If you have ever dialed a customer care number of your operator, I am sure you must have pulled your hair to find an option which lets you talk to a Human Agent or the so called Consumer Care Executive. The problem with the existing IVR system is they talk about offers, news and long thankful slogans in every possible language but does not have option to solve the problem which only a human can solve.
Till now the only smart way to talk to the customer care agent was to get into a menu which is a paid service like 3G and then you get option there to talk to a real human and then you can ask them about anything as they do not have a clue from which menu the call came in.
However we might say a lot of thanks to TRAI, whose team has rolled out regulations that will make every Telecom Operator to get their Service Support or Consumer Care Number a better place with direct option to get in touch with an agent.
Every service provider shall ensure that an Interactive Voice Response
System or IVRS, if installed on a “Consumer Care Number”, is operated in the
following manner:-
(a) the first level of the IVRS provides for language selection;
(b) the second level of the IVRS provides for options relating to the broad
categories of complaints and service requests;
(c) the third level of the IVRS provides for a sub-menu under complaints and
service requests, separately;
Provided that the sub-menu in the third level shall also contain an option
enabling the consumer to speak to a consumer care agent.
So now apart from Language and Categories Options you will have a dedicated option where you can speak to somebody. A full document which talks about the changes coming can be found here
Few more points to notice here are :
- One Complaint Number should be accessible from any other number which uses a different service provider
- The “Consumer Care Number” shall be toll free. However this raises a doubt if it includes talking to customer care agent also ?
- A Web Based Complaint Monitoring System to be setup. This will be really helpful, though I am seeing they are doing good job on twitter.