Receiving Calls from a Recording

I know the answer.  The answer is money driven.  Somehow, somewhere, in some back room in some corporate office, businessmen and women were somehow convinced that using automated voice recordings to answer phones, make collections calls, solicit business, or ask for political/charitable contributions will save money and make for a better bottom line.

Yeah?  So I wonder how that’s working out for them?

I don’t know about you, but if I answer the phone and get a recorded message – mind you, this is when my phone rings; they are calling me – I can’t hang that phone up fast enough.

I mean, really?  If you have an important message, don’t you think you should have a real person for me to talk to?  I am not going to hold the line for an unsolicited phone call no matter how important the recorded message may say it is.  The message can even start with, “This is not a marketing call …” CLICK, I’ve heard enough.

Does this technique really work?

Do people actually hold the line waiting for someone to talk to?

I would love to see the statistics on this.  I just cannot believe that this tactic is working for bill collectors and/or marketing programs.  Who believes that this practice is working for them?  It certainly does not work if people out there are anything like me.

Voice Response Units (VRUs) are bad enough when I am making the call.   I will usually hack away the best I can because I was motivated to make the call, for whatever reason.    But I really, really hate those things.  What I don’t understand, however, is when I answer all the questions the automated attendant asks of me to get me to the right place, why does the person who finally picks up the phone then ask me THE EXACT SAME QUESTIONS!?!?!?  Doesn’t the system collect my answers and pass them along to the person the call is directed to?!?!?

I will admit, however, I usually don’t make it very far with the automated teller before I start hitting “0” hoping to be immediately transferred to an operator.  When that doesn’t work for me, I usually start off my conversation with the person who finally gets me with an apology because I am already in a bad mood and I haven’t even started my conversation yet.  I feel sorry for those people.  They are not to blame, but they get a very frustrated and angry person on the phone before they even get to start hearing the complaint I was calling about in the first place.  And then when they ask me for my 75 character account number that I already typed into the phone – probably multiple times – it goes downhill from there.

Then, don’t even get me started with my complaint that I don’t seem to be able to speak the same language that the person who picks up the call speaks.  That’s a blog for another day.

So, if there is some unpaid bill I have floating around out there and you are trying to collect payment from me, you should know that you will not be successful with a recorded message sent my way.  It just won’t work.  Which makes me wonder:  Is the investment you made in the technology to eliminate having to pay a salary to a clerk level employee really working out for you?

“Hi, this is an important …”  CLICK … buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.