This must be the most overused phrase in the history of voice communications. It probably served a purpose once upon a time, when someone decided that Pressing Zero was being used too often and changed it to Press 1 to reach a person. Now it seems that every company has been madly spending the last “recent” days changing their menu items. My point is nobody pays attention anymore — so why bother.
Every month I pay a phone bill using the Telephone Company’s automated payment processor — and yes, their menu was recently changed. On the bright side though they have programmed it to accept my 5 digit account number without having to enter the eight zeroes which precede it. Well done. Unfortunately it drives me crazy that I have to listen to six different things I can do by pressing 2 before it tells me to press 2. It would be so much better to say “Press 2 if you wish to pay an invoice, find your account balance, etc. …”
If it falls to you to design an automated attendant system I suggest you have several people test it and give you their thoughts on it’s ease of use before making it live. Or — you could just use an answering service and let your customers talk to a live person!
