Quality customer service is recognized as necessary to survive and thrive in business. Yet, many businesses have created black holes and dissatisfied customers when incorporating technology into their first line of customer service - the telephone.

Have you ever called a place of business, a hospital or even your local school and then the following happens?

"Thank you for calling..., our menu has changed, please listen to all the options... if you know your party's 5 or 6 digit extension, please enter that now..."

Then you listen to all the options before you decide what number to enter. Now you think you are being connected to a real person. Unfortunately, another automated voice comes on giving you even more information. You silently pray as you strike the keys to what you think are the best option. The call is connected, you hear a ring and then a voice mail comes on saying that person is not available.

Possibly, you have now been on the phone for anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes in trying to get a simple answer to satisfy your loyal customer concerns. Time is money and the money being saved by the organization is being spent by you as each second ticks by.

Automated customer service telephone systems were allegedly constructed to give satisfied customers much better customer service and to turn them into loyal customers, but in actually, they are all about cost reduction and delivering unsatisfied customers. These phone systems are like a black hole where the currently satisfied or loyal customers are changed from being customers seeking many times a simple answer to totally dissatisfied and angry customers.

Customer service research suggests that 91% of any businesses' angry customers will never come back and 96% of those lost customers will never tell you why they left. So your expensive cost savings and customer service driven automated phone system has cost you even more.

Technology has conditioned your customers to voice mail because more than likely they have voice mail for their own phones. However, this conditioning does not give companies the right to waste the time of their current satisfied and maybe even loyal customers.

If you want those loyal customers who will truly help you to take your business to that next level, look at your customer service telephone system. Be honest. Do you have the time to waste going through all the instructions? And how do you now feel, happy or angry? Now can you answer this question: Does my customer service phone deliver quality customer service or is it a black hole?