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Re: Serious follow-up to the automated telephone system thing
Subject:Re: Serious follow-up to the automated telephone system thing From:Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:58:40 -0700
Downing, David wrote:
>
> But speaking of deliberate malice, there's one option I'd like to add to
> some of those systems -- "To give the designer of this system a painful
> electric shock, press 9."
>
OTOH, some are totally praiseworthy. I used to call the American Express
IVR for the sole purpose of listening to the perfect voice guiding me
through a perfect transaction. There was never any cause for stress.
At the same time, I was documenting the IVR for one of the most despised
customer service call centers in the history of the world. Even I hated
to call them because no matter what the problem, they managed to make it
all my fault. "If you read your contract it clearly states ..." was
their idea of problem solving. If the customer service people had been
in charge of the IVR, it would certainly have been done as a house of
mirrors. But the IVR was always done to very professional standards by a
network engineering group. The IVR did have a glitch that sent the
caller into a loop if calling on a weekend about billing problems, but
I've always suspected that was done out of spite by a disgruntled
programmer.
Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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