I just got off the phone with one of the insurance carriers that I represent. The reason for my call was to reset my password for the Broker Portal. I know there a lot of people who say that you should include some informational or marketing message in your greeting but this one blew me away. The intro was so long that I had tuned out by the time they offered a menu to choose from. I glanced at the timer on my phone and it read 2 minutes and 5 seconds. I had no choice but to go through it again. I was immediately transferred to a live person who listened to my request and then said I needed to talk to a licensed agent. I thought "A licensed agent just to reset my password? Isn't that a tech support thing?" Oh well. It was too late. I was already on hold. When a live person finally picked up, the timer on my phone read a little over 18 minutes. When I hung up, it read 21.
This isn't just a rant. If your business utilizes a phone tree, please put yourself in your internal and external clients shoes. I know at this point I'm certainly having second thoughts about how this carrier is going to serve my clients.
