h a l f b a k e r y
carpe demi
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Everytime you subscribe to a service or purchase an item that requires calling a number to activate or get assistance, you should receive, in the package, a pamphlet with a walkthrough guide for the automated help menu.
The guide includes a FAQ list, with the number sequence to press in the automated
menu for each problem you might be experiencing. For more FAQs, it should include a referral to a more extensive walkthrough website.
So if you have a "phone or device problem", which is listed as #6 in the automated menu, you know before you even make the call to just press "6" as soon as it starts talking, instead of listening to 5 unhelpful menu options which can confuse you and lead to you selecting the wrong department, which invariably ends up clogging the phone lines in mulitple departments, putting other people on hold while you get transferred from department to department.
The objective here is to make the Customer Assistance process a lot more stress-free by streamlining the process and reducing customer frustration, which better serves the interests of the customer, and also serves the interests of the company by increasing customer retention rates.
Online Telephone Menu Navigation Guides
Online_20Telephone_...Navigation_20Guides
[hippo, Jan 03 2007]
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL.
E.g., http://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
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That would be self-defeating. One advantage of this idea is that customers calling from cell phones use fewer minutes trying to get the right department. |
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//Nobody reads manuals these days// |
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Please don't generalize. I certainly read the manual for everything I purchase. |
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Fairly sure that a pre-self-destruction waugsqueke posted this one. It was good then, it's good now. |
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Minor quibble: phone services key maps are not static and people using old maps will end up in the wrong department, even more explosively furious than they were when they decided to call. Perhaps it would would better as a website: gnnnaaaaaarg.org |
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Or, just post the structure of the automated help menu on the internet (see link). |
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Aha, it was hippo, not waugs. I trust the confusion caused you no offence, hippo? |
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I like hippo's version, too. I still would like a hard-copy in case I don't have internet access sometime when I need to call. |
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If it were an industry-wide protocol or schema, then it could automatically fall into some sort of master pattern. For each installed implementation, if you could figure out what each unique case is actually an instance of in a bigger more general scheme, it might have some sort of logic behind it that resonates with the user too, instead of appearing totally unique and possibly ambiguous. It probably wouldn't be 100% flawless, but it might turn out a useful percentage 'likely to be right or near enough' to fly it blind if necessary. |
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//I trust the confusion caused you no offence, hippo?// Just a small twinge, but it's over now. |
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If you don't want to listen to all the options, press [0] (zero) for operator. You're wasting trees. Also, havinng a 7 page guide to a company's phone system isn't going to make me feel better. But talking to a real person sure would! |
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First, option trees change constantly. The book you got with your new electronic gadget is sure to be out of date before you open the package. |
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Second, don't forget that the purpose of these systems is to REDUCE human to human interactions. Streamlining the system defeats this. |
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On another note, a special trick to get through the new "voice recognition" type systems that don't want to let you talk to an operator is to swear at the machine. The systems sometimes detect a string of profanity and bail out to a human. |
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flynn, not all phone menus have the same "press _ to talk to a representative", and many of the ones that do have a different number to press, which unless you've called the number a few times already you have to listen to all the options to figure out which one it is. |
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//But talking to a real person sure would!// |
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The whole point of this idea is to get you to a real person faster. |
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