Re: Friday humor - "I wanna talk to a real person."

[Ken Poshedly <poshedly -at- bellsouth -dot- net>]

This is EXACTLY what I was told by a real, live Sprint customer 
service rep about 5 years ago (after I explained what I had to go 
through to get her online). And no, the reps don't like the IVR sysem 
either because by the time the customer gets a rep online, the 
customer is fuming and little can usually be done to calm him/her down.

And it does seem to work.

-- Kenpo in Atlanta


At 02:28 PM 3/6/2009, Guy K. Haas wrote:
>Interestingly enough, swearing may well expedite the process:
>
>How Swearing Gets You Put Through To a Real Person When Using an Automated
>Phone Service
>
>If you need to speak with a company's customer service representative via
>telephone, what you will likely experience after you dial the customer
>service number, is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with a
>variety of options that has been designed to "help" serve you better. In
>truth, seldom does this automated service help you. However, what it does
>do is cause you to become frustrated and confused while you are attempting
>to figure out how to reach an actual human.
>
>That being said, if you don't want to go through all of the automated
>options and try to figure out your way through the endless maze of
>questions and verifications, you could try swearing at the IVR system to
>see how much closer to a real person that will get you.
>
>IVR systems are programmed to recognize certain key word phrases, these
>key words are what move a caller through the system to help diagnose and
>fix their problem.
>
>...
>
>http://preview.tinyurl.com/awh75r
>
>--Guy K. Haas
>    Software Exegete in Silicon Valley
>
>
>On Fri, March 6, 2009 11:14 am, Suzanne Chiles wrote:
> > My Dad and I were having a similar conversation and he thought about how
> > many laid-off people could be put back to work if companies would let
> > humans
> > answer the telephones.
> > I really hate the systems that make me speak my choice; I would much
> > rather
> > push numbers, as I typically wind up screaming and cursing at the phone.
> >
> > Suzanne
>
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