Public service efficiency

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Virtually any private sector organisation which I ring requires me to listen to long winded messages and press multiple buttons which often send me back to the starting menu. When I eventually make the right choice, I have to listen to "We are very busy now, but your call is important to us..." So important that they then tell you that you can probably get an answer quicker on their website.

So this morning I wanted to ring the Department Education about my mother's pension. I dreaded the time wasting it would involve. I googled the number and found this which was a very good start

Phone:

  • Primary Teachers: (090) 648 4043 / 4044
  • Post Primary Teachers: (090) 648 4161
  • Non Teaching Staff: (090) 648 4136
  • Retired Personnel: (090) 648 3995
So I didn't have to ring a general number and then pick an option. Why do more companies not do this? For example, an insurance company could have one number for new business, another for existing policies and a third for claims.

I rang the number and it was answered by a real person immediately who answered my question.

Brendan
 
If only insurance companies, phone companies, banks etc followed suit look how much time it would save and cut out all the bull that no one wants to hear but have to listen to.
 
it's simple, it cheaper to put an IVR at the front of a call response then to have 4 or 5 different numbers out there. its easier from a marketing perspective and it also means people will not ring one number and then need to be transferred. The whole "your call is important to me " is a cost and resourcing balancing issue for private companies who are trying to make a profit. Some do it better then others.
 
Most people would call the correct number so transferring would not be a big problem.

And you could have a message

"Thank you for calling Aviva. This is the number for new customers. If you are an existing customer, please dial 1 for claims, and 2 for renewals"

Brendan
 
Even worse are the ones where you know exactly which selections you need to make, but there's no way of bypassing the whole spiel that you really don't care about.
 
I have found Social Welfare and Revenue excellent. Foreign Affairs were dreadful when I contacted them but that was a good few years ago.
 
Revenue are usually pretty good alright. My wife was trying to get Aviva the other evening and was very cheesed off by the time she got to talk to someone. Sky , Eir are two more who I do have to ring from time to time and I have to just put it on speaker and wait and wait and wait.
So much for been communication companies....
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Most people would call the correct number so transferring would not be a big problem.

And you could have a message

"Thank you for calling Aviva. This is the number for new customers. If you are an existing customer, please dial 1 for claims, and 2 for renewals"
Click to expand...

If I looked up and rang the correct number, it would annoy me to have to wait while I listened to that message :)

As peanut's said above though, it's simply cheaper to front even a small business with an IVR to filter and prioritise calls. Cloud solutions for low volume start from less than €5 a month. If you're a business that needs to read out disclaimers or terms, you'll save that money in a call or two. They offer features like prioritising sales over existing customers when busy, automatically routing high-value customers to more experienced agents, and perhaps as importantly for some businesses, they offer performance measurement of staff and metrics that senior managers love!
 
Brendan Burgess said:
But it's not just about cost. Providing a good service and a prompt answer will encourage customers to stay.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately service providers are aware many will put up with poor service to save themselves the hassle of switching! They measure customer inertia too, and as a market, the evidence suggests the majority favour lower price over service reputations.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Most people would call the correct number so transferring would not be a big problem.

Brendan
Click to expand...

Many will, but many won't as well, especially if the first number isn't answered for whatever reason. I've ran contact desks and you should never underestimate the stupidity of people.

Online chat I find is very good for a lot of general queries and more and more companies are moving towards that. An agent can deal with 3-5 cases at any one time instead of just one on the phone and if you really want to do it right, allow a handoff to phone if the query is not being resolved. Stick a good chat bot on there and it will reduce human interaction even further and if done right, the customer won't notice.
 
Yes, but they will all answer the phone , the problem is that it could take a very long time like half an hour if you are very lucky. It has often taken three quarters of an hour .
 
joer said:
Yes, but they will all answer the phone , the problem is that it could take a very long time like half an hour if you are very lucky. It has often taken three quarters of an hour .
Click to expand...
Eir don't answer the phone. They don't even do webchat at the moment.
 
Peanuts20 said:
Stick a good chat bot on there and it will reduce human interaction even further and if done right, the customer won't notice.
Click to expand...
thats a good one alright, humans can be like sheep and if you can get away with them not noticing then so be it. Like birds being frightened away from an artificial hawk, it works once the birds don't know.
 
Oh they answer the phone alright . I ring them every year before my bundle allowance is up to renegotiate my contract. I wait and wait but do get an answer. It is usually worth it for a year .
 
It seems that a lot of the employees are given a script and this is what they work from no matter what your query is about. When I had a phone line problem I could test to see if the fault was internal or external myself . If it was internal I would fix it myself . But if it was external i would not have the means to but I would still be asked to plug out the phone so they could test the line etc. It was pointless telling them that I worked for them and new that the fault was external so someone would have to come out . They just have to work off their script.
 
rang st vincent's outpatients appointmenst today after 10
once i was told to ring back later ..what a message to have!
the 2nd and 3rd time i was just left holding!
 
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