In preparing for my trip to China, I’ve been making a fair number of calls. Not surprisingly, this has involved some waiting on hold. Beyond a short wait time, usually the best you can hope for is that the ads or music won’t be particularly annoying or repetitive. I also place a premium on not being told repeatedly how much they care about my business.
Up to this point, the I was most impressed by call centers that gave time estimates and notified me of my position in line. Bonus points for having tracking numbers that helped me jump past the telephone tree and get working immediately on my problem. But today, my call to Blue Cross-Blue Shield managed a whole new level of call center technology: call backs.
Instead of waiting on the line for someone to pick up, I gave them my number and they had an automated program call me back. I picked up the phone, pressed one to verify that it was me, and talked to someone. There phone tree was hellish and I still had to regularly re-enter information, but good-bye waiting on hold. Obviously, just giving somebody a number and waiting to be called back isn’t some huge break through, but when we’re talking about an automated system that gives fairly accurate time estimates on the wait for a call back, I’m happy to see it.
The only downside is that you do have to repeat some information when you get the call. I don’t think that’s just an IT problem, so one else could answer the phone, particularly if there’s a long wait, so security probably demands at least one or two questions. However, it seems like everyone asks anyways, so this is hardly a step back.
If you have an Amazon problem, they use that scheme - put in your number and they will call you. I think it's reasonable, although the two or three times I've had to do it, the phone rang immediately so I didn't see what the point was, really.
Better than our IT people at work, anyway.
-bill
Posted by: Heuristics Inc. | October 16, 2007 at 05:25 PM