IVRs make for customer dis-service

I have written in the past about my dislike of preudo-human robotic IVRs for customer service lines. I think humans work faster and understand more.

If my call is really important to a company, then they would answer the phone.

Friday, I used 4 hours of my drive to Montreal trying to set up a new cell phone line for my daughter. More than a dozen separate calls. All I wanted to do was put her on a plan that was reasonably similar to a plan I have for one of my other lines.

As an aside, let me praise the battery life and speaker-phone capability of the Blackberry 8800 series.

Calls would drop; agents transferred me to fast busy; call queues would announce expected holding times measured in geological terms.

I finally reached a wonderful agent in a special service call centre who took care of everything. Other than the fact that they were out of stock on her first choice for a phone.

It shouldn’t be that hard to sign up. Even on a holiday weekend. Again, I have to wonder if telecom company management tries doing their own purchasing like regular customers.

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