For the second time in as many days, I find myself going around and around with a telephone menu that’s run by voice recognition software, and unable to get anywhere. I’m all for making improvements, and the telephone menu is a great place to start – but those who set up these voice menus apparently think they can address every single problem, and for some strange reason I seem completely unable to find anything – even more so than the typical “press 1 for…” type of menu.
What’s worse is that the actual recognition stinks. It can’t even recognize “yes” and “no”, much less more complex phrases. While most thinks show incremental improvements and become worthy over time (look at cell phones), this sort of thing has absolutely no promise at this point. I’ve had problems with Cingular, PayPal and Sprint PCS.
I understand they don’t want to talk to people. I understand that some people get tired and hang up, so they don’t have to deal with it. I understand that such a system could be used to funnel callers to the right department. But it doesn’t work! Most of the time these menus either take you to a general mailbox, or they collect all sorts of information, which the operator then has to collect again. Is it any wonder that I don’t like the telephone?