How to Get a Human on the Phone Instead of an Automated Maze

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Interactive Voice Response Cheat Sheet

THAT is handy!! And the elusive AOL phone number is listed too

[taurusmoon]

It tells me to close my quickbase session.

[taurusmoon]

Okay, that's weird. Now it works.

[taurusmoon]

Way cool.

[Prepoia[$]]

Hurray! Thank you.

[cristina1]

OMG too funny!

[phoenixx[$]]

ooooo ahhhhhhh

Thank you!

[Helen_B[$]]

How handy!

[lynnzop[$]]

Damn, I could'a used this YESTERDAY when %$*&*()(& Verizon turned off my cell phone service (for no reason )

Good reference though. Maybe it could be moved to C&T as a sticky???

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I didn't put it in C&T because it covers so many types of businesses - retail, etc. Although I suppose "technology" fits. But if I were looking for it, C&T wouldn't be where I would look first.

[taurusmoon]

I stickied the thread. If you folks can't remember which forum it's in, it won't be too onerous a task to click through several of them to find it.

[mtbat]

Verizon is on the list

I hate the voice prompted ones-where you sit there and say what you want and the automated voice goes "I think you said you want to talk to a bald badger in upper mongolia"

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I keep saying "I WANT TO TALK TO A REAL PERSON." Eventually it happens.

[Joubert[$]]

Great list. Only problem I see is that once it's known that the way to get around the IVR is public, it's a matter of five minutes at the switch to change it.

So says the old call center guy who used to have to do that and argued against taking out "zero" for operator.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

So let's think this through...

-a company sets up an IVR to improve efficiency and reduce costs, but they do not give customers an "out" to talk to a person.

-the customers get together on the Internet and, in true bugmenot.com fashion, report how to get around the IVR to talk to a person.

-the company sees this, and instead of regarding this phenomenon as a sign that their customers (you know, the ones whose money keeps them in business in the first place) really want a way to talk to a live person, will instead change the IVR to make it harder to talk to a person.

I keep hearing that the US is switching over to a "service economy," and yet customer service at all businesses and at all levels is dropping like a stone.

[wivabef]

I love this! I'm posting it by my phone.

Although, I usually just indiscriminately punch buttons (##**##000) and that usually gets me to a human. Only rarely does the system hang up.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Elyzabeth, I do that and almost always get dumped. Maybe it has something to do with punching "666" repeatedly.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

The Motley Fool on Consumer Rage, including Rage Against the (IVR) Machine

Navigating through the modern phone tree has become almost comical. Want to talk to a living, breathing, human being? Stand on your left foot, look to the sun, and press a three-digit secret code -- and maybe you'll get through, Broetzmann [president of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting] jokes.

But the consequences for companies that discourage live service -- or at least make it difficult to get through -- are serious. "The advent and acceptance of automated telephone systems as a way for corporations to manage workloads and ostensibly improve the level of service -- those systems have become one of the top sources of customer frustration and dissatisfaction," Broetzmann says.

[wivabef]

pippadaisy said

Elyzabeth, I do that and almost always get dumped. Maybe it has something to do with punching "666" repeatedly.

Hee heee.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Link has changed, here's the new one

[taurusmoon]

Oooh. I forgot about this. Thanks for the reminder!

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Updated the URL - seems the guy had to move to another site... traffic, maybe?