At some point, all of us have sat on hold with Customer Service and hated it. In fact, I’ve been on hold for 68 minutes right now. This has given me plenty of time to think of ways companies could improve the phone holding experience.
- Offer a no music option when I’m waiting. I’d rather not listen to your annoying music and repeated announcements that my call is important
- As every English teacher I ever had was fond of saying: “Show, don’t tell”. Don’t tell me my call is important to you, show me by providing good service when you I finally get a human. Please don’t repeat the same canned announcements over and over.
- If you really want me to love your company and yell from the rooftops how amazing you are, offer a hang up and we’ll call you back option.
Those three things would make a world of difference in how I perceive a company. What other ways could phone based customer service be improved? Oh, and I finally got a human at the seventy-four minute mark.