Scott McCurdy wrote:
>
> To add to Ms. Loftus excellent comment: The now nearly universal use of,
> probably well-intentioned, looping telephone systems by publishers has made
> it increasingly difficult and time consuming to obtain pricing information.
> Publishers: It may feel like you are simplifying things for your customers
> when you implement these person-less telephone systems, but I would bet you
> are losing sales due to the number of people who hang up in frustration at
> being left hanging or lost in the loops of your telephone systems when all
> they we really want is a simple price or S&H number. Sometimes I feel like
> I would consider switching orders to a publisher who has a person answering
> the telephone, and who can quickly direct me to the correct person. It is
> not a happy experience to listen to your various recordings for 5 minutes
> merely in order to get to the point where I can leave a recorded message for
> you. Bring back customer service!
>
> AT NY RATE, please include government prices and shipping and handling
> charges at your sites as well, so that we can avoid those time consuming
> telephone calls.
>
> Scott McCurdy
> U.S. Court of Appeals Librry
> Portland, Oregon
Back in library school, when I took a course in design of computer user
interfaces, my professor gave the class a simple rule: if the end user
had to go through more than three menus to get to the piece of the
application he/she needed to perform the task at hand, the interface was
badly designed. Ditto for loud, clashing colors and hard-to-read fonts.
IMHO, the telephone systems I have had to suffer through from publishers
are the aural equivalent of the type of user interface my professor
would have graded "F." Stepping the user through interminable menus,
only to wind up with a recorded message, constitute what I like to call
"voice mails from Hell." To any publishers who may be lurking in this
list, a simple suggestion: if the caller has to go through more than
three voice mail menus, it's time for human intervention. The third menu
should *always* include a choice for contact with a real human being. No
exceptions.
Ann C. Davidson
Davidson Library Services
1601 Spring Garden Street, No. 414
Philadelphia, PA 19130
(215) 496-0336
dls@hslc.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:31 PST