It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Source: Touch-Tone Trouble
...More than 90% of large businesses rely on phone trees to field calls. As you might guess, this is supposed to save money...
...That's why corporate America spent $565 million in 2005 on new ways to trap you in touch-tone hell.
Problem is, their plan isn't working very well. Consumers hate these systems, and most of us will do anything to bypass the phone tree and get a live rep. Millions visit sites like GetHuman.com, which lists the secret codes for accessing an agent...
...According to a Datamonitor survey of companies that use phone trees, more than 85% of callers manage to hunt down a live operator. And once that happens, they burn up the line grousing about the !*&@!! system. No cost savings there...
...Southwest and Scottrade are clever. So far, they've resisted the phone-tree temptation in favor of a simple business model that reduces call-center demand. Take ever-profitable Southwest. It has coach-only seating, simple fares, a clear-cut rewards program and a Web site so straightforward your cat could book a flight...
...Perhaps the success of Southwest and Scottrade will convince their phone-tree-hugging competitors to follow suit. Meanwhile, consumers will keep tracking down agents. My new favorite weapon: NoPhoneTrees.com, a site that does the impossible — it navigates the phone tree for you and rings you when it gets an agent on the line. Now that's more like it!