I’m in IVR Hell
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Three times today I found myself stuck in the seemingly endless loop of number pushing to try and get a resolution to a problem. The only thing that kept me from throwing my phone across the room when my “problem” didn’t fit into one of the neat little scenarios was envisioning the inventors of IVR roasting over an open fire being flamed by “Big Boy!” (you know…that guy in the CitiBank commercial who is forced to repeat his embarrassing password on the packed train).
I like being able to get my bank balance at 3am or call and make a change in my Sprint account whenever I choose. I’m a big user of automated self-service technology both online and via phone. But it seems like it has gone so far that automated systems have been used/abused to conceal how to reach an actual person. So I’ve got to hand it to CitiBank. What a simple yet brilliant idea. Press “0″ and get connected with an operator. Gee…something we already intuitively know and understand. They are actually making the task of customer service easier, not harder. I’m sure it wasn’t just a case of corporate benevolence on CitiBank’s part. It was probably a decision based on competitive logic. We all get frustrated interacting with machines when we have a problem we want solved–no matter how smart the system might be, it can’t think or empathize.
I was going to record the magic words I discovered today, but found that someone’s already cracked the code on many of the biggies. Check out Paul English’s brilliant IVR Cheat Sheet. While you’re there, check out the rest of the site. There are some great tips and a way you can make yourself heard.