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It’s not about the call center

Last updated on January 23, 2023

I don’t want to pick up the phone. It’s 2013. I’m a firm believer that pretty much every registration, payment and communication should be able to be done online, without having to wait on hold to speak to a random stranger in customer service who is plugging my answers into the same form that should have been available to me in the first place.

If you give me my own web interface, I can complete the task at hand in a matter of minutes. If you make me call your call center, I’ll put it off for as long as possible and start each interaction with a sense of dread. Why? Because I need to navigate the phone tree, wait on hold for the next available agent; spell my first and last name, often multiple times (“No, that’s B-O-N, as in Nancy”); explain that my last name is Italian, not French, and yes, it translates to “good man”; explain that Corte means Court and that my street name really is Corte XYZ not XYZ Corte; and then answer a handful of chit-chatty questions about the weather and current events. Even if the customer service rep is the most charming person in the world, the interaction will always take a minimum of three times as long as if I’d just done it myself.

So please, please, give me a simple, clear web form. With all due respect to your hardworking call center representatives, the web form will give me a much more favorable view of your company.

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