christophe thinks out loud

To serve you better

An actual voice response unit prompt from the merchant account division of some large bank:

"To serve you better, we have changed our system so that you need to enter your 16 digit merchant account number before speaking to a representative." And this is serving me better how, precisely?

To add insult to injury, or vice versa, the representative answered the phone with, "Hello . . . may I have your 16 digit merchant account number, please?"

From Blowfish's customer service rules: Never transfer someone blind. Always make sure that the person who is picking up the phone has as much information as possible about the call, so we never have to start over with, "May I help you?" with the customer.