Do human beings answer phones anymore?

The BBQ Pit
21

i’d like to see a study that shows how much money the companies save on payroll, insurance, etc. versus how much the phone system cost plus the amount of customers lost

companies become so desperate to pinch every possible penny that they sacrifice quality in both service and product to become more efficient

my company saw an opportunity to save on labor costs so they contracted some work out of the orient, on paper it seemed like a logical thing to do (inexpensive labor, etc.), but once things got rolling we encountered shipping problems, quality problems, etc., sometimes the production would run late so we would have to air the goods back to the US to get to our customers on time, and poof! there goes all the money you saved on labor, plus now our customers are annoyed because their goods are late or have quality problems. i have no idea how to address all the man hours went into solving all these problems that popped up. overall, i think it was a stupid ass thing to do in the first place.

sorry, got sidetracked there for a moment, but my point (i think there was a point in there) is that some of these “money” saving schemes aren’t worth it and end up costing the company more than they expected to save

plate of shrimp.

22

Wow, this thread is doing better than I thought it would.
Not too bad for my first Pit rant.

Here’s an addendum on my adventures with the Utility company for those who may care.
It shocked the hell out of me.

I walked to City Hall on my lunch break and put down the deposit to get my natural gas switched on. The employees there weren’t the friendliest but I won’t hold it against them. They are completely swamped with students trying to get their apartments set up before classes start so I can understand that they were all a bit frazzled. So I pay my money and they give me another number to call to set up an appointment for service. Oh no, I think to myself,* after all this I have to wade through their phones again?*

{sigh}

So I walk back to work and make the call. What do I hear after one ring? A human! :eek: Not only that but a cheerful, friendly human who was willing to help and made sure the service call would be at a time that was convenient for me. :smiley:

I’m still stunned. {but happier}

chrisbar

23

I hate it when you navigate the gauntlet of options, are on hold forever, barely staying awake to the muzak, when some caffine-high operator comes on in a flurry and says “Hello, this is (un-intelligible) with (un-intelligible), How can I help you?”. Meanwhile, you have momentarily forgotten what you called for and this person get’s cranky when you dont immediately respond and ask for a minute to compose yourself.

I do like the systems now that tell you every couple of minutes how many callers are ahead of you, at least you can get up and do something for a few minutes while you are waiting.

This is an example of the de-civilizing of our society.

24

As you see me here I DO have a computer but I also have a(get this) a rotary dial telephone. It’s not broken so I don’t see why I should get rid of it. However, it can cause problems with automated phone systems. You have to listen to the whole damn menu, and then maybe, just maybe, they will have an option for people like me. And I know that my wait will be longer because I am forcing a person to talk to me. Grrrrrr.

25

I would much rather not talk to the clients who have trouble with my program or with the projects I’m on. For two simple reasons - none of the questions are easy to explain or answer verbally, and most often the phone call consists of 5 minutes of trying to describe a hideous problem, and 15 minutes of bullshit (“So, what’s the weather like there?”).

If clients e-mail me instead, they get a much better and faster response. E-mail forces them to think about what they are asking, to put it down “on paper”, so to speak, so they can ask it in an intelligible manner. Then, I can respond in an intelligible manner as well. Often, since some problems are FAQ’s, I can respond with a canned but clear and helpful e-mail in seconds. And, they can refer to the e-mail later on, rather then trying to search their memory for “now, what was it Una told me last week? Oh well, guess I’ll call again…”

This also saves them money, as I bill all the long-distance charges and time spent answering their questions right back to them.

26

I have the same problems. I had to call the gas company to get the service put in my name and take the landlord’s name off the bill. It was long distance for one thing and it took me about 15 minutes to get a live person on the phone. It really pissed me off.

I’ve also picked up the phone only to hear a robot tell me this:

“Please wait on the line, we have an important call for you.”

I immediately hang up because I figure it’s just a telemarketer trying to sell me something.

I’d like to automate my answering machine the way most of these business automate their customer service lines.

Answering Maching recording:

If you wish to leave a message for Rachelle, press 1. If you wish to leave a message for Matt, press 2. If you are a telemarketer, remove my name from your list, I don’t want whatever the hell your selling. If none of these options pertain to you, why the hell are you calling. Beep!

27

good morning friends,

what a topic! there is a special place in hell for the inventor of this evil technology.

our local pharmacy is about three blocks from my house. i attempted to call them to ask that they get a perscription ready for me to pick up. naturally, i got recording. selecting the “speak with the pharmacist” option, i was shunted to a waiting line with periodic “the pharmicist is helping another customer, your call will be answered…” announcments. i hung up, and caled back on my cell phone, got into the waiting list again, then walked there. four people in the pharmacy. two discussing what they had done over the weekend. one filling a perscription, one just standing there. the phone was ringing, and no one was answering it. i was still waiting on the phone. when i was finally able to get someone’s attention, i had them fax my records to another pharmacy. i will now drive through their parking lot to go to another pharmacy rather than do business with them.

sorry for the rant.

28

As someone whose job forced him to listen to zillions of answering machines and what have you, I know EXACTLY how you feel. The way I handle this is to 1-Not bother calling anymore. If I think/know its the kind of office that will have an answering maching like this, I just go there in person. 2-Be rude. Not literally, but what I mean is, don’t leave or shut up until you and your problem are taken care of. I’ve made myself unpopular at times using these methods, but I have also always gotten what I needed.

29

Several times in the past two years I have gotten calls from computers which tell me that “all our representatives are busy helping other customers.” Tell me, I don’t WANT your stupid credit card (they’re all credit card companies) and you’re bothering me in the peace and quiet of my own home AND you don’t even have the NERVE to put a freaking HUMAN on the line?

The last time that happened I hung up on the computer and not thirty seconds later got a call from a human at the same company. “Now I get to hang up on you people TWICE?” I asked the guy, and hung up.

30

To answer the OP, yes, humans do answer phones. They do where I work, anyway, because we don’t have an automated billing system. So if you call where I work, you will indeed get a real, live human. You might have to wait for said human, but you will get one.

You may be asking yourself, but Persephone, why would I have to wait? Heh. Because I work at City Hall, and the mayor and City Council couldn’t agree on the budget, that’s why. Two weeks ago, over 100 people got laid off, nine in my department, which happens to be Customer Service. Four of them were phone clerks. We only have eight phones.

Oh yeah, we’ve got this neat new billing system, too, that Council decided was just what we needed. Yeah, we needed a billing system. We needed one badly. But not this fucked-up piece of shit you threw at us one fucking day before the beginning of the fiscal year last year, assholes. Oh, we’d paid for the system prior to that, but we didn’t go live with it until June 30th. And we only got two weeks of training on it besides. Since June 30th, 1999, we’ve essentially been training ourselves, figuring out the bugs, and periodically calling on the folks we bought the system from to bail us out, because it’s the most bare-bones system anyone could ask for. It cost less than one million dollars. Seven hundred thousand, in fact. But they spent 7.5 million on the new radio-read water meters, that they bought from one of the mayor’s largest contributors. Yeah. We got spiffy new meters, and a piece of shit system to back them up. Oh, did I mention that they began installing the meters before we had the billing system in place, and they’re still installing the meters now? HELLO. Get the billing system in place, then put the meters in, so we can back them up correctly, morons!

So yes, you’ll talk to a human. A hopelessly confused human who really wants to help but probably can’t, because she hasn’t had the proper training and is stuck with a system that does whatever the hell it wants and we do not understand why, and she’ll be really friendly when she tells you “I don’t know, let me go get my supervisor,” but she will be a warm-blooded human. The supervisor, on the other hand…well, that’s another Pit thread.

31

If I’m hijacking, then flame away, but I have to say this: Fuck Firestone! And fuck their defective goddamned tires! Firestone is the bane of my existence! I work for a Ford dealer, and I have no skin left on the palms of my hands from throwing out defective Firestone Wilderness AT tires. Argh! I hate Firestone!

We now return to your perviously scheduled flame.