Telus Mobility lets you call the tune

[icq2000b]

Originally posted by SwatZeR
Telus Communications is a different story altogether...

Try calling the landline customer service number sometime. they recently upgraded it so that you now have to deal with voice command menus.

You can no longer hit zero for an operator. You must say "operator". The recording will then explain that there are many different types of operators and keep rambling on...

The system isn't fully in place yet, so if you call you might have the option of hitting zero still to talk to an actual live being.

I hate automated recordings. Especially when I am calling long distance/or on my cell and racking up minutes. I would rather talk to a human than listen to a recording.

sometimes you can cheat by dialing the chinese telus landline queue at 1-800-883-6888. they can do anything the 1-888-811-2323 people can do. sometimes the chinese queue is a lot less congested. they sometimes get pissed off if you speak english to them so who cares, they are still Telus staff.

[HC - NO "i"]

Originally posted by icq2000b
sometimes you can cheat by dialing the chinese telus landline queue at 1-800-883-6888. they can do anything the 1-888-811-2323 people can do. sometimes the chinese queue is a lot less congested. they sometimes get pissed off if you speak english to them so who cares, they are still Telus staff.

icq2000b,

Be warned, they will flag your account and redirect your call back to the normal client care pool! Would it be better if you can speak BOTH English and Chinese? Time to learn Chinese

[HC - NO "i"]

Originally posted by Steve Punter
The conversion to digital will mess up the sound a bit, but it's really not that bad. I've heard perfectly great-sounding music played over a CDMA phone with the EVRC CODEC. The problem is the CODEC's built-in noise cancellation feature, which attempts to identify non-speach and suppress it. If the music is loud enough the CODEC will accept that it is meant to be "intelligence" and let is through unmangled. When the music plays softly however, it is often identified as "noise" and suppressed.

Steve,

Have you got time to investigate the new voicemail system? Last week, I told you that I can hear a little worse than before...

[Steve Punter]

Originally posted by HC - NO "i"
Steve,

Have you got time to investigate the new voicemail system? Last week, I told you that I can hear a little worse than before...

I tried it, but I can't really say that it sounded WORSE than it did before. It's still one of the worst-sounding VM systems out there right now, but it wasn't so horrible as to be useless (or anything like that).

Note: I made recordings using a landline phone, and I played back the recordings using a landline phone.

[harrytse]

it's nice they resurrected the feature from ClearNET, except it never worked, when I requested A and I got B.....

[Trout Jesus]

Does anybody remember when Telus had the star spangled banner playing on their holding music? Imagine if an american telco had Oh Canada playing.

[Shlack_attack]

Originally posted by Xirc
DAWN WALTON 00:00 EDT Monday, September 01, 2003

CALGARY -- We've grown accustomed to hearing a few things when placed on hold at customer service call centres.

"Our calls can be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes. Our calls are important. Customer care representatives are busy managing high call volumes. Calls will be answered in a priority sequence."

But the 3.2 million customers nation-wide of Telus Mobility -- the mobile phone division of Vancouver-based Telus Corp. -- now hear something a little different.

"To help the time pass more enjoyably, please select the style of music you would like to hear while waiting," callers are told.

Press one for pop, and you'll get the Latino sizzle of Enrique Iglesias. Press two for classical. Press three for the alternative sounds of artists such as Nova Scotia's own alternative rock band Sloan. Four for jazz. Country tunes by the likes of reigning Canadian country queen Shania Twain are option five.

In some parts of Eastern Canada, French pop is also available.

"We do recognize that for various reasons some people may have to sit on hold, and so we want to make this a future friendly experience for our clients," said Shawn Kelly, Alberta manager of communications for Telus Mobility.

The company decided to present musical offerings as an in-house initiative despite the existence of an entire industry that will fill airtime.

Think Muzak LLC. The Fort Mill, S.C.-based company that bills itself as the world's largest music and messaging company is hired by other companies to pump sound into their stores, elevators and phone lines.

Loads of companies now offer technology that is supposed to make the on-hold time less annoying.

On-hold messaging allows companies to flog products and services to callers killing time. There's also technology to reduce waiting times. Some firms have even resorted to the old-fashioned tactic of adding more staff to answer calls more quickly.

"Nobody likes being on hold, myself included," said Linda Osip, executive director of the Canadian Call Management Association. "If I start to notice I'm on hold, I'm immediately aggravated."

Her Grimsby, Ont.-based association, which represents about 70 mostly inbound call centres, is studying the average time spent on hold, but it's already clear that it's too long.

"Every single company that is a member of our organization is desperately trying to reduce time on hold," she said, adding that the goal is to keep that time to 20 seconds or less.

Until companies figure out how to do that, she said, they need to find ways not to offend their clients or their client's clients. She called the Telus Mobility initiative unique.

Last fall, market research firm Mintel International Group Ltd. found that 90 per cent of 2,020 people surveyed were frustrated with call centres, and about half said the music played while they were on hold was irritating.

www.globeandmail.com

I have had this on my line (Montreal) for over 2 years now, I thought it was standard...

Its a nice feature if you know you already have to wait...

[Xirc]

Originally posted by Steve Punter
I tried it, but I can't really say that it sounded WORSE than it did before. It's still one of the worst-sounding VM systems out there right now, but it wasn't so horrible as to be useless (or anything like that).

Note: I made recordings using a landline phone, and I played back the recordings using a landline phone.

I have also tried making several recordings from both my cell and landline and I can't say it sounds any worse than any other voicemail system. I even tried listening to saved messages from others over and over again.

[Xirc]

Originally posted by Trout Jesus
Does anybody remember when Telus had the star spangled banner playing on their holding music? Imagine if an american telco had Oh Canada playing.

Thankfully that was just on the internal channel care IVR! They had the best of whitney houston album on loop. I used to hate having to listen to that blasted song!

[TELUSMobilityGuy]

Way to go, TELUS!

I have noticed this option is available on all of their client-facing queues, now.