Jananas

I recycle. I compost. I actively try to reduce the amount of waste that goes to garbage dumps. I’ve been really excited over the past couple of years by the introduction of Toronto’s composting program, decision to charge for garbage, and new bins. Except that this week my XL recycling bin magically disappeared and was replaced with a Small. Suffice to say that this does not in any way, shape, or form meet my needs. From discussions with my neighbours, two of the households had called previously to request smaller recycling bins and both households had their new bins delivered this week. So my inference is that somehow things got confused and my bin was accidentally changed out as well.

So I call the city. Or attempt to. The number listed on the website isn’t the number I need to call when my concern is specifically about the recycling program. So I call another number (note: not transferred to make this easier). I tried calling a couple of times yesterday and the IVR disconnects the call. I just called again and waited for 20 minutes on hold (as an aside, even when the music on IVRs is annoying at least it lets you know that you are still connected. Total silence makes it difficult to know if the call is even still connected!). I finally get through to a CSR and her first question is to ask for the serial number on the bin. Oddly enough I don’t have it handy. Its the middle of the business day and I’m at school (or work for other people). I think its reasonable to expect that I’m not going to have access to my recycling bin, given that its at home.

So now I’m annoyed. You replaced my recycling bin with a size that is significantly too small and you did it without my authorization. I’ve wasted 20 minutes on hold and the first thing you do is tell me you can’t help me unless I have a piece of information that a large percentage of the population isn’t going to have handy.

Here’s a suggestion. If you want me to have a piece of information handy when I call – tell me. If it had been on the website, I would have made sure I had it before I called today. Maybe you could change the introduction on your IVR to tell customers that they’ll need the serial number. That way if they don’t have it they can hang up then instead of spending time on hold. And guess what – you’ll end up with more satisfied customers (and probably staff too because they won’t have to deal with as many angry customers) and lower overhead. Why lower overhead? Because I won’t have to call in multiple times to complete my request. In this case a request to fix a mistake you made!

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• The Hybrid Generation
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