“Please choose from the following options”

Accusation

Okay, I want to make a simple phone call to Vodafone to ask them why they have taken money out of my account twice this month. So I call the number but then have to sit through a long list of options for me to pick, none of which fit my query. So I pick the closest one. Then I get another, equally long list. Again, none of them fit my query. After several menus I pick the one that I think will get me through to a human ‘request your PUK code’, EVEN THAT’S AUTOMATED. I’ve then got to put my number in, eventually I get to a human and then they ask me for my phone number.

The conversation took 3 minutes but I spent 10 trying to get there.

Vodafone have tried too hard to automate their service but are they trying to make it easier for us….or them?

Recommendation

You should have 3 simple options at the beginning. Are you an existing customer <press 1> A customer looking to leave Vodafone <press 2>. If you are neither of these, please hold. That way they can put people towards the appropriate teams with the appropriate skills to answer the call.

Representation

So, do we want to let big corporates make us do the hard work in categorising our query or should they value the power of humans interacting with each other?