Where's Julie?

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The system is designed for a broad range of users. Some may leave and use the web, some may not, and consider using it the next time. Some will never use it for lots of good reasons. You are certainly entitled to your view of how the system should be set up, but it runs counter to how many companies like to set up IVR systems, and call centers in general. I'd just be guessing, but on the long lists of things people have to complain about with Amtrak, this probably doesn't make the top 10 for too many folks.
 
Look, from the NPR dating service we've already ascertained that Julie is, basically a controlling *****. So, why does her offending callers surprise anybody?
 
NorthShore said:
Look, from the NPR dating service we've already ascertained that Julie is, basically a controlling *****. So, why does her offending callers surprise anybody?
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Julie requires you to ask three times before she'll hand over the phone and acts slightly annoyed when she finally runs out of excuses for delaying the inevitable. Almost sounds a bit like a jealous girlfriend who doesn't want her new beau to chat with his old mates. Some folks don't seem to notice her passive aggressive mind games but I grow wary every time she answers the phone. At least Siri knows enough to be helpful some of the time. Anything I've ever asked of Julie turned out to be far beyond her level of remedial comprehension.
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
For me the best answering systems are those that give you an aggregated time estimate based on the number of calls ahead of you [...]
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Agreed.

Devil's Advocate said:
[...] with the option to enter a number of your choosing for a callback.
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It's nice to have the option, I suppose, but if I need to wait for a person, I would rather put the phone on speaker and work on something else while hoping for a person to come on the line than work on something else while hoping for the phone to ring.
 
I don't mind if the automated system tries to do basic tasks, or tells me once what the website can do, as long as there's an easy, obvious way to get an agent for those of us who call and aren't trying to do a basic task.

The most annoying for me is when you're on hold, the music is playing, and the music is interrupted by a voice. Extra demerit points when there's a pause or transition sound to make you think someone has actually answered. Extreme demerit points if it's just telling me (PROBABLY FOR THE 18TH TIME) what all I can do online (YOU ALREADY TOLD ME 17 TIMES) or if it's some ad for a product or service from that company. Just play the music, let me wait, maybe give me an update every once in a while on where I am in the queue, and that's it. I don't need to hear about how your website is so amazing (that it can't do what I'm trying to get a hold of an agent to do) or how this new fancy product will make my life amazing and just ask your representative for more information!
 
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call back is excellent, but many companies avoid it because it shifts a cost to them (paying for the outgoing call) or they fear losing the caller completely. In many cases, that's probably false economy, they don't calculate properly and factor in the business they lose when people hang up and call someone else.
 
jebr said:
The most annoying for me is when you're on hold, the music is playing, and the music is interrupted by a voice. Extra demerit points when there's a pause or transition sound to make you think someone has actually answered. Extreme demerit points if it's just telling me (PROBABLY FOR THE 18TH TIME) what all I can do online (YOU ALREADY TOLD ME 17 TIMES) or if it's some ad for a product or service from that company. Just play the music, let me wait, maybe give me an update every once in a while on where I am in the queue, and that's it. I don't need to hear about how your website is so amazing (that it can't do what I'm trying to get a hold of an agent to do) or how this new fancy product will make my life amazing and just ask your representative for more information!
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That's exactly what I was saying!

cpotisch said:
I will say one complaint about the reminder: it is really frustrating to be on hold for many minutes and repeatedly get what at first sounds like a real representative, only to realize after a few seconds that it's a recording reminding you about the website. I feel like it make sense to at minimum play that recording/reminder one time, and then just play some **** music for the rest of your wait. I don't think anyone needs to be reminded 10 times that they can use the site.
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PVD said:
call back is excellent, but many companies avoid it because it shifts a cost to them (paying for the outgoing call) or they fear losing the caller completely. In many cases, that's probably false economy, they don't calculate properly and factor in the business they lose when people hang up and call someone else.
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On the other hand, clearing a line to receive more calls, (to also call back later), might give them a net gain in customer's, who might have instead either gotten a busy signal, or got tired of being on hold...
 
Call center design consultants and the people that hire them on the corporate side have a set of ideas about what is right for that client, or that organization. I've bitten my tongue at enough planning meetings to the point of the blood running down my chin. The equipment we were provisioning could do almost anything, the odd or unfriendly implementations were normally imposed by humans.
 
PVD said:
call back is excellent, but many companies avoid it because it shifts a cost to them (paying for the outgoing call)
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Unless the company is using a non-toll free number for customers to call into, it'd almost certainly be cheaper to pay for the outgoing call. Every minute the caller is on hold costs the company a small amount of money (as they're paying the caller's bill for that call.) In fact, depending on the contract the outgoing rate may be cheaper per minute than the incoming toll-free rate, thus saving them even more money. (Some of the more build-your-own-package VoIP systems I've seen even charge a small per-minute fee for non-toll free incoming calls, which seems a bit odd.)
 
Apparently it was some weird formula they used for allocating cost. . Personally, I'm inclined to agree with your reasoning. But as I said earlier I bit my tongue in meetings with "that crowd" on a regular basis. We got paid a good bit of money to supply, install, and maintain the equipment. Not a career move to embarrass the consultants who give you the jobs on a regular basis. (But the temptation was often there) In the early days of call management I had a customer that bought a $20K system to detail all long distance call records and reconcile pricing. Customer- They told me it would let me knock out 25% of my LD calls if the staff knew I had the record of who made each call. Me- How much is the bill now? Answer - around $175 a month. Ouch.
 
I agree with jebr.

Toll-Free only means that you are not paying for the call. The person or company that you are calling is paying. Using the example I gave earlier (of a 2 hour wait), the person or company would be paying for that entire 2 hours that you were on hold. Thus, it would cost less to call you back. They would still have to pay for the 3 minutes your transaction takes either way. But they would not be paying for the other 2 hours.
 
It isn't the same as paying for the call itself. Buying service in bulk brings huge discounts. Customers would group the calls regionally to fet the best pricing, and route them between multiple call centers on internal networks.
 

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