Customer-Facing Presentation

Insights while listening to hold music

What do your customers or potential customers experience when they try to contact your company? Consider calling in from an outside line sometime.

I have been listening to the same 15-second loop of muzak for what seems like hours. At least it is not objectively unpleasant—in the past, I have been subjected to a fading, staticky transmission that seemed to have been intentionally designed to get customers to hang up. I have been “transferred” to lines that never pick up, not even by a voicemail. I’ve gotten “For X, please press 6” options that hang up the call. And I’ve ended up shouting account numbers over and over at so-called voice recognition systems that don’t recognize voices.

I recommend periodically checking out your firm’s automatic replies, the website access portal, the outgoing “please leave a message at the beep” recordings, etc., and to make sure that anything that is not a positive representation of your business is modified. A few tweaks might bring in more business (or keep repeat business).

(Photo by Miryam León on Unsplash)