Our menu has recently changed

[Fox Mike]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that every place called says that "Our menu has recently changed"? I make calls to various places on a regular basis and it seems that all of them have the same 'notice' ...that is exactly the same as it was the first time I called, years ago.

 

[krw]

When you live in rural Ark, all restaurant food comes off Ben E Keith, or Sysco trk. Menu never changes!!

 

[Yaworski]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that every place called says that "Our menu has recently changed"?

I've observed that and wondered the same thing.

I also hate all the folderol before you can leave a message. "You have reached an automated voice messaging system. At the tone you can leave a message. If wish to leave a call back number press 2, if you wish . . ." What ever happened to "Leave me a message . . . beep"?

 

[Joe Reilly]

The only change I see are the prices

 

[Yaworski]

The only change I see are the prices

Wrong type of menu.

 

[peachhead]

That's why I've always hated calling the NICS line for background checks. It takes 5 minutes to get through all the announcements before I can even get to the important stuff.

 

[Joe Reilly]

Wrong type of menu.

I was replying to krw.

 

[bedfordboy]

Doctors office called the other day to confirm my upcoming appointment, after several minutes of blabbering I was already hitting the end call button when they finally got to the “please press 1to confirm your appointment”. Figured since they called me I was in their system, and since I didn’t cancel the appointment I’d just show up at the scheduled appointment time. That call was 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

 

[thedogdidit]

Or EVERYONE claims, "we are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls. Your wait time may be more than___"
I call BS on this. So what is the "normal" volume of calls, what do you need to do to get back to that "normal"?
Quit messing up so people don't need to call to complain, or hire more individuals to field these many many phone calls?

 

[contender]

"hire more individuals to field these many many phone calls?"

^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^

By not hiring people,, they reduce their workforce. Thus, reducing their expenses.

They are re-training the population to EXPECT to having to deal with automated stuff, and wait on THEM to service you. In person assistance is harder & harder to find.

 

[thinckley]

About a year ago I upgraded and replaced our phone system. Our menu really did change.... a lot. Customers don't listen, employees don't know how it works so blame the system when they get a frustrated customer complaint. Same customer who didn't listen and tried using the old prompts...

Or EVERYONE claims, "we are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls. Your wait time may be more than___"

I think this is a huge consequence of using remote workers. It takes that long to find someone who isn't "busy" to take the call.

We don't use AI. Part of the new phone system, no calls are on hold for more than 3-4 minutes before they are forced to leave a message. Voicemail is transcribed and both the text and audio files are sent to shared mailboxes. You will talk to a human, either within 3 minutes, or we call back as soon as we are done dealing with other customers, usually within 30 minutes.

 

[Yaworski]

About a year ago I upgraded and replaced our phone system. Our menu really did change.... a lot. Customers don't listen, employees don't know how it works so blame the system when they get a frustrated customer complaint. Same customer who didn't listen and tried using the old prompts...

Sounds like failure on your part. A) Train your employees. B) Leave the prompts the same as on the old system.

 

[thinckley]

Sounds like failure on your part. A) Train your employees. B) Leave the prompts the same as on the old system.

Oh... I tried, you can lead a horse to water.....

The prompts had to change. The company had grown too much and added 2 more divisions and for the first time in 17 years all 6 offices were on the same page and the same system.

 

[pyth0n]

It's CYA for when the system doesn't work.

 

[Dan in MI]

It's CYA for when the system doesn't work.

ZACTLY!

It's to make you listen and not bang on the keys you already know by heart. Just in case......

It may even slow down incoming calls enough to assist their poorly set system, or make people hang up.

 

[fiasconva]

It seems to usually happen when they change programs or update their existing ones. It sure does happen a lot. One of my medical teams updated theirs a couple of months ago and they still haven't gotten it right.

 

[Kevin]

Many of the medical places we use, dentist, eye doctor etc around here want to text.

And ALL of them have this “patient portal.” An online account. And they want you to download an app.

I will text, but I’m fed up with their apps and portals.

I call them as little as possible.

 

[Yaworski]

I needed to ask one of my doctors a question and I didn't want to have the tell the whole thing to three people and wait on hold for an hour. I looked at the practice's web site and saw a link for "contact us." Clicked the link and there was a form: name, DOB, phone, etc. and a big box for text. So I typed a couple paragraphs and clicked the send button. Then I noticed below the send button was more text that wasn't on the screen when I was typing, "This is form is not of medical questions." WTF? Then why have it?

What's really sad is that they never responded to say, "You have to call with questions."

 

[blume357]

I agree with y'all the hypocrisy on my end is I have intentionally put a long message on my businesses phone #. this is so that when when folks call it is to discourage them from leaving a message.. about 20 years ago I decided to pass on the folks just calling around and I stopped advertising and for a while had a phone answering system that was really fun.... one option was if you were calling shopping for prices to press #2 then you got a message that said , "if all you are doing is looking for the cheapest price you need to hang up and call someone else."
the only time I actually answer my business line or even my cell phone is when the caller ID shows someone I want to talk to right then.

 

[redhawker]

I think they say that so you'll actually listen to the menu instead of just pushing the button you used the last time (because you probably forgot which one it was and would push the wrong one).

 

[Laserbait]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that every place called says that "Our menu has recently changed"? I make calls to various places on a regular basis and it seems that all of them have the same 'notice' ...that is exactly the same as it was the first time I called, years ago.

That's been going on for years. It started after the whole "Press 1 for English" was blown up. Now it's just a catch-all to make people listen to the menu instead of hitting 0 trying to get a live person.

 

[ned]

The old ‘to serve you better’ bs. Been like a creeping crud….I’ve heard it described as “sh*tifcation of customer service. I know I sound like an old crank, guess I am, but I sure rejoice when a real person answers.

 

[blume357]

I tried to call some place last month.... listened to all the options and finally got to the one I needed pushed the right button and that extension started to ring but no one answered and after about 10 rings the system came back on and told me the extension I was calling did not exist.... figure that one out...

Oh and I always use the term 'to serve you better' to explain the changes over the years at our local post office....
old nice brick building.... only one or two clerks and there was always a line....
so they build a new modern building... still one or two clerks and always a line.
changed the open hours from 8-5 to 9-5, then 9-4 and now 10-4 and they close from 12-1 for lunch.
Also, they took out the self service stamp machine to better serve us.
I need to try and look up what the annual P O box rental was 20+ years ago....

 

[EBCC1`]

The only thing that changed was the price went up.

 

[fiasconva]

My physicians' association updated their patient portal recently, and as I said above, it still isn't working properly.

 

[steveodtw]

Many of the medical places we use, dentist, eye doctor etc around here want to text.

And ALL of them have this “patient portal.” An online account. And they want you to download an app.

I will text, but I’m fed up with their apps and portals.

I call them as little as possible.

Not to mention setting up lots of accounts and passwords.

 

[MaxMan]

When you live in rural Ark, all restaurant food comes off Ben E Keith, or Sysco trk. Menu never changes!!

Do they still have protestant. Catholic and Jewish grace on the menus. And pictures of the police force?

 

[MaxMan]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that every place called says that "Our menu has recently changed"? I make calls to various places on a regular basis and it seems that all of them have the same 'notice' ...that is exactly the same as it was the first time I called, years ago.

Every time. I also airways call in the high volume of call time, and I am told expect to wait.

 

[MaxMan]

The old ‘to serve you better’ bs. Been like a creeping crud….I’ve heard it described as “sh*tifcation of customer service. I know I sound like an old crank, guess I am, but I sure rejoice when a real person answers.

Curmudgeon says: When you can understand them.

 

[MaxMan]

I think they say that so you'll actually listen to the menu instead of just pushing the button you used the last time (because you probably forgot which one it was and would push the wrong one).

My cardiologist's voice mail say You have reached the office of XX group. Then it goes downs the list of about 7 doctors. then it says if this ois an emergency please hang up and dial 911.