Over the last few days, I have had several interactions with 'support' services from various companies. The interaction with phone support has been particularly bad.

Below are some thoughts on this process:

• Call centres are terrible. The amount of time spent waiting on the line is, considering modern technology, unforgiveable. When it comes to 'support' calls, especially for large financial institutions that compete on service and have sizable budgets, having a poor call centre experience is shameful.

To my mind the following should happen:

1. If a customer has been on the line longer than a certain period of time - provide an option to take a reference number and receive a call back within a specified time period (more on this below) so that the customer does not need to wait indefinitely on the line.
2. If the above is not possible, at least, provide a number in the queue. Ideally the option for both. If the automated line can ask me to go through several automated/numbered prompts then they can provide this*. If am number 37 in the line, I will hang-up and try later or choose a call back. However, if I am number 3, I am happy to stay on the line.

Regarding 'Call Backs'.

In one particular interaction, I informed a consultant (via email) of what I required and was told a support consultant will contact me 'within 24 hours' to assist me. This was a Friday, so within 24 hours includes a Saturday. Not my preferred day for 'waiting for phone calls'.

Additionally, if a weekend was not involved, workdays involve meetings and discussions with people that may not be practical to be available for phone calls at random, unspecified times.

Regardless, the consultant then called the following day (a call I missed because I do not always keep my phone with me on weekends), saying 'they tried to contact me' and said I must call the service number again. Basically, thanks for contacting us, but go through the whole rigmarole you just did again. Repeat.

At least the email update of this scenario left me with a number to call.

That number, when I called it, turned out NOT to be the number of someone who could help me. Instead it was a number of someone who did not have 'mandate' to help me and passed me through to wait on the line again. This time, almost 3x times as long as I had originally. I eventually hung up.

This completely defeats the purpose of the service in the first place.

In my view, there are two mistakes here:

1. Provide the number of the line that can actually assist me. Instead of wasting my time once again. (Note: What I was attempting to do, was not enabled online via self-service, i.e. I could not achieve on my own in my own time.)
2. If you are going to call 'within 24 hours', before the call is going to be made, send an email/sms to say, please expect the call within x minutes/hours. At least that way, there is some notice. Particularly because of the following:

These days, customers/consumers are inundated with unwanted and unwarranted sales calls.

Many of these are 'automated' sales calls. As in, an automated voice recording plays when you answer the phone. 99% of these calls are from unknown numbers. In many cases, the same institutions that already have your business, contract out support services to sell other services to their existing customers. As such, it is not uncommon to answer several calls a week only to say "No I am not... no, thank you... excuse me... I am not intere...I am not... inte...". It is horrible. A waste of time.

Now, a reasonable person may resolve not to answer unknown numbers. The proliferation of apps designed specifically to identify unknown and call centre numbers such as Tru Caller have become commonplace. With that context, are companies honestly telling me that a support line is going to add their call, which the customer initiated, in the same hat as all the rest of the unwanted calls and expect us to be waiting patiently for their call?

I certainly am not.

I expect better. Better can be provided.

Considering many of these services accrue a long, almost lifetime value. Banks, financial institutions, mobile phone companies etc. Offering poor, shoddy service only tells me that I should consider going elsewhere.

Companies clearly invest money in sending unwanted, promotional SMSes or automated phone calls which satisfy mostly their own needs. Yet these same companies invest or apply a similar approach when the customer actually wants service or assistance.

These days poor service is the norm.

In a world where every company is competing fiercely for attention, stellar service will stand head and shoulders above the rest. Good or excellent service will be spread via word of mouth and will pay for itself. Yet, most companies still trawl the same strategies, the same poor approaches as always leaving terrible customer experiences in their wake.