Today at #CopyJob I had to call the #UPS #hotline to schedule a package pickup and in this call (callS, actually) I think I encountered the culmination of a couple of horrible, horrible trends in hotline customer support... #thread
1. Hiding actual humans behind layers of voice recognition software.
(It took me multiple calls to get find my way out of the script and to the agent and I generally know my way around these things. Also, reliance of voice over dial tones made things slooooow.)
3. Almost certainly high call targets.
Once you've worked in a call center, you recognize when somebody is in a hurry while pretending not to be.
All in all, it was a pretty unpleasant call for me, although I'm sure other people with less call-center ... history would have probably found a nice call.
The scheduled pickup worked well, tho.
2. Extreme ... dehumanization of call center agents.
The agent was competent and did her job well. But it was extremely obvious that UPS callcenter communications training is highly focused on what I call callcenter voice or "Siri Voice": Overly friendly in a tightly modulated, extremely artificial voice. Very polished but, IMO, extremely creepy.