It’s 2024, and the age of automation has largely taken over our phones, computers, and businesses. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, you understand. It gives us the ability to spend time and money elsewhere—from investing in staff to spending more time on innovating technology rather than whittling away large sums of money hiring extra workers to simply answer and route phone calls.

However, no one wants to hear these words, “Push 7 to be connected with...” only to get to a dead end, a voicemail, or an option list that still doesn’t sound like the answer to your problem. In fact, there’s almost no more invalidating thing for a customer to hear than the ironic, “Your call is very important to us. Please continue to hold, and the next representative will be with you shortly.” Add on the fact that you might be holding for 20 minutes or longer, only to get to the wrong person, and you’ve now described the experience nobody wants.

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