In 2023, How Many Steps Does It Take to Reach a Human Customer Service Representative? Banks Respond: You Can Directly Say 'Transfer to Human'
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"For any inquiries, you can call the official hotline," a service promise almost every commercial bank makes. However, with the expansion of banking services and advancements in technology, while the categories of hotline services at commercial banks have become more diverse, reaching a human customer service representative has become increasingly difficult.
Especially for many elderly individuals who are unfamiliar with voice-operated systems and fear making mistakes in banking operations, they tend to trust human services more, preferring direct conversations with customer service representatives. Ahead of the 2023 Double Ninth Festival, a Red Star News reporter called customer service hotlines of several banks at different times. From the actual investigation, even under normal operations, reaching a human customer service representative required pressing buttons up to 6 times, taking nearly 3 minutes—longer than the duration of a typical phone call.
Transferring to a Human Representative: Minimum 3 Steps, Maximum 6 Steps
Recently, the Red Star News reporter called the customer service hotlines of six major state-owned commercial banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China—as well as two city and rural commercial banks represented by Chengdu Bank and Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, totaling eight banks. The calls were made at different times: around 9–10 AM, around 2:20 PM, and around 6–7 PM.
Upon connecting to the banks' official hotlines, the reporter mostly encountered intelligent voice systems introducing the latest services or providing selection prompts. Following the voice prompts, the reporter proceeded step-by-step through button presses or voice dialogues to eventually reach a human representative. The process included introductions to the latest policies, various services available for consultation, and waiting times due to temporary line congestion. From this investigation, the time taken was generally long, with the shortest being Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank at 1 minute and 10 seconds, and the longest being Bank of China at 2 minutes and 55 seconds. In terms of steps, most banks require 4 or more steps to connect with human customer service, with Agricultural Bank of China being the most efficient at just 3 steps. The process is as follows: First, dial the bank's hotline at 95599; second, verbally request to "transfer to human service"; third, follow the system prompts to select the service by pressing the corresponding key.
The longest process, observed at Bank of China at 18:48, requires 6 steps: First, dial the hotline 95566, where the intelligent voice prompts you to state your service need directly, such as "first home loan," "check account opening bank," or "debit card not working"; second, press "*" to enter key service; third, follow the system prompts and press "3" for bank services; fourth, follow the voice prompt and press "0" for direct service hotline; fifth, follow the voice prompt and press "09" for senior services; sixth, follow the voice prompt and press "3" for human service, successfully connecting to a human agent.
However, in this round of phone surveys, Red Star News reporters found that only Bank of China specifically included a "senior services" option in its voice prompts, while other banks did not offer this option.
Red Star News also discovered that while the core process of the hotline remains consistent across different times, some banks have minor variations. For example, when calling Bank of Communications in the morning, pressing "9" connects to human service, whereas in the afternoon, pressing "0" is required.
Bank Response: Customers Can Directly Say "Transfer to Human Service" When elderly customers consult banking services, they usually want to speak directly with a customer service representative. However, if they strictly follow the voice prompts of the bank's hotline, listening to the entire process and operating step by step, this procedure alone can take about 2 minutes—perhaps longer than their usual phone call duration.
Is there a quicker way for seniors to access "human customer service" and promptly resolve their inquiries? Recently, Red Star News reporters consulted several state-owned bank customer service hotlines, and the representatives all stated that there is currently no dedicated green channel for seniors to directly reach human service. They still need to follow the voice prompts. For seniors familiar with a particular bank's customer service hotline, they can skip the full introduction of the smart voice system and directly press the corresponding button to access human service, thereby saving time.
However, they also emphasized that if customers want to directly reach human service, they can ignore the smart voice prompts entirely after dialing the customer service hotline and simply say "transfer to human service" once or twice. Upon receiving the customer's request, the system will redirect them to human service. Perhaps the reporter's experience of reaching Agricultural Bank of China's customer service in three steps benefited from this method.
Following the customer service's advice, Red Star News reporters dialed various bank hotlines again and tried directly saying "transfer to human service." Typically, they were connected to human service within about 30 seconds, which was faster than following the voice prompts step by step.
However, Red Star News reporters also noted that some banks still have a certain "broadcast waiting time" when transferring to human service. For example, when dialing the Postal Savings Bank of China's customer service hotline twice and directly saying "human service," after entering the human service queue, the call would prompt, "Due to high demand for human service, to save your waiting time, we recommend using self-service voice prompts or mobile banking... for inquiries." Afterward, the caller would need to select the service type via voice to connect to human service. During this process, the waiting and broadcast time totaled about 50 seconds.