[xur17]

Android does this fairly well for me - it will list out the options as they are spoken, and you can click on them directly to type the number. I believe (but haven't seen this recently) it will pre-render the options before they are read if it has knowledge of that phone tree.

[throwaway64ddFg]

But watch out, as our menu options have recently changed!

[bobbob1921]

Good point, but seriously why are the menu options so frequently changing?? (or is that just more BS to delay you further)

[salawat]

If you've not used a commercial IVR stack before, most of them are at least semi-integrable with major CRM's while being implemented as a combo of Finite State Machines and Automated Voice Recognition systems intended to be used for customer facing data entry to originate tickets or entries for Call Center workers. The issue though, is most of those workers are minimally trained in ultra rigid scripts, and the market sees those people as a cost center, so most places do everything they can to minimize the layout to operate. The time I was in charge of one, I bent over backwards, including learning the Vendors tool, and telling them to hands off, in order to get our call center experience tolerable. I wasn't even officially part of the Call Center department, but the guy implementing it was doing so horribly it became a hot button issue that escalated it's way up to me.

Since the experience, I have grown increasingly hostile to most "Automated customer Support Systems". (Capitalization intentional). The intent is generally to minimize the human contact available to the customer.

It's ASS all the way down. The customer has very little choice or input in the matter.

[mrgoldenbrown]

It's always BS IME.