The Logic of Using an Auto-Attendant
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Originally published in 1999. Republished—without change—in February, 2017.
Using an auto attendant (or “call attendant”) to intercept incoming phone calls is a divisive issue at small service firms, and our universal advice to use one is often the cause of great disagreement. The immediate response is almost always: “We want to provide personal service” or “Our clients want to talk to a real human.” Never mind that the real human they want to talk to is not the human answering the phone.
The bigger issue that we have misunderstood is personal service. Gone are the days when sophisticated clients expect human service at every level. In fact, for across town deliveries a courier is viewed as a more reasonable alternative than hand delivery by an employee.
