Infinity Loops - automated services
Discussion
s are getting wise to it, though. Used to work first time, every time; now it's a button mashing endurance test.The other day after losing the will to live the day before listening to the "your call is important to us please continue to hold" I tried again and almost immediately got through to a human being and as a asked them my question she said I'm sorry I can't help you all the computers have gone down! Argh!
I'm trying to sort out council tax at the moment. Signed up for an account on the local council web site, sent a "secure electronic communication" on Jan 13th, which was eventually answered on 25th Feb asking for more information. Replied the same day, only to get another email on 10th March chasing a reply. Replied again, same day. Gave up this morning and phoned, to hear "you can deal with all enquiries on our web site if you open an account, there's an approximate waiting time of 30 minutes on the phone". So I've sent another electronic communication.
I signed in because I wondered if the email I received was just a copy, and that I could also reply inside the account and it might work a bit better. But no luck, there's no interaction of that type. In fact, after I've signed into my account, when I send a message I have to separately supply my council tax reference number, so it's not exactly integrated.
Might have this sorted by June at this rate.
I signed in because I wondered if the email I received was just a copy, and that I could also reply inside the account and it might work a bit better. But no luck, there's no interaction of that type. In fact, after I've signed into my account, when I send a message I have to separately supply my council tax reference number, so it's not exactly integrated.
Might have this sorted by June at this rate.
Edited by droopsnoot on Monday 22 March 12:00
A good mate actually installs and commissions these things in the North West. He can’t believe how some companies want them set up. It is exactly what you think it is.
Some want the caller to get through to the correct person in the organisation to speak to about their issue. He soon gets to hear about it, if it doesn’t function as intended.
Some really don’t care and set them up on purpose to make people go round the houses without resolution.
Rarely is it, it’s been set up incorrectly by mistake. All the reasons you expect are alive and kicking.
Some want the caller to get through to the correct person in the organisation to speak to about their issue. He soon gets to hear about it, if it doesn’t function as intended.
Some really don’t care and set them up on purpose to make people go round the houses without resolution.
Rarely is it, it’s been set up incorrectly by mistake. All the reasons you expect are alive and kicking.
I don't write IVR flows but I do implement them. They vary in quality based on who has written them but yes, a lot of the time they are written as 'call avoidance' rather than call routing. Some aspects of the business I implement them for can be easily automated - paying a bill for example. As long as you have no questions and simply wish to call, enter your account number, enter your card details and pay up, it works just fine. They are designed to account for the majority of calls which are as simple as that. Unfortunately for those of us who wish to speak to a person, the more we are pushed towards automation the fewer agents there are to speak to, and the harder it is to get to speak to them.
These days we are getting better at voice recognition and some menus have this built in, to accommodate those who cannot press buttons or have a pulse dial phone. Sometimes you are asked to press a key and failure to do so will switch to voice recognition. Some of the implementations I have carried out include a hidden option of saying "agent" or "adviser" (to try and detect those who shout "i just want to speak to an advisor" at the robot menu). Some will have a 'catch-all' for those who do nothing or enter invalid options more than a couple of times. Typically the companies who are happy to speak to you will have a dropout to agent in these circumstances, the companies who are avoiding callers will keep repeating 'please try again' until you give up. You really are at the behest of the jumped-up resource manager who designed the call flow.
These days we are getting better at voice recognition and some menus have this built in, to accommodate those who cannot press buttons or have a pulse dial phone. Sometimes you are asked to press a key and failure to do so will switch to voice recognition. Some of the implementations I have carried out include a hidden option of saying "agent" or "adviser" (to try and detect those who shout "i just want to speak to an advisor" at the robot menu). Some will have a 'catch-all' for those who do nothing or enter invalid options more than a couple of times. Typically the companies who are happy to speak to you will have a dropout to agent in these circumstances, the companies who are avoiding callers will keep repeating 'please try again' until you give up. You really are at the behest of the jumped-up resource manager who designed the call flow.
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