Phone Systems

[davidanthony]

I read somewhere once that you can cut out all the pre-recorded instructions which one gets nowadays when calling a company on the phone, and which gets you straight through to an operator. Something like press 0 then hash then 0 again ??
At one time if you did nothing an operator would come on the line, but most systems now just repeat the instructions.

[Maydup]

I'd be interetsed to know the answer too, but imagaine it will differ from one phone system to the next.

[Jennykenny]

Saynoto0870.com
I know that this isn't really what you asked but it gets you past the expensive number and hopefully past most of the recorded messages part.

[Old_Geezer]

That sounds a lot like wishful thinking to me.

Comp[any Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is bespoke coded according to the company's requirements. There may be off the shelf things around with such a magic get through but they would be few and far between.

They aren't there without reason. First of all if the caller can self serve by pressing buttons it avoids the cost of even more cripplingly expensive groups of agents answering calls: which makes the company more competitive, with lower costs and thus lower prices.

Also it groups callers with specific types of query so they can be routed to the agent best able to answer. Skip the questions and you may well end up a the wrong place.

Folk have analysed different company IVRs, and posted on the Net, ways to find a 'connect to agent' option quickly: but be aware that doing so may benefit you but effectively makes things generally worse for all others as explained above.

Plus, as mentioned you might get to a general enquiry agent when you really wanted something specific. And of course companies change their IVR regularly in order to improve their self service to callers so what works one day may not the next. And if the company suspect folk are not 'playing the game' it does encourage them to remove the agent outcall options available, and guide folk to their website instead.