June 14th, 2007 in Communication
6 Tips To Reach A Human Operator
Get past annoying and time wasting dial selections over the phone with these tips to get through to a live operator. They come from the GetHuman database of shortcuts for more than 500 individual call centres. These tips are good for general use when those robot voices are driving you mad.
Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly, sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not always work for each company. Many IVRs will connect to a human after a few “invalid entries”, although some IVRs will hangup. 
Talk. Say “get human” (or “agent” or “representative”) or raise your voice, or just mumble. The IVR might connect you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases. Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone. Connect to account collections or sales or account cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask them for their name and rep number (so they know you are writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help you). Then ask them to transfer you to the department you need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue, although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus in those cases this tip is useless). Toll call. For credit cards, if the expected wait time is too long, hangup and try to call back on their non-toll-free number, as they often have shorter queues. Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an English-only operator.
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Comments
Matt Herzberger says on June 14th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I have also heard that if you swear that is another option to get to a direct person. When you are in the automated say *%#! and it may get you to a real human. IDK
Michael Blank says on June 14th, 2007 at 10:32 am
This is not always a good option. I work for a large insurance company and the entry of information about the caller is vital to routing the caller to someone trained for their specific need. Otherwise, you can wind up waiting even longer to reach someone who knows what they are talking about.
Janet Miles says on June 14th, 2007 at 11:24 am
See also Paul English’s Gethuman 500 database — a huge list of major companies and the “codes” for bypassing their voice mail or voice recognition systems.
David Bradley says on June 14th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
That hitting 00000000 doesn’t seem to work any more here, it used to. But, once you are through and they tell you they’re recording the call, switch it around and tell them you’re doing the same, hopefully get you a better service than you otherwise would.
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Rob says on June 14th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
If you call a sales department and ask to be transferred, you will almost certainly end up back in the same automated system you started at. These people do not appreciate you ruining their percentages. I suggest you try asking for a representative… or you could just answer the questions and get routed properly the first time?
Tim says on June 14th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Guys, you’ve got the wrong idea. I work for an organisation that builds both DTMF and speech IVR systems.
You can’t just apply a generic rule like or “0″ or “*0″ or “000000″ to any IVR. The menu system you’re listening to is a software application, most likely running on a Sun server - that has been programmed specifically for that organisation and contact channel. Every IVR is developed as a bespoke application and is potentially different.
There are industry standards for the touch tone key assignments, but it’s up to the organisation whether or not they choose for their application to conform to this standard. The guidelines are even more open with speech interfaces, and the “utterances” that will take you to a human will vary widely between organisations - if this option has been programmed at all.
Finally - as Michael and Rob mention above - be aware that trying to avoid using the menu system may end up being more time consuming than just following the prompts and allowing your enquiry to be categorised the way the organisation wants to categorise it. They’re not trying to be punitive … you’ll just make it easier on yourself if you co-operate a little bit and play by their rules!
Dr. Housing Bubble says on June 14th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I’ve found the holding option to work out rather well. Obviously for rotary phones they need to accommodate for this. However some places will hang up on you.
Thor says on June 15th, 2007 at 5:49 am
Might I suggest NOT using the “Spanish” option, either. There are only so many people that speak Spanish working for the company, it’s wrong to use one of those people for your English-speaking concern. Many companies will put you back on hold (and at the end of the queue) if you connect to a foreign-language operator and speak English.
Lauren says on June 15th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I’d recommend not asking someone to give your their name and spell it for you at the beginning of the call. Nothing makes me madder - it presumes that I will not be helpful and that something will go wrong in which you will need to use it. Most people say their name at the beginning of the call - try to listen then. If you don’t get the name, ask for it at the end. People who force me to spell my name tick my off and generally don’t get the level of service that I would give other people.
A few other tips - don’t give orders, say hi when they answer the phone, and let them ask you the questions that are needed to solve your inquiry - they know the process that needs to happen, you don’t. For example, after I say “Company XYZ, this is Lauren”, don’t say “tell me how i do xyz”. Just say “Hi, I would like to do xyz.” That Hi makes a big difference - lots of call reps have a lot of freedom to either be helpful or not - try to treat them like humans once you get a human.