I am fed up with waiting to speak to a human voice whenever I call up my bank. Is there no way that the bank call centre can have a human answer calls?

Kanak Pillai, Kochi

Your concern is understandable. The speed at which a call centre responds to a customer depends on the investments the bank has made in ensuring speed, and the terms of agreement between the bank and the customer. Normally, each bank has a defined turnaround time to respond to calls, which are benchmarked to their industry standards.

Normally, an interactive voice response system (IVRS) is faster when dealing with normal account-related queries, and works with an automated link to the bank’s CRM system. In this case, only those calls that need agent interaction are transferred for personal attention. Banks deploy service standards using efficient staffing and call-queuing systems. Check with your bank’s citizen charter about the kind of services that results in voice interaction and when it uses only the IVRS, you are within your rights to get a response on this.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com