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103 Seconds You’ll Never Get Back

I just called Nationwide‘s insurance number (0800 145 6060). My call was answered straight away and had my question about a quote knowledgably and helpfully resolved. The call lasted 5 minutes and 20 seconds. However, the first 1 minute and 43 seconds was taken up with up-front recorded messages.
That’s one third of the whole call, during which time I wasn’t having my query resolved, experiencing the good service I went on to receive and not able to interact at all – unless I pressed 1 to say that I didn’t want Nationwide to ask me how the call went afterwards.
In fairness to Nationwide (or more likely RSA which is their insurance partner), the messages about data protection, Nationwide’s commercial deal with the underwriter, credit checks, etc, weren’t awful examples of legalese – I’ve heard far worse – and no doubt there are good compliance reasons for having them all.
But then again, I only started half paying attention to the messages half-way through because a) it’s my line of work, b) I thought I could blog about it.
Really, there must be a better way!

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