Telus Mobility lets you call the tune

[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

[green1074]

Wow this is a nice little feature..now I know where the $25 ESN change fee went to. lol.

[WorldIRC]

I think this feature has been available in Toronto for a while already.

[Xirc]

Originally posted by WorldIRC
I think this feature has been available in Toronto for a while already.

Its been around for quite a while in certain regions and on certain lines. Only now is it offered on a nation-wide basis.

[Hartom]

So with this now TELUS admits that you are going to be on hold when you call to get customer service ? what a joke ...instead of improving their que time they offer you tunes

[Xirc]

Originally posted by Tabernac
So with this now TELUS admits that you are going to be on hold when you call to get customer service ? what a joke ...instead of improving their que time they offer you tunes

Every company knows there are going to be times that people have to wait on hold. TELUS is just making those times more enjoyable.

The recording does not kick in right away, it waits until about 1 minute after you started being on hold and then gives you the option. This way if your call is answered right away then you don't even have to make a selection.

This service by no means reflects that hold times are too long, it only acknowledges the fact that sometimes people have to wait on hold.

[Jason]

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.

[Soupdude]

I've experienced the choice of music thing for a while as I'm in the Toronto market. All I can say is that while I did have to wait on hold for about 30 minutes last time I called customer care it was worth the wait. I got excellent service by someone who either actually cared or really acted that way. Beats MANY experiences I have had with other telecom's.

[4merly_blucific]

i remember selecting jazz. i didn't mind the wait as much (altho i never have to wait too long). telus is always ahead.

[Steve Punter]

Make sure you call customer service from a landline if you want to ENJOY the music though. By calling from virtually any wireless phone you'll hear nothing but an audible mess as a result of the music not rising above the noise gate thresholds on either the Telus switches or of the EVRC CODEC. I called them about a week ago with my Telus phone, and I was on hold. I couldn't hear anything but weird noises most of the time, with occasional spurts of music.

[WorldIRC]

Something about the analog signal of their music being converted into a digitally reproduced sound on your cell phone. My dad, who was an engineer back in the day, explained it to me. The cell phone isn't advanced enough to handle that conversion yet. However, if you call them in analog mode, which I have tested on Telus, the music will play back perfectly.

[Steve Punter]

Originally posted by WorldIRC
Something about the analog signal of their music being converted into a digitally reproduced sound on your cell phone. My dad, who was an engineer back in the day, explained it to me. The cell phone isn't advanced enough to handle that conversion yet. However, if you call them in analog mode, which I have tested on Telus, the music will play back perfectly.

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.

[DarrenGuy]

I always wondered why that happened.

Steve you never cease to amaze me.

[Vindicator]

Give me a break! You have been able to choose your style of music while you're on hold since Telus was clearNET. That was a clearNET idea which has been around for as long as I can remember.

It's nothing new.

[f14sure]

My person opinion about Telus putting out such a "weak" press release is that Telus customer service is suffering. I had 4 opportunites last week to call in to Mobility, Internet and landline customer service(bad week for me and telus) and the wait times are horrendous I think Telus hasn't hired enough people especially in the Mobility customer service and they laid off too many people in the landline side. Their award winning customer service is now a joke 40 minutes on average to get through to someone is just stupid. I think Telus is just trying to create the buzz they are doing something before some sort of negative story ends up in the Globe. I do know Telus is opening new call centers so hopefully long wait times will be a thing of the past soon.

As a comparison I also had the opportunity to call Fido customer service last week and my call was answered in 1 ring I almost fell over I was shocked it was so fast.