In the early 1980s James Q Willson and George L Kelling introduced the world to 'The Broken Window' theory.

The theory gives the example of a building with one broken window; if the window remains broken, more windows will suffer the same fate until eventually the building is broken into in its entirety. This, Willson and Kelling refer to as the ‘norm setting’, which will signal all-out urban disorder!

The same applies in business - if a guest arrives at a hotel to a hostile welcome from the front desk this sets the tone for the remainder of their stay. So when they arrive in their room to discover a cobweb, or when they are shown to a table in the restaurant and not given menus, they are much more likely to complain about anything and everything throughout their stay.

The same is true of your IVR system. It's your front of house. Your head housekeeper. Your maître de.

If a customer has to spend what seems like an eternity in a call queue listening to the same messages telling them their call is important, their call is valued, their call will be answered as soon as an agent becomes available…frustration builds, and before you know it their patience has just about run out.

How can this situation be avoided? Well like any good hotel you should have happy, well-trained, informed and interested front of house staff. Think more Cesar Ritz than Basil Fawlty.

Call queues are, more often than not, unavoidable, but at least if those queuing callers are listening to the right style of music, a voice over that puts them at ease, and informative, engaging messages, they might actually learn something about you instead of just being irritated by the time they speak to a human being!

Sound like a good idea? Got a ‘broken window’ that needs fixing? Then give us a call - we can mend your IVR system and avoid all-out caller disorder.