You’ve all been there before. You call customer service and go through the menus.
Press 1 for Billing Inquiries
Press 2 for Technical questions
Press 3 for Starting new service…
Then you type in your account number, phone number, zip code, birth date, blood type, etc…
Then after holding for eons you get a human that asks for your account number, address, and everything else YOU ALREADY TYPED!
So does all that button pushing actually do anything? Do I really get a different department if I pick a different menu option, or is it the same person no matter what I do? And why, oh why, did you make me type in my gazillion digit account number if you were going to ask for it again anyway? I would love it if someone had a factual answer to this.
When I worked in a call center, the ARU (Automatic Response Unit) was used to collect data on why cardmembers called in, not as an aid to the Customer Service reps. It’s a way to track data, marketing, potential problems, and also to justify what they could reasonably automate, and thus cut down on staffing costs.
This info was not transferred to the rep (except for late in the game, right before I left), so that’s why they had to ask “all over” again.
I can’t answer your question about whether pushing the button for different departments actually gets you to those departments, but I would safely guess that it does not.
I had the misfortune of dealing with the costumer service department of a major national long-distance provider a few days ago. I was so fed up with this same issue that I finally complained. The person I spoke with said that there are several call centers around the country, and the initial automated system asks for the account number so that it can forward the call to the appropriate regional center. The account info is not passed along to him however, so the first thing he had to do was ask for my number again. He did not know why the account info couldn’t just be passed on to him, but I expect that it would cost more to install such a system and the companies bet that we don’t care enough to make an issue out of it.
The trick is to pretend you’re actually an 87-yr-old woman with a rotary phone. Don’t press a single button, ever. You’ll go straight to an operator, eventually.
I’ve been calling Comcast a lot recently, apparently they randomly divert calls to various departments, who transfer the callers to the appropriate department as needed. I’ve called three times, and with the exact same menu options, reached three different departments. They took preliminary information, then sent me to whatever department handled my particular inquiry.
Both my health insurer and credit card now actually pass the number on to the person I end up speaking to. The first few times this happened, I didn’t believe it had happened and kept waiting to be asked. It sure is nice.
More and more systems are moving away from the “no response = transfer to a rep” model to the “no response = wrong number/caller hung up/otherwise dead line” model and simply disconnect.
I work for a phone company. One of four things happen when a call is routed through our automated system:
One: There are several customer service call centers located along the East Coast. The number the call is made from is recognized and routed to the call center nearest the caller. This is to save on long distance charges. (Most customer service numbers are toll free for the caller; the company pays the long distance charge)
Two: If the customer’s bill is due or past due and over $15.00, the call is automatically routed to the nearest collections call center in order to secure payment or a promise to pay the bill. (Even if your call is an inquiry and has nothing to do with billing questions- it is only after the issue of payment has been discussed that you may be routed to customer service if the collections representative is unable to answer your question.)
Three: Your account number does pop up just before you are greeted by a representative. The account information is visible right away, but must be verified by each representative both for quality control purposes and to ensure that the person calling is either the customer of record or is authorized to discuss the account.
Four: Your input did not transfer to the representative. Several reasons: user error (punched in wrong number or too many numbers), representative was working quickly on the last account (reps are held to stringent call handling statistics) and did not finish typing before the new caller’s information appeared on the screen, or the call was transferred from one department to another. (Or the rep was goofing off and distracted when your call came in )
