thanks for calling us!
We’re pleased to hear from you!
Your call’s important to us
So we’ve placed you in a queue.

Please find your account number and
Be sure it is correct..
It’s twenty digits long and if you
Mis-type, I’ll reject.

I’ll lead you through the whole routine
Please use your touch type phone.
Press eight and follow with the hash
After you hear the tone.

If you are a new client here..
Press two, ..if old, press three.
Press four in case we’ve done something
With which you disagree!

You have pressed four, please wait a moment
While I transfer you..
And please enjoy, while we play you
A symphony or two!

Our staff are all too busy now
To talk to such as you
Your call is so important that
We’ve placed you in a queue.”

Time passes and the music lingers
On, and bye and bye..
My cheek and ear go fast asleep,
My wrist gets R.S.I.

But wait! It may be there is hope!
I hear a ringing sound,
At last a human voice is heard
After the runaround!

“Good morning, this is Ladies wear
And may we help somehow?
Complaints?.. Oh! Just hang on a tick
I’ll transfer you right now!…”

***
“Good morning! Thanks for calling us!
We’re pleased to hear from you!
Your call’s important to us
So we’ve placed you in a queue.


o0o

by Frank Halliwell ..
Jimboomba, Australia
Public Domain

Monday I was looking at the features of a customer’s phone system at the manufacturer’s website, and they had this to say about their On-Hold message:

The InterStellar Phone System (name changed to protect the guilty. C.H.) gives you the opportunity to have music playing while a caller is on hold. Best of all you can insert interruptions during each recording in order to play a message.

You’ve experienced this. You’re On-Hold, listening to the music or messaging, when all the sudden “click”, the music is interuppted, and hope springs up within you that your call is going to be answered. Only to have your hopes dashed by the message: “Your call is important to us, please continue to hold”.

Can you say dissapointment?

I was On-Hold with a company last week that interrupted their On-Hold music every 10 seconds with this! Never do this to your callers.

Just because you use an Auto-Attendant doesn’t mean it has to be a poor caller experience.

Want to know what your caller experience is like? Why don’t you try our Caller Experience Evaluation? It’s like climbing inside your customer’s head, and hearing your business from their perspective. Very informative!

From a recent client of this:

Thanks for getting the report to me as fast as you did. I will be correcting a lot of the concerns you pointed out. Thanks again!

Don’t give your callers the run-around.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcTZHbNd8Gk[/youtube]

Leave a Reply

Subscribe to the comments for this post with RSS: RSS2 RSS 2.0