The New Busy Signal

Do you remember the day of the busy signal? It would drive you mad to be calling someone, who didn't have call waiting or - dating yourself, say it was before call waiting, and you'd get a busy signal. Over and over again you'd dial and get a busy signal. Just when you thought the days of the busy signal were over and telephones had come so far.... enter the automated system. A lesser evil? I'm not so sure about that. At least the busy signal was a definite NO your party will NOT answer. Today the automated system teases us as though someone may be with us in this decade. It's like a game of risk or try your luck. Are you feeling lucky today?

Case in point: My doctor called with test results yesterday. She told me to call back and ask for the doc on call. Easier said than done. I called back and tried option #2, which is what I usually use to schedule appointments. No luck. They told me to try option #4 and they put me back into "the system". I did just that. Option #4 pressed. The dreaded automated voice came on and told me "All agents are busy. Please stay on the line and the next available agent will be with you." Do you promise? I heard this message about 60 times, that would be twice per minute. Now any math whiz reading this will tell you I was on hold for 30 minutes. That's right, 30 minutes. I hung up in disgust and tried again. Why would I try again you might ask, did I think somehow another line would be luckier? I don't know. I felt I didn't have many choices. My blood pressure was rising (good thing it wasn't the issue she was calling about!). On my second try I was on hold 10 minutes before hanging up, again in disgust. Now, I simply called back in and chose option #1, the emergency line. "Is this an emergency?" the woman on the line asked. I didn't lie. I simply said I was returning the docs call. She paged the doc and within about 3 minutes we were connected. Thank God.

In your business do you use an automated system? Have you called it yourself? I'd recommend calling it every week, during various hours to check response time and ease of use. In fact, for ease of use ask your clients directly and have others call in and give you feedback. Most systems stink. You don't want to admit that because you paid for it and likely chose some of the awful options the rest of us get to deal with. Next time put together a focus group of your clients and potential clients to design the system. Most people will be much happier.

Happy dialing.