Automated answering is a fine example of corporations not knowing how much of a difference there is between having quality customer service and having mechanical, impersonal, dissatisfying service. Automated systems can be helpful, but only up to a certain point. They are programmed to answer certain questions, but chances are a question will be asked that can only be answered by a human being. This is a major reason why customer service reps may be the better choice over automated systems. Surveys show that customer satisfaction with the customer support and service of companies that use automated answering systems are far lower than those who have actual customer service reps. It has even become noticeable in advertising. Companies that still use actual customer service reps make sure that their commercials tell you that, and this has definitely become a draw for those companies. No one wants to sit on the phone for an hour going through the various levels of recordings, or having to repeat themselves numerous times because the recording services doesn’t understand them for reasons including: accent, volume, and more. It is nerve racking, and no one wants to deal with it. With these facts displayed, who can blame those other companies from throwing the fact that they use actual people in their customer service and support branches into their ads. I would if I was a decision maker in those companies. As a consumer, if I was trying to figure out what service or product to buy into, this is definitely something that would cross my mind. If reviews show that both products or services work about the same, but one of the companies uses an automated answering system, and the other uses actual customer service representatives, which would you choose? I know I would rather be able to speak to someone if my product or service decided to break or cause me problems. Chances are they can either help me resolve it or transfer me to someone who can, or even help me schedule a technician visit in the time it would take to get my account open with an automated system.
Why must these companies make us sit through the pains of having to deal with their cheaper way of doing things? Again, they may not know how much of a difference there is, as they are not the ones calling into the lines for assistance. How can we get companies to stop using these systems, and hire actual representatives to help with consumer problems, thus providing better customer satisfaction, and more jobs. Switch to companies that use these representatives, or make complaints known. Maybe they will get the point, and stop using the automated services. I am sure we can all agree, automated answering services are not cool.
