Your call is important to us…

How many times do you hear these words?

‘We are experiencing a more than normal number of calls currently being served by our staff’.

‘

You can get all of your enquiries sorted by logging into out website and downloading the “XYZ APP”.

Blah, blah, blah…

Except for very, slight tweaks in recorded scripts, we as consumers, can wait 20, 30, 40 minutes, or up to an hour or more.

We are encouraged to utilise their online system; have dialogue via computerised voice systems, with idiotic questions, nothing related to your enquiry.

Great for quick responses to simple questions. Otherwise, press ‘2’ to speak to a representative – only to be put on hold for another 20 minutes.

Another delay system to talk to a human being who on many occasions will divert you to a sales or technical specialist – another 20 minutes of your life, you will never get back.

So, let’s talk about AI (artificial intelligence). Having moved home and a changed family environment, I feel, as thousands of Australians could feel - left without human contact and unreliability of service.

There are two solutions to the issue.

One, is that the multi-million-profit organisations forego some of their profit and employed more staff.

The second option, is government managed utilities are reviewed to ensure consumers are saved from the queuing nightmare.

Either way, stop the crap, that our lines are busy (regardless of time of day). Simply, put more staff on. Support employment in Australia.

And don’t you love it when organisations say, ‘… where all our call centres are based in Australia’. The first diversion beyond the computerised response is to Indonesia or another country.

Of course, we also have supermarkets and other retailers pushing for consumers to do self-check-out. One person replaces several people who could be employed.

Time, consumers have their say.