[randomlurking]

The idea that we are living in 2021 and phone menus are not used to route users to a fitting agent, or that no caller information is available for the agent is funny, but not true.

It might be that your company did exactly that, probably some calls were routed away from you if the topic was something specific. I really doubt that even 20% of the company with a phone menu don‘t use it to route calls or give the agent additional information

[fallingfrog]

Just yesterday I was on the phone with my insurance company because I needed to reset my password, snd I got stuck in the following in the following infinite loop:

“What do you need help with today”. - My account. “Great, can I get your account number?” -enter number. “Ok, now that I have your account, what do you need help with today?” -my account “Great, can I get your account number?”

Etc etc.

I complained about this on Facebook and one of their reps showed up and said, “oh, just tell the automated system that you want to buy car insurance right now, then it will connect you to a human.”

I did this, and it worked, and she answered with “how can I help you” and then I got my account unlocked right away. She clearly didn’t know before she picked up the phone what I needed.

I’m pretty sure that my experience is the norm not the exception.

Remember: the company has to pay for the representative’s time, but the customer’s time is free. They don’t want you to have wandered away from your phone while on hold. So they give you a task to perform while you wait. It also helps to encourage you to get your account numbers and stuff ready and have your paperwork in front of you when the rep picks up.