Like most Americans you have probably had the unfortunate experience of having to wait on hold for what seemed like an eternity while customer service reps were “helping other customers”.
Most of us probably agree that calling customer service is about as pleasant as eating broken glass for breakfast, but what most folks don’t know is that it was intentionally designed to be that way.
According to Joe Gagnon, chief strategist of Aspect, a Phoenix-based company which markets automated customer-service solutions to businesses, the entire phone-based customer service experience was intentionally designed to be an exercise in frustration to encourage customers to hang up and contact the company via social media or email.
And I seriously doubt if it will ever get better even though better phone service and support would result in greater customer satisfaction.
Why? Because hiring, training, paying and equipping support staff is expensive. An as we all know, the bottom line drives nearly every corporate decision that’s made these days.
Remember that the next time you receive the automated message “We appreciate your patience. Please continue to hold. Your call is very important to us!”
Bonus tip: This post offers six tips for making Tech Support calls as painless as possible.
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