Archives for the Month of December 2005 on Lauren Georgeson's Insight
Annoying Computerized Voice Systems...
Don't you hate it when you have a hard time reaching a human when calling a customer service number?
This is definitely my most common technology frustration. Whether I am calling to pay my insurance, to question my verizon bill, to make an appointment with my doctor, or to solve a computer problem, it seems I am speaking with a computer on a daily basis. I usually try to hit zero several times, or just say "what" when they ask you to say your policy number, your account number, your telephone number, your zip code, or your medical record number. Then, the computer usually says, "I'm sorry. I cannot understand what you are saying. Let me transfer you to a customer representative." I figured the latter one out one day when I was calling a customer service number, and my friend kept asking me questions, so naturally I was paying attention to her and not the computer. I was saying things that the computer could not recognize. Well, after several times, the computer automatically transfers you to a human if it does not understand your request. It's amazing!
On Sunday, November 27 I came across an article from The Plain Dealer titled "Sick of automated customer service centers? Dial 0 for human." I thought this article sounded interesting because this is exactly what I was going to do for my technology frustration story. As I read the article, I found various statistics given by different people, who have the same frustration as me! One man by the name of Paul English actually created a cheat sheet on his website to reach a human. He started with the ten companies that frustrated him the most and invited people who visited his website to add to his list. The list grew to 108 companies as of Wednesday, November 30! You can find a copy of this cheat sheet at http://paulenglish.com/ivr/
Other interesting statistics include:
1) By 2010, it is estimated that self-service will account for 58% of all service interactions, up from 35% today.
2) It is estimated that an automated customer service system can handle a query at a cost of 8 to 15 cents a minute. The same query handled by a customer service representative in India or the Philippines would cost 20 to 40 cents a minute, and 65 cents to $1 a minute if handled by a U.S. agent.
3)It is estimated that 40% of the people who call a company's toll-free number immediately dial 0 looking for a live person.
Paul English's point of the article was that companies should adopt a universal standard for reaching a human, preferably by dialing 0. Wouldn't you agree?
The company is paying to have this toll-free number. Therefore, one has to wonder, as Professor Yoo mentioned in class, how long people take on average trying to figure out how to answer their questions through a computerized voice system, and some people just hang up and call again if they do not feel they are getting their question answered by the numbers they pressed. That would be an interesting statistic to see if, in reality, companies are really saving money by having an automated answering service or losing money!?