Set up your Auto-Attendant to repeat the greeting automatically, and if you can’t do that, select an option key for callers to press that will replay the message. Callers may miss the option they need the first time, and not realize it until later. Some systems automatically route the call to the operator if you don’t press anything. But don’t automatically route the call until after the message has repeated at least once.

I’ve heard Auto-Attendants that disconnect the call if you don’t make a selection quickly enough! Talk about not being customer-friendly! A recorded voice saying, “Goodbye,” simply because I was thinking about the option I needed, or didn’t realize I had reached the end of the menu, is a great way to lose a customer!

Always. Always. Always give the option for your caller to reach a live person. Make it easy. Don’t hide behind your phone system, forcing callers to do things the way you want them done. I can guarantee you that at some point, a customer will call with some issue that doesn’t fit neatly into your pre-programmed options, and connecting that caller to a live person will resolve the issue with less frustration on his or her part.

You can resolve this situation with the standard press “0” for the operator option, or by some other unique way. (“If you want to reach someone, anyone, just press 0, and we’ll be happy to talk to you!”)

Think about who should take those calls. It depends on your business structure, but consider not sending those calls to a receptionist or secretary. Think about it….What this caller needs hasn’t been addressed by any of the options in your Auto-Attendant. Do you think the secretary is qualified to handle the caller’s request? Likely not.

That doesn’t mean route the call to the business owner or president, but at least send those calls to a person (or group of people) who has the power to make things happen, answer in-depth questions, or otherwise generally make customers happy (which is, after all, the point of your business…isn’t it?)

Having said that, when calls come in that are simple, but will take more than a minute to answer, have someone designated to receive that call. There may be calls that come in that can be handled by the secretary. Have a plan simply to say, “Mrs. Jones will be glad to help you with that. May I transfer you directly to her?”

Always give the option to reach a live person in some way. Your customers will thank you for it!

As I approached the elevators to head to my fourteenth floor hotel room recently, I was met with the elevator selector pictured here. Someone on the design team of this elevator company felt 100 percent positive that this selector was designed clearly so I would have no trouble at all in choosing whether I wanted to go up or down. You may think so as well.

But look closely…

If you wanted to go Up, do you push the button that the Up arrow is pointing to? Or the button beside the Up arrow? It kinda looks a little circular to me, and that could get frustrating!

Here’s what this elevator selector has to do with phone systems. Too often, the Auto-Attendant is set up on the fly by whoever is installing the phone system. Sure, the installer has tried to get the business owner or manager to tell him what options to program, and what to say, but the truth is, the business owner is thinking “Phone System” at that point, not “Caller Experience.” See, those are two different parts of the brain!

How many times have you called a phone system that sounds like this: “Thank you for calling XYZ Corp, where we really value your business! If you know your party’s four-digit extension, you may enter it at anytime. Please press 1 for Sales. Please press 2 for Service. Please press 3 for Parts. Please press 4 for Accounting. Please press 5 for Human Resources, or press 0 to reach an operator. Press 9 to repeat this message.”

That’s even hard to write, must less listen to over the phone! And here’s why: When you give the number before the option, I have to hold that number in my head while I listen to the option, and I have to analyze whether or not that’s the option I need. After listening above, I’ve got a total of seven options in my head, and they are all jumbled together. Because I’m not calling to push a number…I’m calling to go to a department.

If you list the department first, followed by the option (“To reach sales, press 13”) the department name, “clicks” with what I’m looking for in my head, making it a very easy choice to press 1. If I don’t need the Sales department, I can simply forget about that option altogether, and move on to the next one.

There’s a time to answer the phones with a live person. And there’s a time to use an Auto-Attendant. (Do you know which one to use when?)

When you decide to use an Auto-Attendant, make sure the options are clear, and easy for your caller to understand—not confusing like our elevator. If you confuse your callers, they won’t know which way is up! (and they will go for the last option they hear by pressing 1″!)

So what does your Auto-Attendant sound like from the caller’s perspective?

When you have reached the end of your options, allow the caller to repeat, but let the caller know that is what is happening. You can give him the choice to repeat (“To repeat these options, press *”), or you can automatically repeat them (stay on the line to hear these options repeat).

Sometimes people do need to hear the options again, and simply to send them to an operator won’t serve them or your business the most effectively.

No matter what, NEVER simply disconnect the call after the options are played! That is a great way to make sure people never call you back!

Let callers know the number of options upfront. (“Please choose from the following six options.”)

Another way to manage your caller’s expectations is to let him know at the very beginning, how many options you will give him. That would sound like, “Please select from the following six options.” This information allows callers to know how long they’ll have to listen, and how many choices they need to keep in their heads before they choose a selection.

“Please choose from the following six options.”

When designing the options for your IVR or Auto-Attendant, make sure they match your customer’s expectations. Presenting a caller with four or five clear, concise options will allow him to navigate through your system quickly, without wasting time waiting to hear options he is not interested in.

Using only four or five options will likely take some extra thought on your part to make sure you are expressing the options in a way callers will find helpful and convenient.

Recently, I had an experience with a system concerning options. I was trying to reach one brand division of a large holding company, for tech support on a tool. I found its number on the Support section of its website, which lists the company’s eight divisions. However, the Auto-Attendant only listed six divisions! (Two of which sounded very similar) And worst of all, the one brand division I wanted wasn’t even listed. Now, what was I to do? I guessed, selected option 1, and got lucky that the company combined its tech support in one place!

So, what could the company have done to make its phone options more caller-friendly? If in fact the two support options are combined, it can go ahead and express that in the greeting. Instead of saying “For Victor, press 1,” the company could have easily created “For Victor and Brand X, press 1.” Then I would have known which option to choose.

In this case, the company had the choice to include Brand X as a seventh option, to combine it with the first option, or to leave it out all together. Unfortunately, the company chose the last option. With a little more thought, it could have not only kept its options short and concise, but it could have saved me the frustration of having to call back a couple of times to guess the right option!