Expert shares guide on how to get through to a real person in call centre

IT is a frustration millions of Brits grapple with each day….trying to speak to a human being when calling a helpline.

But one consumer champion has offered six sure-fire tips which, if followed, can help you avoid robots and ensure you get straight through to a real person.

Consumer expert Jane Hawkes, who has come up with the hacks, said: “Finding a telephone number where you can actually talk to someone is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Call centre desks are also not manned as fully as they should be, meaning you have to wait for longer to speak to a real person. However, where there’s a will there’s a way and there are things you can do to navigate the problem.”

Research shows that power companies are among those firms with the most drawn-out and unsatisfactory experience for unhappy customers.

A study by Which? last December revealed millions of people were finding they are routinely ignored or left on hold by businesses.

Even when they do get through, their problems are compounded by uncaring or poorly-trained staff or ineffective chatbots.

The consumer champion surveyed more than 3,000 members of the public about their most recent customer service experience in the energy, financial services, retail and telecoms sectors.

Which? asked people about their most recent experience with seven aspects of customer service including how easy it was to find the company’s contact details, how long it took to get through to someone who could help, and how well the query was dealt with overall.

On average, around a fifth (20%) were unhappy with their most recent customer service experience – but this climbed to more than two in 10 (22%) for the telecoms sector and a quarter (25%) for the energy industry. The energy sector had a higher proportion of dissatisfied customers in all seven areas.

Telecoms companies had higher dissatisfaction scores in five out of seven areas. Consumers were often frustrated with how long it took to get through to a company and have their query answered.

Almost a quarter were unhappy with how long it took to speak to someone who could help (23%) and how long it took to get an answer to their query (22%) in their most recent interaction with customer service. These figures rose to around a third (33% and 31% respectively) for those contacting energy companies.

Here, Jane explains how to shortcut the process of getting through to someone:

Stay silent – don’t press any options at all to expedite the transfer to a customer service representative.

Dial zero – multiple zeros or multiple hashtags cannot be recognised as valid responses.

Threaten to leave – choose the option for ‘thinking of leaving us’ to be transferred to the customer retention team.

Talk nonsense – provide nonsensical voice recognition answers which the system won’t understand.

Say no or yes – to every question to confuse the system.

Cut to the chase – say ‘speak to a real person’ or ‘I need to speak to a representative’.

Make smart calls – ring at optimum times and call off peak if you can.