Stuck on hold

Being stuck listening to hold music for an extended period is annoying. What’s even more annoying for me is when the IVR system regularly interrupts the hold music with a voice announcement, often telling you something enormously useful like pointing out that you’re on hold. Music I find easy to zone out without paying too much attention to but whenever you get a voice announcement it demands a bit more attention – at least until you’ve worked out that it’s not actually a human yet.

Comments (3)

  1. MJ Ray wrote::

    Usually it rings before a human answers, but I don’t know if that’s a standard or anything.

    Friday, June 12, 2009 at 1:06 pm #
  2. Mark Brown wrote::

    That’s not very common and (unless you’re being connected to a specific person who really does have an option about answering the call) is pretty much a bug. In most normal IVR situations the call oughtn’t to be connected if there’s a possibility it might not be answered.

    Friday, June 12, 2009 at 9:24 pm #
  3. MJ Ray wrote::

    Seems like a feature to me – an alert that you’re about to be connected to a human.

    Monday, June 22, 2009 at 10:13 am #