3. Telephone menu systems

Many organisations use an audio menu system for handling incoming calls.

A well designed, concise menu system can be very efficient for both the caller and the company. The main purpose of the menu system is to get the caller talking to the right person as quickly as possible.

For example a company may offer a simple, single level telephone menu such as

• Press 1 for accounts
• Press 2 for sales
• Press 3 for returns
• Press 4 for an operator

The caller presses the relevant number on their phone to get to the correct department or to talk to an actual person for more complicated enquiries.

On the other hand a poorly designed, slow, complicated menu system can be a nightmare to use and extremely frustrating. For example a convoluted, four level menu system including having to listen to long marketing messages before the next set of options are provided. And after wading through the options you find nothing quite fits your enquiry. Then the line is mysteriously dropped so you have to go through it all again. Have you ever had this experience?

Many telephone menu systems also have voice recognition so you can just speak the number option rather than pressing a key.