Why "press 1 for bookings" costs you calls
Automated menus solved a real problem for organisations with twelve departments and a switchboard. They were then sold to businesses with four staff and one room, where they solve nothing and cost something — and once installed, nobody ever removes one.
What it costs before anyone speaks
People ringing a small business expect a person. A recorded list reads as a bigger, slower organisation than the one they chose.
Pressing a number means taking the phone off your ear, and a caller who is driving simply will not.
Real enquiries do not divide into four categories, and the fifth option is always "hold for an operator" — which is what they wanted first.
Most menus deliver you politely to a voicemail box, having taken a minute to do it.
The question underneath
A menu is a way of deciding who should deal with this call. That is a real question — it is just one the caller is badly placed to answer. Working it out from what they say, in their own words, gets the same routing without asking anyone to translate their problem into your org chart first.
Frequently asked
Usually. They were built for organisations with separate departments. In a business with a handful of staff they ask the caller to categorise their own problem in your vocabulary, and cost you the impatient ones before anyone speaks.
They rang a small business expecting a person, the options rarely match their situation, and on a mobile pressing a number means taking the phone away from your ear.
Work out who should handle the call from what the caller says, in their own words, rather than asking them to translate it into your internal categories first.
When your departments really are separate — different people, different systems. The test is whether the options describe your business or describe your phone system.