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| By Dallas Bordon |
If you know the extension please dial it now. Your call is very important to us; please continue to hold. We are experiencing a high volume of calls; please continue to hold. Your estimate hold time is 7 minutes.
Whatever happened to the days when you called a company and actually talked to someone soon as they answered? Some of the younger people of today might not remember times as such, but at age 45 I can remember that there was a time of hearing a real person say “Thanks for calling may I help you?” It seems now that when you want to call a utility company or most larger businesses you’re faced with having to tell a computer or answering service what your needs are. Some companies will only allow you to leave a message and they will call you back. In the greeting message you might hear something like “All operators are busy at the moment.” Which I can understand that might be the case but I have been greeted with that same statement no matter what time of day I call. Is it true that customer service is that busy at 11 o’clock at night?
I am all for new technology, computers, facebook, twitter, email, and even voice greetings to a certain extent, but when I am faced with a problem concerning an issue with utilities or even cell phone service and I need to talk to a human, it’s nearly impossible without first having to select option after option. Raise your hand if you’ve been there or better yet, dial “0” now.
When businesses first began using recorded methods of answering phones they were not nearly the hassle they are today. It was simple at first. You dialed the number; one recording came on asking you to enter maybe one or two options. Now, those options have multiplied and by the time you actually get a live person, you’ve already entered your life story.
Just last week I had to place a call to my insurance company. Following the greeting, I was hit with the following greeting. “Thank you for calling (blank). If you know the person’s extension you are trying reach please dial it now. If you don’t know the party’s extension you are trying to reach please listen for the following options; for sales press 1, to file a claim press 2, for a quote press 3, for home insurance press 4, for auto insurance press 5, for all other calls press 6.” After making my selection I was hit with a round of entries to make. “Please enter you full account number, please enter your telephone number including the area code, your birth date, the spelling of the first 3 letters of your last name.” After making my entries I was hit again with a recording that was telling me “We’re sorry, your entry does not match our record. Please call back at a later time. Goodbye.” So I go through the entire process again. Finally I make it through to a live person only to hear the customer service lady ask me all the same questions. Needless to say by the time I was finished with that process, I almost forgot the reason why I called.
Many businesses may use that tactic to encourage us to use their online service instead. Paying bills online is convenient. Ordering movies online or gifts at Christmas is very convenient and saves time. But the hassle and irritations of contacting live people at businesses by phone is something a lot of us could live without. The “Thank you for calling (blank) how may I help you?” greeting has been lost in the age of technology. The ways of today might make one wonder what the ways of tomorrow will be like and will those ever so changing ways technology eventually put us all out of jobs? Dial “0”now if you agree.
