#273481 - 05/01/2006 04:33
Pet Peeve
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Companies you call up and the IVR system asks you for your account number or your phone number. You punch it in, they confirm it, you press 1 for "Yes, this number is correct". This procedure takes about 1000 minutes to do.
Then, as soon as you get through to a real human being, THEY ASK YOU FOR YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER AGAIN. GAH.
In fact, I have yet to find a company where I call them up and punch in the number, and they DON'T ask for the number again.
Thank you for letting me rant. Please continue on with whatever you were doing.
Edited by tfabris (05/01/2006 04:33)
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#273482 - 05/01/2006 05:17
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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They're testing you? You don't want to know what happens if the numbers don't match up! 
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#273483 - 05/01/2006 06:56
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Then, as soon as you get through to a real human being, THEY ASK YOU FOR YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER AGAIN. GAH.
This is because they're shit. Way back when, before I worked before the company before empeg, when I was working in telephony -- this is like 1998 or something -- we sold fully-integrated IVR/CTI systems that would deliver your call to an agent, with all of the details fully filled in on their screen. Seems like nobody's bothered to use the technology.
_________________________
-- roger
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#273484 - 05/01/2006 11:12
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Roger]
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old hand
Registered: 14/08/2001
Posts: 886
Loc: London, UK
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My company does. It brings up customer info based on CLI details
_________________________
Mk2a RioCar 120Gb - now sold to the owner of my old car
Rio Karma - now on ebay...
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#273485 - 05/01/2006 14:16
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: furtive]
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old hand
Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
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Quote:
My company does. It brings up customer info based on CLI details
Dominoes Pizza do that as well actually. When you call them up, they know your name, address, and a history of what you ordered too. Its all about CRM.
But, definately, its very annoying for me too when companies have half-brained systems that don't use the information they're given. One example is NTL who ask you to tap in your phone number when you call them, only for a human to ask you the same question after you've been on hold for half an hour. Just to annoy you that little bit more.
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#273486 - 05/01/2006 15:25
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: sein]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Dominoes Pizza do that as well actually.
Heh. I'd forgotten about them. Way back when (1998 probably) I would ring them once or twice a week for pizza, and -- because I only ever ordered a large Pepperoni -- the only conversation required was the Dominoes guy saying "it'll be there in 20 minutes" 
_________________________
-- roger
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#273487 - 05/01/2006 15:35
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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I completely agree, Tony. The only instance I've had where it does work is when I recently called UPS about a shipment. Good thing, too, because I didn't want to repeat one of those damn tracking numbers again.
On the bright side, voice recognition with these systems is impressive these days. For someone like me, who mumbles pretty badly on the phone, to be able to speak a long tracking number at a pretty decent speed is pretty good.
_________________________
Matt
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#273488 - 05/01/2006 16:23
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: sein]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Quote:
Its all about CRM.
Most of the code that I have written over the last 8 years has been for CRM, Onyx's CRM in particular.
Quote:
But, definately, its very annoying for me too when companies have half-brained systems that don't use the information they're given. One example is NTL who ask you to tap in your phone number when you call them, only for a human to ask you the same question after you've been on hold for half an hour.
Ironically ntl: is one of Onyx's customers...
...and they have software in place to handle all the CTI-CRM integration, in theory at least.
_________________________
Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#273489 - 05/01/2006 16:53
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
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<OT>Happy Birthday Andy!!</OT>
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~ John
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#273490 - 05/01/2006 16:53
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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I'm not claiming to know anything about this CRM stuff, but I just wanted to mention that yesterday I listened to a podcast that mentioned that 37Signals would be developing a sot-of-CRM application. I like their stuff, and think they have a good philosophy for software.
_________________________
Matt
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#273491 - 05/01/2006 17:46
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
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Quote:
Then, as soon as you get through to a real human being, THEY ASK YOU FOR YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER AGAIN. GAH.
I suppose that there are options in the menus that will provide the information/service that is requested on a fully automated basis- no human required. For this scenario, the account number entry is useful.
If I want to access this sort of option (and I know it exists) then, fine, I enter all the data and play with the automated system.
If I want to talk to someone, I don't play games- I start pressing 0 until someone picks up the line.
I think I read somewhere recently about a website that offers tips on how to navigate your way to a human on various companies phone systems- it's not always a bunch of zeros.
Hmm- can't remember where I read that...
_________________________
10101311 (20GB- backup empeg)
10101466 (2x60GB, Eutronix/GreenLights Blue) (Stolen!)
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#273492 - 05/01/2006 19:18
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
Seems like nobody's bothered to use the technology.
The problem I am betting with most of these technologies is that they end up being very disruptive to the person taking the call. The system I used for a short time under the Compaq banner would populate the phone number field in our call logger when someone called so we could log a case. Problem is, the application that pulled the phone number off the phone switch would then force the call logger to the front and start doing a macro to get a new case started with the phone number. If I was clicking anywhere else or typing, the process was broken and wasted my time to clean up the program to then get a case started.
Most people on my team stopped the program when they logged in for the day because of this. Or the other issue was that the phone number might not be right, as larger companies tended to put their account info on a main number, and not every IT workers desk phone. It was just easier to ask "What phone number is your account info under" then hope the application might work and that the customer entered the right number in the system, as ours did no verification.
The system I do like now though is one used on the HP enterprise support line. The first menu asks if it is an existing call the customer is calling in about. If that selection is picked, the system asks for the case number, and will route the call to the last department to work with the case. In addition, if the tech who last worked the case is available, it will first ring their phone before going to the general queue to be answered by someone else. All without software on every PC. This helps, since HP supports multiple OS choice internally for the employees, and usually all the CTI software is Windows only.
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#273493 - 05/01/2006 19:21
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Robotic]
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enthusiast
Registered: 11/06/2003
Posts: 384
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Quote:
I think I read somewhere recently about a website that offers tips on how to navigate your way to a human on various companies phone systems- it's not always a bunch of zeros.
Hmm- can't remember where I read that...
there was another such conversation here, same one where kayak.com was mentioned. Pretty sure a voicemail navigation site was linked to.
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#273494 - 05/01/2006 19:31
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Mataglap]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Hehe, I've had this experience a few times. I recently had to call Sprint about something and was hung up on a couple times. The third time I called back, the first chance I had to say something I said "MANAGER!" I didn't get connected to an actual manager, but it seemed to connect me a little faster
_________________________
Matt
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#273495 - 05/01/2006 20:10
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
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Curious, so was I at the end of '97. Ours gave the agent a full screen summary of the caller which we pulled out of the national phone database and a copy of their tax dossier. They still asked for the SOFI number (NI number). When we asked why they did this when they had the name, address, telephone number, SOFI number, tax dossier and all the rest that they needed to immediately begin dealing with their customer, they inevitably said "Because they (the departmental heads) said we had to since we couldn't trust the system". So we told their bosses and training people this, 'cos the whole point of the system was to boost the agent's efficiency and reduce call time by having this information at their fingertips on the screen. "Yes, yes, we'll change the training". The first question they asked me (in December 2005 when I last rung them) was "Could I have your name and SOFI number please?" 
_________________________
One of the few remaining Mk1 owners...  #00015
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#273496 - 05/01/2006 21:05
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: Mataglap]
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old hand
Registered: 14/04/2002
Posts: 1172
Loc: Hants, UK
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Quote:
Quote:
I think I read somewhere recently about a website that offers tips on how to navigate your way to a human on various companies phone systems- it's not always a bunch of zeros.
Hmm- can't remember where I read that...
there was another such conversation here, same one where kayak.com was mentioned. Pretty sure a voicemail navigation site was linked to.
IVR Cheat Sheet:
http://paulenglish.com/ivr/
and the new UK list:
http://paulenglish.com/ivr/uk/
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#273497 - 05/01/2006 22:16
Re: Pet Peeve
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Quote:
In fact, I have yet to find a company where I call them up and punch in the number, and they DON'T ask for the number again.
I ran into a company a couple of years ago that had me punch in the number and then didn't ask me for it verbally. I was so suprised I asked and then complemented the lady when she told me that they were, in fact, using the information I'd punched in. She didn't quite know how to respond.
Don't remember what compnay it was, though.
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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