Subject: RE: NLC - Find a human
Author: Rob Prins
Date: Aug 19, 2005, 5:52 AM
Post ID: 1719319422
Lannis,
Don't get Sam started on this, with her kiwi accent she has absolutely
no shot of being understood by a computer, and only about a 30% success
rate with live operators.
Rob
Lannis wrote:
Greg Bender wrote:
That's interesting, sort of like hunting for Easter eggs. Isn't it odd that these companies, who are only differentiated from each other by their customer service, would do things that frustrate their customers so badly that they have to resort to skullduggery to try to talk to a real person and avoid these universally stupid and useless automated menus? These outfits must be run totally by beancounters and not be anyone with any sense of human nature. The worst one is the new "Verizon 411" directory-assistance service. They used to have an operator come on line to ask what listing you want. Now, they have a voice recognition system that attempts to listen to the city and state that you speak into the phone, along with the listing, and automatically give you the number. See, I know how to talk to a computer. I used to work on voice recognition and synthesizer systems. You speak slowly, in round tones, with a clipped silence between words. But no matter HOW I speak, whether fast or slow, with a normal accent or stilted computerese, I have exactly a ZERO percent hit rate on the system EVER recognizing what I say. Every time I give the city and state I want, this fake-concerned recorded voice says "I - I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. What was the city and state again?" And I have to give it again, knowing that it won't recognize it, so that I can eventually get to a human operator. It's a horrible system, and I've quit using it. The management at Verizon is probably wondering why their system usage is going down, why their revenues and market share are falling, and I'm sure they are blaming it on Asian competition, the falling dollar vs. the Euro, or an economic slowdown, when actually the answer is their own pig-ignorant incompetance and mis-understanding of their own business, and a total disregard of the needs of their customers. There are SO many opportunities for improvement out there. All we have to do is look around us.... Lannis |