Press One Hell

If you have called a business lately and been asked to, “Press one for blah…blah…blah.” You have entered into press one hell. I have yet to witness a person that gets excited when they are faced with a myriad of menu choices, an endless stream of menus, followed by a voicemail box at the end.

And yet business continue to create these mazes. Do they intend to irritate their customers? Do they think this obfuscation is actually appreciated?

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding – NO! So why continue a practice that is really not appreciated? Well, let’s examine what this system is actually designed to do.

The alternative is having one or more people answering the phones and directing the calls to the appropriate person or department. Have you ever walked into a building to have the friendly receptionist there to direct you to your final destination, well there was a time when that same receptionist helped people in the same way when they entered the business through a phone line.

What happened to the receptionist? Most companies still have someone sitting behind the front office desk, and they are the person you talk to when all else fails and in defeat you press the ‘0′ button to reach the operator. Yet, they no longer handle the bulk of the calls.

In essence, as a receptionist sat at the desk it was noticed that there were slow periods of time that could be utilized, never mind actually giving them a moment to catch their breath after answering two solid hours of back to back and triple stacked phone calls. It only took one person to notice this idle moment and decide to fill it with a small project…”Could you run these copies?” or “Could you please type this letter up for me and send it out?” or “Could you please address and stuff these envelopes?”

Slowly, but surely, the receptionist began to perform all sorts of tasks and the problem quickly became the phone interfering with her duties.

In comes the opportunity to solve a problem. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of receptionists in the same boat. They all have so much to do and if they only had to answer a fraction of the calls it would give them more time to complete all the other duties they have.

Next comes the big idea! The company discovers they can solve this problem with a machine. If we build a menu system that allows the caller to determine the best department or person they should talk to, the callers will get right where they need to be. Of course they always allow the option for the customer to reach an operator, just in case the maze beats them.

As we watch the personal touch disappear, replaced by an automated system, something has been lost. I contend that this lost connection is actually imperative to business. The receptionist was a person that at one time had a figurative finger directly on the pulse of the customers and all the employees.

I contend that what was at one time a job for one, turned into a job for two, and most companies made the call to hire a phone system instead of another person. This is a shame, and I urge you to consider what your customers really think about “pressing one” every time they call you. Would you be set apart from your competition if there was someone always there to pick up the phone and say, “Thank you for calling, how may I direct your call?”

Update

After speaking to several people about this article I thought it was about time to change my voicemail to see if there is anything to having voice command prompts. Maybe it will aid in making my company sound more important. I thought I would leave a sample recording of my new voicemail here. Please tell me what you think.

[audio:please-press-one.mp3]