Asgrim

I just found a good article regarding what I spoke about here. It’s called The Seven Deadly Sins of IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and it is just so true. When I rang TV Licensing the other day, my conversation with the machine went something like this:

Machine: Please say your postcode
James: PO15 XXX
Machine: Please say your street name
James: XXXX XXXX Road
Machine: Please say your house number
James: Eighteen
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Please say your house number
James (slowly and clearly): EIGHTEEN
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Lets try again from the beginning
James (smacking forehead)
Machine: Please say your postcode
James: PO15 XXX
Machine: Please say your street name
James: XXXX XXXX Road
Machine: Please say your house number
James (clearly): One eight
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Lets try again from the beginning
James (shouting): EIGHTEEN YOU STUPID MACHINE HOW HARD IS IT TO UNDERSTAND?!
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response.
James hangs up in anger and disliking the total lack of customer care.

As you can tell, I was pretty fustrated. I did call up and try again, but it totally failed at recognising something as simple as the number 18. It didn’t even understand “one eight”… and there was absolutely no way to transfer to a human operator, which I thought was stupid.

Rant over…