The "Please Press 1" Conundrum

[nick1091]

The set-up: My current job employs more than 150 people in several different departments. Each employee has their own extension from the 800#, as well as group extensions for sales, accounting, tech support, etc. In addition, our phone menu has options (press 2 for sales, 3 for operations, etc. etc.)

When you call our 800 number, the message says something to the effect of "If you know your party's three-digit extension, please press one, then the number." I know this differs from most every other phone system, but it's really not to difficult a concept to grasp.

The problem is, no one bothers to listen after the first part, and frantically dials their extension of choice, usually tech support (which is 446.) Unfortunately for them and me, the system only recognizes the 4, (since they didn't press 1 first) and sends them to option 4, which is me in collections. The results end up as variations of:

Me: "Collections, this is Nick."
SC: "Is this tech support?"
-----------
Me: "Collections, this is Nick."
SC: "Hi, this is Tom from XYZCo. I need some help with my servers."
-----------
Me: "Collections, this is Nick.:
SC: "Sorry wrong number."
(More often than not I end up speaking with this person again about 15 seconds later.)

So, hoping against hope they'll listen more to a fellow human than a recording they willfully ignored, I've attempted to instruct them on the intricacies of dialing 1 before the extension. These attempts have been mostly fruitless.

Me: "I'm sorry sir, but this is the Collections Department?"
SC: "Really?"
----------------
Me: "If you've dialed in through the 800 number, you'll have to dial 1 before the tech support extension."
SC: "But I dialed 446!"
----------------
And my personal favorite....
Me: "Next time, you'll want to dial 1, and then your extension. Hold the and I'll transfer you."
SC: "OK."

This is followed by the customer punching in the digits AS I'M ON THE PHONE WITH THEM, as if I was just another machine, attempting to avenge the callous disregard they showed to my digital brother.

I mean really, is it too much to expect technology professionals, some representing Fortune 500 companies, to master the art of actually LISTENING?

[Reyneth]

Considering that TWICE when I answered the phone yesterday, I had people asking what time we were open until that night.........I can believe anything with people and phones right now. We have a system with one line in, a message telling you what numbers to push and 4 different lines in a 5,000 sqft or so store - although if one part isn't answering thier phone, the others will.

The very first option is "For store hours, please press one."
Yet these idiots decided to press 2 and reach the lab or 3 and the portrait studio (waiting on line for 2-3 rings more) to ask us what our hours are! Oh, the kicker? This happened to me twice yesterday. I was in on my own time doing a personal project - off the clock, so I didn't do work unless the other people were stuck. I only answered the phone twice. 2 for 2. WTF, people?

[Gravekeeper]

After years in a call center I have come to the conclusion that 90% of callers do NOT listen to the first thing they hear. I get this *constantly*. People will call and ask questions that were answered by the first thing I said.

Usually its a variation of:

"Good evening, <insert company name>, Gravekeeper speaking"
"Hi, is this <company name I just said>?"

or

"Good evening, <insert company name>, Gravekeeper speaking"
"Hi, can I get a <cab/order a pizza/whatever the hell>"

Yeah because lots of cab and pizza places have "Lottery", "Roofing", "Emergency line", "Property managemetn" or "first level support" in their name.

We have another line that has a recorded message on it that tells callers to have a pen or pencil ready to take information down. How many of them do you think listen? Go on, guess. ><

[friendofjimmyk]

When I was on the other end of the spectrum here and took the incoming calls, I would most often be asked questions I could not answer...

ME: Is there anything else I can help you with?
SC: Yes. If I need to call back for any reason, what number do I push so I don't have to go through all the recordings?
ME: I don't know. I've never called in before for road service.
SC: Is it 1 or can I dial 0 for the operator?
ME: I don't know. I've never been on the other end of the line.
SC: Do you have a direct extension?
ME: No, sorry. [THANK GOD]
SC: Well, what do I do then?
ME: Call in and follow the prompts. [Maybe. Again, I DON'T KNOW!]

[Gurndigarn]

When you call our 800 number, the message says something to the effect of "If you know your party's three-digit extension, please press one, then the number." I know this differs from most every other phone system, but it's really not to difficult a concept to grasp.

The problem is, no one bothers to listen after the first part, and frantically dials their extension of choice, usually tech support (which is 446.) Unfortunately for them and me, the system only recognizes the 4, (since they didn't press 1 first) and sends them to option 4, which is me in collections. The results end up as variations of:

Have you considered asking if your company could change their extensions so that they all have a one in front of them? IE, tech support becomes extension 1446? At least, that's what you tell everyone?

[blaubent]

I can relate to this. I have called my place of work just to see what options customers are presented with. Customers are asked to press 1 for pharamacy and "0" for all other calls. Once they press "0", they are asked to press 1 for photo, 2 for customer service or 3 for cosmetics.

More often than not, the conversation goes like this:

ME (answering customer service calls): Thank you for calling ****. How may I help you.
Customer: I need a prescription for ****.
Me: Let me transfer you to pharmacy.
Customer: You mean this is not the pharmacy?

[Horsetuna]

I admit I double check when I call what company that is, but a lot of the time that's because the lady starts to speak while the phone is still clattering, and they talk SO FAST I can't understand what they're saying x.x

But when its' a machine that doesnt have that problem, no excuse.

[powerboy]

We have another line that has a recorded message on it that tells callers to have a pen or pencil ready to take information down. How many of them do you think listen? Go on, guess. ><

I have to say something about this. Whenever it asks me to get a pen and paper, by the time I do get it, they are done talking, then I have to go through all that again, just to hear that. And it is always a recording. I hate when that happenes. And my guess, is that everyone else does too. Who wants to be on the phone listening to a recording for five minutes trying to get a little bit of info.

[zelper]

I have to say something about this. Whenever it asks me to get a pen and paper, by the time I do get it, they are done talking, then I have to go through all that again, just to hear that. And it is always a recording. I hate when that happenes. And my guess, is that everyone else does too. Who wants to be on the phone listening to a recording for five minutes trying to get a little bit of info.

But why not just keep a pen and some paper near the phone?

[zzapp the witch]

In defence of the people that repeat right back to you what you just said, half the time when I'm calling someone and they answer the phone with, "Hello, this is so and so with such and such" they say it so fast, or in such a way that I completely miss the so and so and such and such, sometimes I repeat it back to them to make sure I heard correctly, other times I ask them to repeat themselves because I couldn't catch it.

Yes it sounds idiotic, but its like a brain reset....have to repeat to make sure our brain catches it the second time around. (Though if you can't get it by the second time... )

[Crazyredhead]

I think my favorite call when I worked the call center was when someone called in and was screaming in the phone. I don't know if he could hear me at first but it was a classic, IMO.

When calls come in the phone will 'bing'. I had just finished a rather nice call with some nice lady and had about 2 minutes before this guy called. Anyways, the line goes ding and I start my opening line. Before I could finish he started pushing the numbers on his phone. I started my line over but the guy just kept pressing. I had started to just say hello when he started screaming hello into the phone over and over. I waited for him to finish and said hello again but he started pressing numbers. This went on for a couple of minutes, until I was practically hollering hello into the phone. When all of a sudden he yelled into his background, "there's no one there, someone picked up but no one is saying anything."

I then yelled hello again and he finally heard, he then said "what do you want?" WTF!!! I told him that I wanted to know the same thing. He said that I called him. I told him that I cannot make outbound calls (although I can) and that he is the one that called into my phone and how can I help him.

Well this went on for another couple of minutes and he then asked to be transfered to care. Something tells me that he didn't listen to the recording at all. HMMMMMM!!!!!

[CrazedClerk]

Earlier this week my manager had left messages with people to call the store back and ask for Jim.

I hear this TWICE in the span of a few minutes:

My boss: "Thank you for calling XYZ games, Jim speaking."
(pause)
My boss: "speaking."

Translation: The person on the phone just ASKED for my boss by name even though he had identified himself not five SECONDS earlier.

The first time it was funny, the second time I was stunned by the ignorance.

[AFpheonix]

More often than not, the conversation goes like this:

ME (answering customer service calls): Thank you for calling ****. How may I help you.
Customer: I need a prescription for ****.
Me: Let me transfer you to pharmacy.
Customer: You mean this is not the pharmacy?

Or they get the pharmacy, and get mad when we have no clue what they need for passport photos >_<

When they switched us over to that new phone system (well, we have the same system we've always had in the back, you guys up front just get to share the joy now) I had about 5 messages on the patient voicemail box from the same old man, who I don't think realized he was on a recorder.
"Goddammit...what do I have to do to get a live person?" click
next message: "Goddammit!"
Message 3:-rustle rustle...."Goddammit!"
Message 4: ".......Goddammit! Betty? I can't get a live person...."

Me, hearing all this: If he'd just stated his name, I could have looked him up and called him back, but he never did. It's not like this is a difficult phone tree, either.

[rvdammit]

Earlier this week my manager had left messages with people to call the store back and ask for Jim.

I hear this TWICE in the span of a few minutes:

My boss: "Thank you for calling XYZ games, Jim speaking."
(pause)
My boss: "speaking."

Translation: The person on the phone just ASKED for my boss by name even though he had identified himself not five SECONDS earlier.

The first time it was funny, the second time I was stunned by the ignorance.

When I've been on the customer end of that call it's benn "Hi, I'm rvdammit, could I speak to the Jim who left me a message?" I may not know how many Jim's you have.

[El Barto]

I probably get at least 1 call a day where the second thing I say is "Please hold while I transfer you to pharmacy." Every f***ing day. It's not a hard system. To get me to answer the phone you have to hit 2 buttons after having 6 choices given to you. My stores system is something like this (I'm not sure what the Rx options are, when I call I just hit the button that sends my call to the manager's cordless phone, and no that option isn't listed when you call. )

To speak to someone in the pharmacy press 1
To use the automated prescription refill system press 2
If you are calling from a Doctors office press 3 (this one is supposed to be used for doctors or nurses only, it has a different ringtone on the Rx phones than the customer one)
To reach the front store press 4

After pressing 4

For photo lab questions press 1 (I ignore these since I know jack shit about the photo lab)
For general store questions press 2

To get to me you have to go through all those options. And I still get people asking about thier damn prescriptions. The next person that does that to me might accidentally get there call released instead of transfered.

BTW, after the General Store Questions option there is one more option:

For store hours press 9.

Probably half the people I get on the phone want to know the store hours, but they never got there because some idiot made that the last choice.