Cut Down The Phone Tree With The Help Of These Ideas

Greensboro, NC -- We all know the frustration that sometimes follows calling a company's Customer Service department. The hold times are legendary. The phone trees can be endless. And the answers aren't always helpful.

But you don't have to wait on hold. There are websites, apps, shortcuts and side doors you can use to get to a real human being without wasting time.

GetHuman.com

This website offers a lot of help. It includes phone numbers that connect you directly to a real, live person with little or no waiting. We tried calling the Get Human number listed for AT&T and only had to wait on hold for 20 seconds before we were connected with a rep. The website also allows you to enter your phone number and have companies call you back.

Fast Customer app

This iPhone and Droid app works a lot like GetHuman.com. It lists about 2,000 companies. You scroll through, tap on the one you want and go on about your business. When the app connects to a real person, your phone will ring. We tried it with Time Warner Cable customer service. It took a couple tries to get it to work, but on the second attempt someone from Time Warner called back within three minutes -- without us having to wait on hold.

The Fast Customer website also offers other helpful tips if you don't have an iPhone or Droid.

Twitter

A number of businesses have customer service reps active on Twitter. We'll use Time Warner Cable as an example again, because a lot of people around here use it for TV service. Its @TWCableHelp account responds directly to many customer problems -- and Time Warner isn't the only company that gets interactive.

The website conversationagent.com listed some of its top customer service accounts on Twitter and included JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Comcast, Zappos.com, Best Buy, The Home Depot and several others.

Locally, companies such as Lowes Foods, Duke Energy and A Cleaner World are active on Twitter. (Have another company that's active online that you want to recommend? Add it in the Comments section!)

Twitter is a great tool because you're publicly calling out a company -- and its representatives and everyone else can see it. Just make sure you use the company's Twitter handle in your post to get its attention.

Note: WFMY News 2 and digtriad.com received absolutely no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this story in exchange for their inclusion in it.

 

WFMY News 2