Do you dread calling a company’s hotline especially the credit card, bank, and phone/internet service companies because of the wait time? I bet you’ve been held for 30 minutes before while waiting for a customer service agent to answer one lousy question only to transferred to another department again. And when you finally get to speak to a decent customer agent, you’re all fired up and the poor fellow just got burned by an irate you.
The whole thing is a complete waste of time. Luckily, Lucy can help.
Who’s Lucy?
LucyPhone is smart phone application that can save you the trouble of waiting on the line and buy you some time while you tend to your duties.
This is how LucyPhone works:
1. First you have to download the LucyPhone App for iPhone or LucyPhone for Android.
2. Install the application into your smart phone
3. Enter the toll-free number that you wish to make a call to, and then provide a number where LucyPhone can call you back.
4. Listen to the company’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR menu), and key in the corresponding number for the department you need to connect to. The moment waiting time begins, press ** or ## (Google Voice as your phone number). You will then hear Lucy telling you to either hang up and it will just call you back as soon as waiting time is over, or provide another toll-free number that you need to call or record an “audio intro” for.
What’s an Audio Intro?
Well, imagine having to tell 3 agents the same details and problems over and over again (I can see you cringing already). This is especially exasperating when you have technical issues that needed to be resolved ASAP. Those are the times when you simply wish to have a recorded message so you won’t have to waste your saliva over for the same old details to the agents.
Well, the Audio Intro saves you from doing that and this intro plays for the customer agent when the call is finally picked up, after which Lucy calls you and connects you.
For example, when calling any customer service number, you will probably be asked to provide for your name, reference number, security code and other security details. So in your audio intro, provide those details and a brief summary of your concern. This will be played while Lucy sets up the call for you and the agent.
Prices, Limitations, and Etc
The LucyPhone application is free. The application unfortunately, only works in the US and Canada but will expand to other countries soon. It will be great if LucyPhone can somehow find its way to ordinary phones (even with a hardware to be connected to the phone) as opposed to being restricted to smart phones only. Imagine how stress-free it will be to call customer service with irate customers decreasing as well.
But overall, Lucy rocks.
