Why do callers press zero?

Callers press zero to save time

You call your bank or your energy company, and a recorded voice says, "Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed." You know what comes next: a tip about the website, then every department in turn. Somewhere around the second or third option, you press zero and hope a person picks up.

Your own callers do it too. They call your customer service line with one reason in mind, and your IVR, the interactive voice response menu that answers them, has a few seconds to tell them that reason is coming. When the phone menu makes them wait for it, or names it in words they would never use, they press zero or pick whichever option sounds closest. To the caller, zero looks like the quickest way to a person who will listen.

Those calls land on your general team, or on the wrong team. A teammate asks the questions the menu should have answered, transfers the call, and the caller explains everything again to someone new. The few seconds they saved in the menu turn into a transfer and a second wait.

You can change most of this with the phone system you already have. Callers need to hear their own reason, in their own words, in the first few seconds. That takes a greeting of one sentence, options in the order of what people call about, the topic said before each number, four options at most, and zero offered openly at the end. Then you judge the menu by where calls end up.

What do callers hear first?

Take an online store that sells home appliances. Its customer service line takes about 600 calls a week, and the team notes a call reason at the end of every call. The numbers here are an example, not real data. This is what callers heard before the change.

"Welcome to [store]. Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed. Did you know you can track your order at any time on our website? Press 1 for sales and product information. Press 2 for accounts and billing. Press 3 for business customer service. Press 4 for returns and exchanges. Press 5 for shipping and logistics. Press 6 for technical service and repairs."

The greeting runs about 12 seconds before the first option, and none of it helps a caller choose. Hearing that the options have changed means nothing to someone who never learned the old ones, and the website tip delays everyone who is calling about something else. After the greeting, each option takes about 4 seconds, so option 6 ends at second 36 and the menu starts again from option 1. Zero is never mentioned, yet callers find it anyway, and pressing it reaches the general team.

In one week with this menu, 138 callers pressed zero, and the phone system's report shows the second each one pressed it.

During the greeting, 41 callers pressed zero, before they had heard a single option. Another 56 pressed it while options 1 to 3 played, so 97 of the 138 had left the menu before it reached returns at second 24. The rest waited longer: 29 during options 4 to 6, and 12 who listened to the whole list, heard it start again and pressed zero while the menu repeated.

Cut the greeting to one sentence that tells callers they have the right company, and start the options straight after it, with no announcement in between. If the website tip is worth keeping, play it after a caller chooses the option for an order on its way, where it reaches the people it was written for.

Which option should come first?

Your team already writes the answer down. A teammate notes the call reason at the end of every call, and a few normal weeks of those notes show what people call about and how often. Put the options in that order, the most common first.

Here is the store's menu audit, built from the four weeks before the change. Copy it and fill it in with the call reasons from your own line.

An order on its way and a return or refund bring in 65 of every 100 calls, yet the old menu put them at options 5 and 4, from second 28 and second 24. Sales, with 12 of them, had option 1, because the menu followed the company's departments and nobody had checked it against what callers ask about.

In the new menu, an order on its way is option 1 and a return or refund is option 2. Those callers hear their option from second 3 and second 7, and all of them have heard it by second 11. At second 11 in the old menu, they were still listening to the greeting.

How should an option sound?

Say the topic first and the number second. "Press 4 for returns and exchanges" asks a caller to remember a digit before they know whether it is theirs. "For a return or a refund, press 2" lets them recognize their reason first, so they know the number that follows is the one to press.

Use the words your callers use. A caller whose washing machine has not arrived is listening for something about their order, and "shipping and logistics" is how the warehouse talks. Listen to how callers open the conversation with your team, such as "I'm calling about my order, it still hasn't come," and name the option the way they do.

Keep it to four options at most, plus zero. Every extra option adds about 4 seconds for everyone whose reason comes after it, so let the less common reasons share one option with "anything else." In the store's new menu, option 4 covers payment, warranty, business customers and every other reason. Those come to 23 of every 100 calls, fewer than an order on its way brings in alone.

This is the new menu, word for word.

"Hello, you've reached [store] customer service. If you're calling about an order on its way, press 1. For a return or a refund, press 2. For a product question or a new order, press 3. For a payment, a warranty or anything else, press 4. To speak to someone on our team, press 0."

The greeting now takes about 3 seconds. Zero comes at second 19, and the whole menu is over by second 23, a second before the old one reached returns.

Should you hide the zero?

Hiding zero is tempting, because every zero press goes to your general team. Leave it in. A caller who wants a person and cannot find zero picks any option to reach one, and a teammate has to transfer that call later, which costs you more than the zero press would have.

Say it once, at the end, in plain words, as the new menu does with "To speak to someone on our team, press 0." In your own setup, let a zero press join the general team's queue like any other call. If those calls jump ahead, pressing zero becomes the fastest way through, which teaches callers to skip the options.

A few callers will press zero whatever the menu says. If many keep doing it after the change, the menu is missing something, and their calls will tell you what.

How do you know the menu works?

Look at where calls end up. The store compared one normal week of each menu, with no campaign or holiday in either. The same team worked the same hours and the call reasons were about the same, so the menu was the only thing that changed.

With the new menu, 480 of the 600 calls reached the right team first time, against 330 before. Zero presses fell from 138 to 54, and transfers after a caller had chosen an option went from 90 to 48.

Hang-ups in the menu dropped from 42 to 18, and that number needs care. The old greeting pointed callers to the website, and some of the 42 may have hung up to look there. The menu report cannot tell you which ones, so do not count every hang-up as a lost customer.

On your own line, take four things from the phone system's report for every call that reached the menu: the option chosen, whether a teammate transferred the call, whether the caller pressed zero and at which second, and whether they hung up in the menu. Each week, look at two shares, reached the right team first time and pressed zero. Compare only weeks that look alike, without a campaign or a holiday.

Then pick about 20 calls where the caller pressed zero, listen to them and note what each caller wanted. If most of them share one reason, that option comes too late or is named in the wrong words.

Once a month, set the call reasons against the menu order again. A delivery problem or a sale can change what people call about most, and the menu has to move with it.

Where does DRING come in?

Once the menu is in order, one routine call reason, such as an order on its way, is a good place to start with DRING. It connects to your PBX or contact center over SIP as another destination, such as a queue or a menu option, so it can sit behind the option for that reason while you keep the menu you just reworked. DRING matches the caller to the CRM record and closes requests such as order status or return eligibility in the same call. When a case needs a decision, the call goes to your team with a written summary, so the caller does not start over.

Which call reasons DRING settles alone, which go to a person and which team each transfer reaches are agreed before launch. Then the agent runs 1,000 to 10,000 simulated conversations, built for your company, before the first real call. After-call analysis runs on every conversation and records the outcome, reason, sentiment and the checks you define, so the calls DRING takes still count when you set the call reasons against the menu. Our page for call center managers shows what your teammate reads before saying hello. Tell us which option brings your team the most calls, and DRING calls you in two minutes.