How to Avoid Toll Free Customer Service Loops

Reaching a live representative is often more satisfying to the customer than using an automated system.

When calling a company's toll-free customer service number, it is frustrating to become stuck in a phone loop. Instead of wasting your time listening to the volumes of options, try to take a short cut to reach a person. Companies use interactive voice response systems (IVR) as a cost cutting method because it is less expensive to provide information systematically than pay a person to provide information. Though the company may aim to avoid calls to the human customer service team, you may bypass lengthy IVR loops through trial and error.

Instructions

1. Press "0" after you have listened to the initial phone greeting and the options loop begins. Often, IVR systems allow a short cut to reach a representative by pressing zero. This may not always work and the system may hang up on you or place you at the beginning of the message, but it is likely to work and worth a try.

2. Call the customer service number and do nothing. Some systems give an option for callers to hold for an operator if they are calling from a rotary phone and cannot press a number. You are not required to press a number, so try holding until you connect to a person. Unfortunately, if the IVR does not accommodate this option, the system may disconnect you.

3. Say, "speak to a representative" or mumble incoherently when asked to make an option. Many voice-activated IVRs are programmed to transfer you to a representative if you ask for one or if they cannot understand you.

4. Call the toll-free number, listen to the options and write down the option to reach a representative. The next time you call hit the option quickly to bypass the customer service loops and get right to a person.

5. Use the online "cheat sheets" that are posted listing major companies with their toll-free numbers and what options to push or say to avoid the customer service loops and reach a person quickly. Print the cheat sheet for easy future reference.

References

• Marginal Revoluation: Bypassing Computers to Speak with a Human Being
• Connections Magazine: Benefits and ROI of Hosted/Managed Service IVR
• What Is: Bypass IVRS - Talk to a Real Person Cheatsheet

Resources

• Get Human