It has happened to all of us. We call the customer support phone number only to be greeted by an answering machine that wants us to talk to it. Personally, I find such machines offensive, but maybe that is just me. In any case, we work our way through the many layers of menus until we arrive at the point where our call is transferred to an actual person only to hear the recording, “I’m sorry, but all operators are busy now. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order it was received.” We listen to the elevator music for a while and then we hear the recording again – and again.
Why do we put up with it? Why do we even try to believe that the company actually cares about us? If they really cared, wouldn’t they have more operators on duty? After all, since we always get the machine, isn’t it clear that at least one more operator could be hired without creating a problem with over staffing? And, since the companies want us to believe that they are in business to create jobs, wouldn’t hiring one more operator to increase customer satisfaction be a no brainer?
It is hard to believe their rhetoric when their actions are shouting so loudly that our satisfaction really isn’t important at all. Cutting costs is clearly the prime motivation so they should change the recording to something more truthful. How about something like; “I’m sorry, but all operators are busy now. Your call is important to us, but not as important as our profitability. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order it was received. We don’t have many operators so that may take some time, but your time is of no consequence to us.”
Wouldn’t that message be much easier to believe?
The Sausage Grinder is Broken – will you help to fix it?
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