The Press ZERO Test.

February 9th, 2017  | Julia Becerra

The Press Zero Test. Dialing For Customer Service.

I love technology.  In fact I have been working in the IT field for quite a few years.  It amazes me to see the progress made in the tech field during the last 20 years.  Things I thought would be just part of a futuristic movie are now a reality; take for example that Dick Tracy’s smart watch (Dick Tracy animated series created by Chester Gould ) that Apple made available a few years ago.   It’s cool, isn’t it?

In a typical day, I get my daily morning news briefing from Alexa (the Amazon assistant), followed by a set of good songs selected by this powered voice service.

In a non-typical day, at a moment where I usually do not have much time to spare, sometimes,  I find myself with the need to reach out to a given company customer service department to request their help to resolve an issue I may have  with one of their products,  or to address a query about their services.

A few years ago it was common knowledge that once you dial the 1-800 number, you were expected to be initially greeted by an automated phone system that would typically walk thru to a menu of options.  You could select the option that was closest to your needs and you would expect to have a real person answering the phone to address your specific concerns.

When the menu options did not seem to fit your particular concern, you should not have to worry; there was always the “Press Zero” Option to either speak to an operator or to a live customer service.

Well, that seems not to be true any longer.  A couple of weeks ago, I found myself calling a retail institution to address an issue with an online payment that did not go thru.  I dialed the number and went to the options 1 thru 9.  None of them seemed to fit my query. So I pressed Zero with the hope of getting to a live customer service.  “Zero is not an option, Please listen to your menu options again by pressing * “, the automated message said.

I listened to the menu options and decided to try one of the 1-9 options listed. I pressed option 2.  Option 2 brought me to another menu with 1-9 options. I randomly pressed #3  and to my surprise there was now another interactive voice response requesting information from me.  I proceed to provide the information.

There was hope that after all that my call could be routed to a human customer service.  Of course that did not happen. Instead it put me thru another set of options.  Irritated I said “Customer service please”  and the robotic response I got was that “Sorry that is not an option”.  I then said it slowly. “C u s t o m e r   S e r v I c e”  the robotic response? “I do not seem to recognize that option. To listen to the previous menu, please press *”.

I hanged up.

Last week, I noticed that one of my co-workers was going thru the same scenario while trying to make a credit card payment to a department store.  She was calmed and relaxed when she started the call and by the end of it, she was ready to break her phone in pieces.   The difference with her call is that as her last option in the menu she got the “You could contact our Client service via email at xyzabc@zyzstore.com.  Which then she did ;  of course there was no way to see if it would be answered by anybody since as most customer service email requests,  they are forwarded to a group email inbox where somebody or nobody can choose to reply or not.

So what happened to the useful technology that was developed to enhance the customer service experience? The good C.R.M.  (customer relationship management) systems that allowed the human being interacting with a customer to ask about the customer’s  last vacation trip  or remind them about the last conversation they had a year ago, (because of course all Is logged into the system)? What happened with the creative customer service representative that using the technology at his/her hands was able to  provide a solution or an answer to a client?

Well, perhaps some of that,  it’s still there, but more and more is coming a thing of the recent past.

What we are dealing with right now, it is with a growing number of frustrated customers (and believe me we all are at one point or another) that are screaming for a human interaction when dealing with a request that DOES NOT fall in the categories listed in the menu options or that even if they do fall into the category,  they are poorly answered by the robotic feature.

We consumers of all sorts are looking for an empathetic human mind, a problem-solving agent. And hopefully one with proper training and ability to think instead of basically just read options out of a corporate policy book.  I have interacted with some of those as well in the recent past. They behave robotically although they do have real flesh, but their answer is as automated as a robotic one, and typically  it has a bizarre ending such” There are no exceptions to this exception “ , when the request requires some sort of consideration, or with “Sorry we can’t help” when it falls into the everything else that needs to be figured out “ category.

In this technology savvy world, it makes sense to pair a human being’s emotional creativity, compassion and service skills with hands on technology that allows him/her to address customer’s concerns/issues on a proper prompt and satisfactory way.

It is concerning to see how companies find the adequate technology but forget about the valuable gift that is the humans for whom this technology was designed.

The tendency is to suppress the human interaction and although it may work out well in some predictable circumstances and for some clients, there is always a “one of” that does not fall in that group.

Companies seem fond of creating flow-chart-based scripts for how customer-service call should proceed.  Perhaps this is a good starting point and it is an element that reassures management that their service operations are under control and highly predictable. But there are exceptions; this is a complex real world that fully human agents have to navigate.  There are exceptions to almost everything and full predictability is not attainable.

The human agency, even with all its quirks, errors, moods and inconsistencies has allowed us to move forward into this exceptional and unpredictable complex planet.  Modern customer service should learn from history and walk arm in arm with each other and with the help of technology to keep ascending instead of to knock us back down to a place of distress and frustration.

Frustration that more and more often I feel I share with many people, and not only at their homes but at their work places.  I remember recently during a meeting,  when one of the managers voiced out his frustration, after trying to address an issue with an outside party; A company he had endlessly sent  requests to  their company’s email inbox ; a company’s group service hot line he had repeatedly  called : “ Just give me a human being. Somebody I can talk to! “he said.

So next time you press Zero during a call to a customer service desk, know that it may mean “To start the call all over again!. An endless loop”  or in other words:Frustration Ahead!

 

 

I would love to read your thoughts and comments about this subject.

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