Voice Response Systems Stink
Posted on
2/01/2006
A dj on a morning radio show this morning pronounced voice response systems as something that "must go." This dj professed more frustration with the inaccessibility of a live person, than the fact that you have to talk to a computer to get to that live person. Now, obviously everyone knows that most customer service response systems have user interface problems which companies don't seem to put enough effort into solving. My preferable method to solve it would be to just abolish them all together. I'm going to do whatever I can to figure out how to get to a person anyway, so why put me through the hassle? Until that happens, there is a cheat sheet available detailing how to get through the systems quickly:
http://paulenglish.com/ivr/
What I would really like to know is, how comfortable are people speaking to a computer? Every time I have to do it, I always try to choose the option not to. I don't want to speak to the computer. It's not real. It doesn't truly comprehend what I'm saying to it nor can it hold a conversation with me. I'd much rather just press the buttons on my phone to get where I need to.
I'm failing to find research proving this is a hump that all voice response systems must get over. But there are hints that I'm not the only human unable to accept them:
Talking computers nearing reality
Despite the technological advances being touted, I'm still doubtful we are heading in the right direction.
If you know of further available research about this topic, please do pass it on.
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