Retired IT manager Nigel Clarke, from Kent in the UK, has launched a website listing the call centre menu sequences for accessing thousands of services. He started the project after growing frustrated about the number of options and amount of recorded information on call centre menus. Mr Clarke discovered that some automated menus have nearly 80 options. It can take over four minutes to get to the service required if the caller listens to each stage in full, he said. As an example, speaking to an adviser at HM Revenue and Customs only required pressing four buttons but it could take six minutes to get through each menu level, Mr Clarke said.

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HMRC said it was working on improvements to the service. "HMRC is looking at ways to improve its interactive voice responses and is getting ready for the introduction of new speech recognition technology," said a spokesman. "This technology will react to what the caller says instead of asking them to select an option by pushing a button on their phone. HMRC plan to introduce these improvements later this year."....Read more here