THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510210001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Trying to get information, by phone, seems to mean more and more numbers to punch, more and more bossiness in the recorded instructions we get - plus fewer and fewer contacts with real people with something useful to tell us.
Punch-drunkenness from it all must be pretty common by now.
However, a couple of recent experiences with the usually cold answering machines suggested a little warming, a little more sense.
Much of the basic problem, bulging with annoyances, is still with us, granted.
The simple question still doesn't get a simple reply. Instead of a quick, friendly answer, you get a menu of problems and touch-tone numbers to choose from. If you didn't have the foresight to have pencil and pad ready, by the time you hear all the possible numbers to punch, you may well have forgotten the one that came closest to the trouble category you needed to explore.
And all too often, none of the numbers that the answering machine rattles off seems to match up with your question.
Moreover, all of this is eating up your time, which ought to have just as much value as that of the people you are calling. Bottom-line minds are obviously thinking about their bottom lines, not yours or your convenience.
What's breaking the pattern? Well, at least a couple of little things, which might be omens of even broader attempts at recapturing customer good will.
For instance, the automated response to some of my recent inquiry calls has included, as an early option, a button-push that will short-circuit the whole rigmarole and connect you to a human being with whom you can have a conversation. Previously, you might not have been any such live option at all. Or if the choice was on the menu, the robot might not have mentioned it until after droning through all the other push buttons on its list.
The other hopeful development has to do with how the caller is treated when put on the waiting list for human connection.
On one of my calls recently - when I was told that all customer-service representatives were busy but that my call was important and how good it was of me not to hang up - there was a further bit of communication. I was told what number I was in the landing pattern - I think it was sixth. Then, at measured intervals, a voice came on the line to say I was now fifth, then fourth and right down to a real connection, right in turn. A whole lot better than just listening to some canned music while coming closer and closer to apoplexy.
Then just the other day, I encountered an even niftier technique. After being told I would have to wait for a representative, the voice said I would be connected in one minute and 50 seconds. No more? Well, I didn't have any longer than that to find out. There were periodic count-down messages, telling me at intervals how much delay remained.
Lo and behold, bang-on at the promised breakthrough moment, there I was - connected. And much less frazzled than I might otherwise have been.
So let's cool it a little. Perhaps we should withhold judgment for a while on all this telephonic efficiency-cum-inefficiency. by CNB