I can't believe it.

I actually had two good phone based customer support experiences in a row and both started with excellent use of IVR - Interactive Voice Response.

The first case was with National Geographic. I had a question about a bill I had been sent. The only thing I was asked to enter (enter NOT say) was my account number. Didn't even have to hit # afterwords. The support agent answered within 10 seconds and, instead of asking me my name/account number/etc. she asked:

"Is this John Doe in McKinney, TX?" 

And she was correct. When I told her the issue, she had it up on her screen by the time I was done speaking, and reassured me everything was fine, explained what had happened and asked if I needed anything else.

We were done in about 1 minute without me feeling rushed.

The second case was L.L. Bean. I received my order and the clothes did not fit. I called the support line. I was greeted again by name without having to do anything (OK this was more like caller ID but still...).

We went over my issue, he briefly explained how to make an exchange, told me when to expect the new order, when I would see my card credited, and we were done. Not only that, but the order came with a prepaid return sticker for UPS. All I had to do was reseal the package, put the label on it, and drop it in a UPS drop box.

In both cases these businesses took advantage of available technology to streamline the process, they were on top of my account and the issues at hand, and I was never made to feel rushed because of some average handle time metric. They may watch this metric, but I certainly couldn't tell.

So Ya Done Good, National Geographic and LLBean. I look forward to remaining a loyal customer.