Phone Tree Abuse – Customer Experience

hi shep hiking your customer service and
experience expert today i'm going to
talk about the use of phone trees now
i've all experienced it we've called the
customer support line and a pre-recorded
message states press one for this and
two for that and three for whatever et
cetera et cetera et cetera well it
happened to me again and this is how it
went down i listened to the prompts i
was at number four thinking this one
might be it but i wasn't 100 sure so i
kept listening i got to number six when
the recording said i could listen to the
options again so i did and even then i
wasn't sure which option to choose so i
tried pushing zero and nothing happened
so i chose number four thinking it was
the closest to what i needed well it
turned out after a seven minute wait
it wasn't in all fairness to the company
there was a recording that informed me
how long the wait would be i multitask
while waiting for the customer service
rep to join the conversation and once
the rep came online i shared my issue
she politely informed me i pressed the
wrong option i should have pressed
number three and she would be happy to
transfer me how nice well that was until
i experienced my next recording telling
me my hold time would be 18 minutes i
had no choice but to wait and even
though the customer service rep who
eventually took my call was friendly it
really didn't matter my experience was
tainted by the phone tree debacle and
the long waits now i don't mind a phone
tree with several choices but how many
is too many one of her team members used
to work in support centers and she said
it's not uncommon to have eight
eight choices so now i'm thinking a lot
about phone trees again there's nothing
wrong with this type of technology as
long as it's done the right way so here
are a few tips number one
keep the options to just a few too many
become confusing and a confused customer
can become a frustrated customer number
two if you must offer more than three
options consider staying with three but
offering additional options when the
customer gets to the next branch on the
tree this could be less confusing
number three give customers the option
of pressing zero to speak to an operator
number four once the customer makes
their choice don't let them down with a
long hold time if you must make them
hold inform the customer how long the
hold will be and as long as you've
invested in this technology include the
option of a callback when it's the
customer's turn rather than forcing them
to wait
number five while the customer is
holding the recording should offer
suggestions for a self-service option
our customer service research found that
of customers are willing to try
self-service so take advantage of that
and number six the customer service rep
should know how long the customer waited
since their initial contact now during
the welcome there should be an
acknowledgement and an apology for the
long wait
you know customers wouldn't be calling
support unless they had a problem or a
question the company's goal is to not
upset customers when they reach out for
help make it easy for them to get their
answers give them the experience they
deserve one that is easy frictionless
and helpful well i hope you enjoyed this
short lesson thank you very much for
tuning in this is shep hyken reminding
you to always be amazing