A telephone call is often a department s first contact point with a member of the public. Many in the private sector have recognised and harnessed the effectiveness of the telephone as a communication tool and go to great length to tap its full potential. There is much scope for the public sector to exploit telephone services more effectively to make our departments more approachable and our services more accessible. Some individual departments have published as many as 30-40 numbers. They may have to try several before reaching the right one.
Accessibility is therefore a real problem.
Callers get very frustrated if a telephone is left to ring, or is constantly engaged. Customer expectations will be higher and frustration will be all the greater where the number is published as a hotline. Interpretations of hotline may differ, but customers generally expect hotlines to offer easy access and to service their needs almost instantly. If department's hotline cannot provide such level of service, the department will then have a group of dissatisfied customers. However, many of the existing systems have a high rate of calls transferred to operators, which may suggest that the messages are not properly structured or sufficiently informative to satisfy the callers.