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Fonolo Lets You Bypass Company Phone Menus

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-gimme-a-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fonolo, a Toronto based voice 2.0 company, helps you avoid those annoying company phone menus by letting you skip ahead in the company phone system using a process they call 'deep-dialing.' Just search for the company on their website (apparently they have over 500), and you'll see a visual representation of the company's phone system. Then you just select the option you want, put your phone number in, and Fonolo calls the company on your behalf and dials you back when the agent is available — for free. They have a business product that provides this same service (visual dialing), plus virtual queuing and data pass-through." One company creates a phone system designed to encourage you to hang up to save them money. Another creates a phone system designed to make it easy to stay on hold indefinitely. I wonder where this ends.

12 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Comcast has a service that does the same thing by shoehornjob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think it's called Comcast 4u or something like that. If there's a large que of calls you get the option to have the company call you back when it's your turn. I can't imagine why more companies don't do this.

    --
    "We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
    1. Re:Comcast has a service that does the same thing by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because it costs them money and they don't really want to talk to you?

      Let's be honest here, why would a company want you to call their support line? The only reason the line exists at all is to appease you and keep you from canceling the contract. As far as any company is concerned, whether you can use their product or you cannot does only matter insofar as you don't cancel the contract. So you on hold is you not canceling.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Comcast has a service that does the same thing by Machtyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You've answered your own question: Why don't more companies do this? Because they want to keep you from canceling the contract. But your point is valid, there may not be a cost benefit between making call backs and losing customers.

    3. Re:Comcast has a service that does the same thing by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sometimes a good, old-fashioned, letter is what it takes.

      Specifically, I've found that sending the relevant CEO a list of my service requests, along with photographs of his family and maps showing the routes that they commonly take during their respective daily routines(just to show that I, too, value my relationship with the $FOOCORP family), really improves responsiveness.

      Often, the response is so fast that the service techs arrive before the cops do!

    4. Re:Comcast has a service that does the same thing by shaiberger · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hi there, CEO of Fonolo here.

      Great to see all the enthusiasm!

      > I can't imagine why more companies don't do this.

      That's actually a really interesting question. The idea of letting the customer hang up and then get a call-back when an agent is ready is called "Virtual Queuing" (VQ), and has been around for a long time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_queuing.

      Why don't we see it more often? It is not for lack of interest, as some of the comments have said. There has been strong interest in VQ for a long time. Waiting on hold is actually lose-lose approach to queuing: Customers get pissed off, and the company wastes money (keeping the lines open). There have been virtual queuing systems available for over a decade. They remain rare, not because companies don't want them but because they require installation at the call center and, in today's call center environment, that's costly and often impossible. Why impossible? Because of the widespread use of outsourced call centers. If you're sending some of your calls to a 3rd party, you can't force them to install any custom equipment. For more on this: http://www.shaiberger.com/2010/10/when-will-we-stop-waiting-on-hold

      Brief plug: Fonolo offers a service that allows companies to add virtual queuing without any changes to their call center. http://fonolo.com/features/virtualqueuing

      - Shai

  2. Please listen by Machtyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Please listen to the menu options as they have recently changed."

    Yeah, right! When was the last time you recently changed them? Oh, listen, I haven't called company X in over a year, but their menu system has not recently changed, it's been the same for so many years!

    1. Re:Please listen by Malc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not as bad as the: "we apologise for the delay but we are experiencing higher than usual call volume." Some companies have that message for years, which just means they haven't bothered hiring enough people to answer the phones.

  3. I hate Shaw.ca by grub · · Score: 3, Informative


    I called shaw.ca about my business account. After waiting for over 20 minutes a call center drone answered. Gave all my info then he asked for my business PIN. Huh? So he said he'd mail it to me and it would arrive within 5 minutes. "Can you wait for me to get it?" "NO, so, sorry, we're not allowed to wait." "So I have to wait 5 minutes then wait another 20 on hold at Shaw?"

    I guess he didn't like that because the PIN never did arrive. Fuckers, I HATE SHAW.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  4. Re:do people really hate IVR systems? by Phleg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But they don't. I've not once been sent to somebody who can't help me by dialling "0" repeatedly or repeating "operator" to the voice recognition system. Not to mention, it's infinitely frustrating when they make me waste a half hour dialling in identifying numbers, my address, etc., only for the CSR to ask for the exact same information the second they pick up the phone.

    --
    No comment.
  5. Voice 2.0? by cdrudge · · Score: 4, Funny

    What the hell is a "voice 2.0 company"? Do I need to pay some type of a voice maintenance package to upgrade to voice 2.0? Where there any point releases to patch my voice 1.0 company that fixed bugs or maybe had some trivial new feature?

    With 135 years between releases 1.0 and 2.0, they probably should speed up the release cycle some. Hopefully they don't pull a Mozilla and come out with voice 3.0 in three months and immediately EOL voice 2.0.

  6. Easy Solution by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Asterisk Reverse Hold! You call them up and then put them on hold through your Asterisk system. It parks the call and plays a loop telling them not to hang up and to dial a number when you come off hold. Then it makes your phone ring and connects the call. Genius! And if they want to leave you on hold for a month, that's fine. At least as long as you come in through their 800 number...

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  7. Re:For free? by shaiberger · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi there, CEO of Fonolo here.

    Our consumer service is offered completely for free.

    We make money from our enterprise product which you can read about at http://fonolo.com/

    Why do we offer the free service?
    1) It promotes what we're doing (especially when we get slashdotted!)
    2) It showcases our technology (the engine that runs the consumer service is also at the heart of the enterprise product)
    3) It lets us try new features and learn about the best way to improve the call center experience.
    4) We wanted it for ourselves!

    - Shai