What's Wrong #11 - Too much trouble to reach a person

I called Singapore Power Services to get help due to a bug in their website that disallowed me to submit an online application to open an account.

I have to go through a tiresome process to pass through six barriers in their interactive voice response (IVR) system.

List to 1 minute announcement on something that does not concern me.
Press 1 to select English language.

Press 2 to open or close a new account 

Press 1 to open or close a new residential account
Press 1 to open a new residential account 

Press 2 to open an account now.

As I had to contact SP Services a few times due to several problems with the process, I had to suffer the tiresome process each time.

What's wrong?

There is no need to require the caller to listen to  IVR  messages and press some many buttons. 

SP Services should simplify the process and avoid wasting so much time of the customer. They should be considerate in the design of their IVR system.

How to put it right

If there is really a need to segregate the handling of residential and commercial accounts, the customer should only be required to select the language and the type of account, i.e. 2 button presses instead of 6 presses.

It should be quite easy for the same team of staff to handle the opening, closing and general enquiry on an account. There is no need to segregate the work down to such a detailed level.