I recently had to call United’s customer service department. They have one of those voice prompt systems where you can answer questions by speaking into the phone and have the system automatically guide you to the right answer/representative. The problem: The system sucks.
Every interaction I’ve ever had with these voice recognition services feels like a battle. The system misunderstands what I’m saying. Or it confirms each entry by repeating it snail slooooow: “You said 32530021303. Is that correct?” I wind up feeling like I’m navigating a maze. It inevitably leads to me shouting answers or pleading “operator” in the hopes it’ll take me to an actual human (it doesn’t).
And whenever I hear someone else dealing with one of these systems, the same thing happens. They start out talking calmly but eventually wind up yelling into the phone.
Needless to say, any service that forces customers to scream is a bad idea. Screaming is something that we do when we’re frustrated or angry. But now that’s what I think of: United customer service = screaming. I can’t imagine a worse association for a company to have.
Jay
on 14 Sep 07The best voicemail system I have ever used is Domino’s IVR pizza ordering system. Whoever designed this did a very detailed job. The system recognizes coupons without asking for the coupon code, asks in-context up-front questions to alter the path through the system and shorten ordering time.
Honestly, it’s easier than using their online ordering.
Anonymous
on 14 Sep 07The sad reality is that more and more companies are starting to utilize these voice prompt systems.
To be honest, I have absolutely zero problem with doing touch-tone interaction. Just let me press the keys!
star3night
on 14 Sep 07I had one of those moments the other day. I said “you suck” into my phone and it went straight to the operator.
;)
Of course, maybe that was because it was like the 5th time it had miss understood my input.
Benjy
on 14 Sep 07I always feel silly talking to something that’s not human. I much prefer a “Press 1 to…” system to the voice recognition ones, and that’s even if they are working OK.
Keith
on 14 Sep 07Delta is notorious for poor customer service top to bottom as an organization. I’m not surprised at all by this story even if it’s meant to pick out a larger issue.
The local news just ran a story down here in Raleigh about a woman who was flying to MN for a funeral and got jerked around so much by them that she ended up in Chicago with so many delayed and canceled flights that she missed the funeral and was told she should fly home.
When she complained about it their response was, “You sat on the flights you took. We’re not refunding you a penny.”
The local news got involved and basically made the case that the woman purchased a ticket from Raleigh to Minneapolis and since she never got there and was trapped in Chicago by poor routing and scheduling she went home.
Delta did eventually credit her $1100 for her tickets and gave her $300 in credit.
Long story short…perhaps you should call your local news “troubleshooter” because only PR speaks to these companies…if they get enough bad PR about a system perhaps that’ll force them to change.
A Human Being
on 14 Sep 07I loathe these voice response systems. The chirpy responses like “Okay, I’ll go and check this or that…” and the “sorry, I could not understand what you said…”—makes me want to scream. Working in a crowded office like many, I don’t want to be blabbing out my personal details and sounding weird like I’m speaking to no one. Now, I just say nonsense words, and the chirpy “I’m sorry I cannot understand you, I’ll transfer you to customer service…” works every time. I don’t mind the touchtone responses at all but I do mind speaking to a machine and having everyone around me hear my short bursts of words.
Tyler
on 14 Sep 07I called FedEx this week and was amazing how smooth their voice prompt system. The customer service was excellent too.
Disclaimer
on 14 Sep 07Tyler works for FedEx.
Brian
on 14 Sep 07You are so very right! This is so bad on at least 2 levels… First, you’re disenchanted by the company because they don’t want to speak with you. Second, you become disgruntled with the company, because they’re using voice recognition technology that’s clearly unworthy for the marketplace for the most part. I am feeling your pain.
Brian http://www.stickyboomerang.com
Joe
on 14 Sep 07I feel the same way about Sprint and Comcast. Terrible. I think the absolute worst part about all those stupid phone systems is they make you give up some sort of information about yourself in order to access your account, usually your phone number.
Then, when you inevitably need to talk to a human representative, they ask for the same damn information! Why the hell are you asking me for this information when the computer system has already logged it?
Another good one is when you specify to the Comcast customer service that you are having a technical issue with your internet service, the first thing the stupid voice says is, “You know, you can get faster service by visiting our website at comcast.com”. Oh no, shit, really? And I thought I was having internet connectivity issues! How can I access your site then? Through my ass?
Not surprisingly, Apple’s call service isn’t as bad. They only ask a couple simple questions and then always take you to a representative, and the rep. doesn’t ask for the same information twice.
Mike
on 14 Sep 07I’ve never understood companys’ priorities. They nickel and dime their Customer Service operations, pay people the bare minimum and turnover is horrible. Wake up, these people are talking to your potential, current and future customers!
Curtis
on 14 Sep 07When on the phone with customer service use this helpful list for the most direct route to a human – http://www.gethuman.com/
Graham
on 14 Sep 07Oh god…yes…United’s system is the absolute worst. Try using it to change to a new flight after learning the original was canceled while in a crowded airport. Not only is the system hard to navigate with my own voice, but it would get interrupted and start following the directions it thought it heard from the overhead PA system. Which, ironically of course, was United personnel announcing more cancellations. God damn…I couldn’t get through. I learned that if you have patience and say the word ‘agent’ at least fourteen times, you will get through to a person. That person, however, will be half a world away and begin reading from a script.
Now, in fairness, I have found that United’s check-in kiosks are the best in terms of usability.
Scott
on 14 Sep 07I found that with United’s system you can actually just dial in your Milage Plus number and also press ‘1’ instead of saying ‘Yes’. I was able to confirm an itinerary with only having to say my name at the end as a final confirmation.
Chris
on 14 Sep 07Your story reminds me of the 37signals customer forums….
Matt T.
on 14 Sep 07I really hate when I have to read these things numbers. NUMBERS. It’s not like I’m using a rotary phone people.
Alexandra
on 14 Sep 07The thing I hate most is that they’re generally open-ended questions - “how may I help you today?” - yet the system has to repeatedly narrow-down your initial response into a category they already know and use.
A touch-tone system of “press 1, 2, 3…” is much more user friendly, in that I don’t have to think or guess. I just have to choose.
Alexandra
on 14 Sep 07Also, I agree—I’ve never heard about anyone who hasn’t been frustrated with this type of system, much less preferred it. I hate to think what “user study” the creator(s) of voice-activated menus cooked up to sell it so widely.
Anonymous Coward
on 14 Sep 07I think RoboCop was a more realistic movie that we remember. At least in terms of robot/human interaction:
[Mr. Kinney points a pistol at ED-209] ED-209: [menacingly] Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply. [Mr. Kinney drops the pistol on the floor] ED-209: [ED-209 advances, growling] You have 15 seconds to comply. [Mr. Kinney tries to run away] ED-209: You have 10 seconds to comply. [entire room of people in full panic trying to stay out of the line of fire] ED-209: You have 5 seconds to comply… four… three… two… one… I am now authorized to use physical force! [ED-209 opens fire and shreds Mr. Kinney]
Dan
on 14 Sep 07I’ve found that pressing the zero button a few times almost always takes you to an operator in these systems.
Prophetess
on 14 Sep 07Thank you. You’ve finally put your finger on what’s wrong with most individual-to-corporation interactions today.
The plain fact of the matter is, most corporations want to sell you something, and then they never want to speak to you again. They have slowly phased out any way for you to speak to a human being (take your pick: automated phone trees, web site pointers, email addresses that send automated (and useless) replies, FAQs), and quietly outsourced the “talk to a human” jobs to places like India where people are still willing to work for cheap.
And when you finally do get a human on the phone, it still takes two or three rounds of “no, I don’t fall into your scripted routine, please send me up the food chain until I can talk to someone who has a shred of volition” to get to anyone who can help you.
This is utterly infuriating, and I’d estimate that 95% of people give up before getting that far.
The fact is, customer service sucks, generically, and no corporation is going to do anything to fix it until forced to do so by decreasing revenues. The quicker we can impress upon them that it is a good idea to fix it, the better off everyone will be.
Doug
on 14 Sep 07Anyone ever gone through one of these systems giving them all your information, only to have the real life person finally pick up and go through all the same questions again?
elv
on 14 Sep 07I guess ordering voice systems have to be good if they want people to order. On the other hand if a bad voice system can make people avoid calling a customer service…
Justin
on 14 Sep 07@ Doug – Yes! It’s absolutely maddening. If you’re going to degrade me by telling me that I don’t merit an additional minute of a real human being’s time, at least use the voice response system for more than slowing down the time between when I call and when I have to listen to hold music.
I pride myself on being polite to customer service people, because I’ve been there, and 99% of the time the issue isn’t the fault of the CS staff, but by the time I’m done using a voice response system and I do get to a real person, all bets are off. I’m just too pissed to be my normal, rational, polite self, which means I don’t think/communicate as clearly, which means I’m on the phone longer with the human CS rep than I normally would be. So on top of the fact that they provide a poor user experience, those systems aren’t the big money-saver they’re hailed as being.
Jeff
on 14 Sep 07Two years ago, I had a similarly maddening experience with Delta (or maybe Continental, who knows?).
In complete and total frustration, I yelled “Why can’t I just speak to a fucking human being?!!”
Yep. Connected immediately to a live operator. I’ve always wondered what triggered it: “human,” “fucking,” the decibel level, or some combination of the three. I’ll never know ‘cause I’ll never call that airline for anything, ever, again.
Robot Terror
on 14 Sep 07The goal of a call center is to reduce calls and time callers take on line speaking with humans. It’s all in the metrics used by management for reviews, promotions and layoffs. Instead of “increasing customer satisfaction” call center workers and management are measured on (1) rings before answer and (2) time on the phone with a call taker, among other things (RONAs, etc.).
Voice Recognition Systems offer a way to quickly scale up to shorten #1 and, when working they can greatly reduce #2. As a side effect of not working well they frustrate people enough to hang up and never try again, which doesn’t hurt the metrics of the call center at all. Of course, the company suffers, but the call center isn’t gauged on satisfaction metrics.
I work at a tech company that offers phone support. While there is a voicemail system in cases of unanticipated volume (stuff happens in clusters sometimes), our goal is for a tech to answer the phone within two rings. Human answer. Tech answer.
As a third shift Linux Admin I often am on the receiving end of customers incredulous that, after only one or two rings, an actual tech answered the phone and is available to help them immediately. Also, after a long discussion on a tough issue, customers expressed surprise that they detect nothing in my demeanor that suggests I’m in a hurry to get them off the phone. “I’m here as long as you need me and I can help.”
It’s a commitment that not everyone company can make, nor can every customer afford. Staffing certified Unix and Windows professionals, among other certifications, around the clock is not cheap. Hopefully, it works.
Of course, where I work uses metrics other than “call time”. RONAs (Roll Over No Answer) are “No-nas”, of course, but there has never been mention of “call times” or “length of calls”. In fact, I was once rewarded publicly when a customer wrote to my boss to praise my efforts for a call that lasted 6 hours. That customer is sold on us as you might guess.
One place I worked measured the number of trouble tickets “touched.” Some people did nothing but make comments on as many tickets as possible, thus inflating numbers. When the metric is, instead, “customer satisfaction” that energy to inflate the numbers actually works in harmony with company’s goal and for the customer’s benefit.
Look at the metrics used by management to evaluate their call center and you’ll know if the company values supporting the customers or not.
Sam Smoot
on 14 Sep 07You know… Basecamp is a lot like that for me. ;-) All the prompting for things I don’t need, deemphasized or non-existent prompts for the things I want. You wouldn’t believe how quickly setting up a Campfire chat for the first time the other day turned into a an excercise in frustration for all involved. At the end of it all we just created an IRC channel, and had those involved download Colloquy.
Sam Smoot
on 14 Sep 07Oh yes… the point of my little analogy was this: The frustration of a poorly automated phone system is that there is clearly a path, but it may not be obvious, or even a path I find particularly useful. Which is much the same way I ended up feeling about Basecamp. Mine is just one voice out of many thousands of satisfied customers, but hopefully you guys can follow the parallels drawn there and find something constructive in it.
John
on 14 Sep 07I always try hitting 0 multiple times, usually it connects me to a human.
Ray
on 14 Sep 07At least half the time I’m calling an airline, it’s from inside a car, on the road. That’s when voice activation is a godsend. Pressing keys while driving is a Bad Idea.
Ultimately I want the choice, which most of them offer. And you can always holler “agent!” at any time.
Anonymous Coward
on 14 Sep 07That’s how customer services work. If we have a problem it take forever to solve and there’s always a talking machine that is programed to make us hang up. But if we want to buy a new feature they seem to treat us like kings and there is always a sales representative ready to answer all our questions.
Andrew
on 14 Sep 07I deal with these all of the time. Utterly horrible. If only these companies would value their image over their bottom line and just hire real people.
George
on 14 Sep 07I believe this will give you the relief you require: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fonejacker+rent&search=Search
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLYYmFHTaHY
Douglas
on 14 Sep 07Even the basic automatic IVRs that just ask for you to “type in your number using your keypad in order to save time when we connect you to one of our agents” are always useless, because you can bet your bottom dollar the unlucky chump who then speaks to you will ask you “Could I take your number?” as their opening gambit, because the woefully under-resourced outsourced call centre that provides them with employment has not thought to tell them that there’s supposedly an automated system that asks that for them, most of the time because the people who run the call centre themselves don’t even know.
I worked for a time in an outsourced customer service call centre for one of the mobile networks in the UK, and my only abiding conclusion from the experience is that these companies, who outwardly maintain that indeed the only thing that separates them from their competitors is standard of customer service, are run by cowboys and idiots with not a worthwhile attribute amongst them.
It’s a source of continual amazement to me how badly IVR systems still suck. I’ve only ever heard one system that gave the user the courtesy of giving a running count of how far through the call queue they were. I didn’t mind waiting the ten minutes, and I was calm when I finally spoke to someone. I’d like to think that were these systems designed by web developers they’d at least have got the basics right by now. You’d think people would have to try to build systems that provoked such mass irritation.
Drew Pickard
on 15 Sep 07Best custome service I’ve ever had was Apple.
I was calling them after Dell repeatedly denied that my monitor was flickering (even though they were in India and I was right there looking at it). Dell suggested that it was an Apple software issue (which I knew was total bullshit) but they said that if I eliminated that possibility they would talk with me further.
So anyway, I call Apple and attempt to get support but somehow end up talking to an educational computing sales guy. I’m like “crap, I wanted support. can you transfer me?”
and the guy says “Yep, I can. But I might be able to help you. What’s the problem?”
So I tell him the story and that I just need a way to eliminate Apple as the potential culprit for making my monitor flicker.
He says “Yeah, that sounds like it’s a hardware problem. All you have to do to eliminate OS X as the problem is reinstall OS X because by default, there are no video card driver problems that cause flickering. And if you haven’t altered those from a fresh install, you can eliminate us as the culprit.”
If I could have hugged the guy over the phone, I would have.
One Apple educational salesman was more technically helpful than the parade of 8 script-reading Dell technicians.
James
on 15 Sep 07When encountering one of these systems, I simply let loose a few choice swearwords and behold, a human operator.
Crude, but effective.
--Josh
on 15 Sep 07T-Mobile has one of those voice-guided systems that I must say is the first I’ve encountered that worked well.
WTL
on 15 Sep 07Let me use my touch-tone pad rather than trying to get me to say the work zero over and over.
Bell Canada has a system called “Emily”, I think, and it is awful.
I think the problem is that the people making these decisions have never actually used these systems and believe the hype that talking makes clients feel more social and happy rather than pressing digits.
Perhaps this whole thing is a way of slowing customers down, or just reducing calls. The longer we spend trying to get the system to understand “Billing” (instead of pressing 1) is time we waste, which causes us to eventually hang up, rather than actually get the problem dealt with.
Either way, don’t piss customers off, or for that matter waste our time.
Luke Noel-Storr
on 15 Sep 07It annoys me most when you have to speak a huge long number into the phone, when a phone already has a much more suitable interface for entering numbers.
PWills
on 15 Sep 07For United, in a clear, even voice, say “Speak to an agent”. You will be put through to a RHB (Real Human Being).
Richard Hicks
on 15 Sep 07There is also the lovely drawback of having someone shout a rather helpful “CANCEL” across the room and your call being ended.
Paul Tiemann
on 15 Sep 07I couldn’t agree more. Whoever designed these phone mazes should be required to use them.
However, these irritating (and expensive) systems are a boon for smaller companies: They make it even easier to differentiate by having better customer service.
Where I work, we used to have a very simple phone menu: “Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Support.” But I hate phone menus. So a few months ago I replaced that menu system with a simple greeting: “Thanks for calling DigiCert, we’ll connect you to someone as soon as possible.” Then the phone starts to ring, and we usually pick up before the second ring. That takes people by surprise, and sets the stage for a better experience.
bashon
on 15 Sep 07What happens is that someone is given a project under the the helpful title of ‘integrating telephony’. And so it begins.
Brady
on 15 Sep 07Had a nightmare scenario with AT&T just yesterday. Sat here from 8am to 8pm waiting for the guy to come hook up my new phone line and he doesn’t show. Call and talk to their robot, navigating their maddening maze of bs, to finally have it say – we’re sorry, that office is closed, please call back tomorrow.
Great. So, I go to their website to submit the complaint online. Finally find out how to email in a support question and fill out the form and hit submit. Error. Can’t submit a complaint online without a valid AT&T phone number. Wuh!? If you’da given me one I wouldn’t have been trying to complain.
It’s just unacceptable.
Tyson Caly
on 16 Sep 07This got me thinking. How could one improve the entire process?
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could visually see the phone tree on your mobile screen and navigate by touch. With services like the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail, I see this as a very likely future scenario. Think about it, you’d be able to select from a list of options on screen and scroll through a company’s phone tree easily. If you made a mistake, flip back to the last menu. After all, we are very visually oriented.
Of course, there’s really nothing better than people picking up the phone right away.
One day soon, we’ll see something much better. Until then, we’ll all have to suffer through… “I’m not sure I heard you correctly, did you say you wanted to talk to the We Don’t Care Department? Please press 1, or say yes.”
Robert
on 16 Sep 07Great post and rings very true with me, just off the phone with Egg bank customer services in the UK.
I wanted to ask a simple, general question yet was forced to go through authentication by the IVR system – which didn’t recognise my voice anyway. I was in work too so don’t really like shouting my personal details around the office but what choice do you have?
I wonder what potential customers have to do if they have simple questions about an account? Poor service in my opinion.
Rams
on 16 Sep 07Funny, I just hung up on such a call to Sears and fired up my Google reader to find this. I had to scream YES and NO so many times my 3 old wondered if daddy has gone crazy. Also, why cant I just punch 1, 2 or 3. Why do they assume that I am not sharing my office. Let me scream or punch a number.
Rahul Pathak
on 16 Sep 07IF you haven’t come across it, Gethuman.com is a listing of ways to get through the IVRs for many companies. Worth checking.
http://www.gethuman.com/
(I have no connection whatsoever to the site, just came in useful for me in the past.)
James
on 16 Sep 07I invariably scream the f word as soon as one of these systems starts to speak to me – it usually hands over to an agent.
Tom Robinson
on 17 Sep 07100% agreed.
The worst is AT&T. Once I actually got stuck in an infinite loop of the phone system…
Jhonny Mann
on 17 Sep 07You guys are suck fucking bitches … allways complaining about shit you don’t like. I have an idea, how about you STFU.
Gimmi back my real insightful posts … this shit is wack.
Jmimy Boy
on 17 Sep 07That’s “always”, Jhonny.
Paul S
on 17 Sep 07There’s a weird reverse-uncanny valley affect with voice prompt systems. I know I’m listening to a machine, but it really creeps me out to talk back to it. I like my HCI neatly compartmentalized, thank you: I use numbers (and codes and buttons, etc.) to communicate with machines, and words to communicate with humans.
A few people have already hit on the secret to beating these systems: mumbling. As soon as a machine says something like “how can I help you,” I say “smarsnorkf.” I keep saying “smarsnorkf” with ever escalating unhappiness until I get a person.
sob
on 17 Sep 07You obviously don’t fly United through ORD very much, otherwise the association between screaming and United wouldn’t seem so strange. =]
Tom M.
on 17 Sep 07The last time I encountered one of these things (a few days ago, called the USPS) the automated system was picking up collateral sounds in my household (my very chatty two-year-old) and actually interpreting them as one of the options they gave. I couldn’t get through all of the options without her voice triggering a response, which was something like “you said, xxxxx, is that correct?” and then when I said “no” it would start the whole loop again. Fortunately it wasn’t anything serious, but if it was, apparently you have to lock yourself in a quiet room before you call, which is reasonable :)
andjules
on 17 Sep 07I discovered that Rogers’ (cable + cell phone provider in Canada) terrible IVR system seems to recognize “F*#% YOU!”, and auto-forwards you to a real-live CSR on hearing that ‘command’.
Steve
on 17 Sep 07Ignore the horrible voice recognition systems, ignore the ‘press X to do whatever’ systems, just keep pressing the 0 key until you get to the Operator – who will invariably direct you straight to the ::person:: you need to talk to.
Erin
on 19 Sep 07I am firmly convinced that the people who designed these things either do not have children (or if they do, never have to spend any time around them). Children inevitably begin to act up with a parent is on the phone. It’s a universally recognized phenomenon. And, of course, this phone system thinks you just told it to BE QUIET.
lee
on 20 Sep 07telecom new zealand has something similar. we discovered however that if you yell “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” it takes you to a real person.
jon
on 21 Sep 07I had the same experience with yelling expletives into the phone while interacting with a voice based customer service system. In fact, the first thing I do when forced to use such a system is start yelling random curse words. 9 times out of 10 I get to a real person almost immediately and just talk “normal” and explain my reason for calling. But even after using this method, getting a competent customer support person is a roll of the dice.
This discussion is closed.