Getting human

In the small universe of customer-advocacy Web sites and blogs, I’ve always admired Gethuman, the site started by travel dot-com entrepreneur Paul English. Its development has coincided with my own customer-service blog, CSR.

During the past year, Gethuman has done a remarkable job of articulating customer-service problems in corporate America. But yesterday, it introduced an interesting solution.

The answer to bad customer service is a voluntary set of standards on how phone systems should handle customer service calls. They are:

1. If a human operator is available, they should answer the phone.

2. If not, always give option to press 0 or say “operator” to queue for a human.

3. Always provide estimated wait times.

4. Provide the option to call the consumer back if they don’t want to wait.

Companies that agree to these standards play an “earcon” — an auditory cue — at the start of a customer phone call.

I believe this represents a promising start. But there’s a lot of work to be done in making companies more accessible to customers, and the phone is only one component.

I spoke with Paul yesterday and shared my vision of a database of major U.S. companies in which names, phone numbers and primary e-mail addresses of all executives that handle customer service issues — from general manager to the chief executive — are freely available.

Good companies would welcome such transparency. Bad companies would fight it.

Bring it on.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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