IVR

I just want to talk to someone

  • Tuesday, 24 November, 2009
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I’ve got a query about an Account I opened with Alliance and Leicester.  I’ve got a letter that provides me with an account number and a phone number, it reads  “…if you have any further question [sp] please contact a member of the team on 0844 5619737“. So I ring the number.

“Please enter your eight digit ID number.  This is on your welcome letter, monthly statements, or internet banking ID.  It is NOT your account number.”

Hmmm. I don’t have any of those things to hand, they are not on the letter.  I’ve got my debit card, but that’s obviously on a different system.  I put the phone down and return to the letter, near the bottom, in bold it gives another number “if you would like us to send you information in the future in larger print…” I ring this number.  It doesn’t work.

So I go to the website and look for a telephone number.  I’m an existing customer.  I select my product and ring the number on the page.

“Please enter your eight digit ID number.  This is on your welcome letter, monthly statements, or internet banking ID.  It is NOT your account number.”

I don’t have that information to hand.  I choose another product.  Same message.  I’m getting frustrated.  There’s a page titled “Other enquiries“.  Lots of words, but no number.  I navigate to the complaints page, it has a number.  Hey! Kill two birds with the same stone, speak to someone in their complaints department, make a complaint about how my time is being wasted trying to find a number and get transferred to the relevant department.

I dial the complaints number, more IVR and the prerecorded message.

“Please enter your eight digit ID number.  This is on your welcome letter, monthly statements, or internet banking ID.  It is NOT your account number.”

Frustration turns to anger.  I find a number for new customers.  I get through the IVR and finally talk to someone.  “I need to transfer you to the relevent department” she says.  OK.  The line goes silent.  And then goes dead.  Lovely.  Stress.  I give up and start the motions of closing the account.

There’s nothing unique about Alliance and Leicester.  I hate to pick on them.  But this seems like a case of a lack of joined up thinking.  When you are designing processes or procedures, don’t just think about them from the business perspective, take a persona and test them with real people in roll plays.  What if someone doesn’t have what you expect them to have?  Customers do not always behave according to the expected happy path.  What are you doing about that?

How do you answer the phone?

  • Friday, 14 August, 2009
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IVR, (that’s the automated routing of phone calls) is an unpleasant reality of multi-channel service.  Let’s assume that you are committed to using it, how much time have you spent in creating the messaging.  Two examples of trying to put a more human touch to something that is inherently not human and machine driven.

Firstly the Halifax.  Listen carefully to what happens after you key in an option.  You here a key click.  You are then prompted to enter your account number.  “thanks” the voice says, “I’ll just enter that”.  And you hear a clackerty clack of data being entered into a keyboard.  BUT YOU ARE A MACHINE!!!  It is a nice touch, but it is trying to make an interaction that is clearly not human more personable.

Second example is the Financial Obudsman.  “Thank you for calling” says the voice.  Not a stock, model voice, but a real voice, “I hope we’ll be able to help you. My name is Walter Merricks and I am the Chief Ombudsman…”   The message is clearly a recording.  There is no attempt to be anything but a recording, but giving the voice a name and explaining the nature of IVR is a real human touch.  Even better, the narrative about recording the call- it is not scripted from the IVR manual.  It talks to the customer in language they understand.

If you must be mechanical in your communications with customers, be human, be transparent, but don’t try and pretend to be what you are not.

Links
Halifax | Financial Obudsman

A pat on the back

  • Monday, 8 December, 2008
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Listening to your customers is not just about understanding how you can improve, it should also be about recognising when you do good. Especially if you are a people business, do you have a mechanism for enabling your customers to thank a member of your staff for outstanding service?

In your IVR do you have an option at the end of the call to let the customer give positive feedback on the representative who handled the call?

How about on your website? Do you have a form like British Airways does to enable a customer to simply “thank a staff member“? And if you do, do you have the process to ensure that the staff member will learn of the feedback, that it will feature in their review process and will be recognised for being what your brand should be all about, delighting your customers?