The Dreaded Hang Up

Posted on May 19, 2010 | 0 comments

Late the other night I needed to send a fax to a governmental organization. I know what you are thinking. Is there still such a thing as a fax? Anyways, I found the fax number online and sent the fax. About a half hour later, I received an email notification that my fax had failed.

“Darn” I said to myself and took the initiative to re-send the fax the very next morning. Again, the fax transmission failed. Having struck out twice, I made the decision to not try again and instead call the toll-free number to confirm the fax number.

I dialed the toll-free number and without surprise ended up in an automated phone system. Listening to all of the available options, I selected the appropriate menu and pressed the respective number on my cell phone. Another set of menus and again I made a selection. Next was a third set of menus. That again was not what I wanted so I opted to return to the previous menu. Finally, after about five minutes of being on the phone I hit “0” to make my way to a real live person.

The next automated response I heard was “We’re sorry. Due to a high call volume all of our representatives are currently busy. Please try your call again at a later time.”

Click.

Are you kidding me? After five minutes of being on the phone and fumbling through multiple automated menus I encounter the dreaded hang up? It gets worse. My wife and I have tried calling this organization over two days at various times throughout the day. We’re talking about a high profile State governmental entity. Yet each time the same thing happens.

Talk about a breakdown in a system. Unfortunately, this sort of frustrating encounter is common in today’s business environment. Companies have become so focused on reducing costs through the automation or outsourcing of systems to low-cost countries that the human customers and clients have been forgotten.

This is a super illustration of what Human-Centric Systems™ are all about. The time is now to shift the focus back from the single-minded approach to reduce costs at the expense of customers. If your customers are not happy, then who cares about how much money you save through outsourcing or automating your systems?