Dan Schnieders
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Thought I’d write an LTE that’s a little lighter than my normal. Most of these focus on contemporary business practices.
Whoever thought phone trees were good for a business needs to be evaluated. They kill enormous amounts of goodwill and frustrate customers. After droning mechanically for five minutes, covering all sorts of topics, most never seem to answer the question we really need answering. In frustration, most of us scream ‘representative, representative’ and hopefully some kind-hearted person eventually interacts with us long enough to really meet our needs. Why not have a knowledgeable, real person answer the phone in the first place? Interactive phone trees are even more humorous. Sometimes, as you succinctly verbalize your complex question, a computer mimics the clicking of “keyboard” like someone is searching for your answer. When the computer can’t find a suitable canned…
