Technology is a great thing and it’s supposed to help us to do many things. We should become more organized, productive and efficient. However, technology can alienate us from others, including our customers. Sometimes, we see examples of irritating technology that serves almost nothing. We shouldn’t implement something like that to our customers. Many companies use automated attendant, that is placed in the front door. If we use something like that, it is important to make sure that the technology is user friendly. As an example, we should make sure that the device is easy to use and user friendly. This also includes using friendly and pleasant voices. Some devices use monotone, nasal and sometimes, whiny voices. You should be aware that these recorded voices can be seen as the representation of your company, because it is one thing that the customers are interacting with. When people use devices, they don’t want to have long attention span. If it takes too long, people will stop listening.
We may want our device to appear very friendly, but it doesn’t mean that we should use lengthy broadcast messages for our greeting. People are prepared to do something when they enter your company, so they won’t be willing to listen to anything that is too long. We shouldn’t force people to waste time listening to something that they don’t want. If your company is getting a lot of repeat callers, then it is not a good idea to constantly change the menu. Your customers may already put the shortcut in their mobile phones, if you change the menu constantly, you are making it more difficult for them to communicate with you. If users are expected to enter their information, such as email address, account number, PIN and phone number, you make sure that the system is working. It is possible that customers have spent a lot of time entering the information, but the system actually doesn’t work. In this case, it is important to make sure that customers are not wasting their time.
After interacting with the device, the customer is often expected to wait in queue. In this case, you should provide the expected wait time, depending on the average time for handling each customer. This will allow the customer whether they should wait or not. If the customer contacts you through the phone, you should also provide an indication for how long the customer needs to wait. Whatever we do, we should avoid forcing people to call back. If they really need to wait, we should provide them with something to listen to and it should be something interesting to them. As an example, every few days you can change songs that are used as the waiting music. We should make sure that people think that they are important for our company. Before implementing new technology and procedure, it is important to set up a test run. We should make sure that the user interface is appropriate and can perform in a proper manner.