Little big things: make your call center’s voice menu human

At Expedia, for the first time in my life, I came across a pleas­ant IVR assistant.

IVR is when you call a hot­line and a robot asks you to choose a depart­ment, and only then puts you through to a live operator. It’s called a voice menu.

First, the voice of Expedia’s IVR was nicer than usual. I’m not sure why; maybe the record­ing was better quality. It sounded almost human. It asked what my ques­tion was about and offered options to choose from. Then it asked for my book­ing number. This is exactly where a voice menu makes sense! Compare how much easier it is to type a code on your phone than to dic­tate it to a call center agent while sit­ting in a noisy Istanbul airport.

I typed in 7 or 10 digits. After a second’s wait I heard papers rustling on the line and the words “Oh, I found it! Connecting you to the respon­si­ble person”. That was a wow moment for me. A sound effect of leaf­ing through papers plus a happy “found it!”, and a small dose of human­ity turned the voice menu from an annoy­ing obsta­cle into a pleas­ant helper.