American Airlines’ IVR System is Remarkably Easy to Use

I’m one of those people for whom Paul English created his interactive voice recognition (IVR) cheat sheet. I usually start to scream at an IVR phone system within about 20 seconds of beginning to use it. My fiancé is quite accustomed to walking into rooms only to find me screaming “OPERATOR! O-PER-A-TOR!” into the phone at high volume. So when I tell you that American Airline’s IVR robot is the easiest and friendliest little machine I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk to - I really mean it.

I called their 1-800 number, expecting to speak to a real person once I asked to reconfirm my reservation. But instead, I got the computer. Exasperated, I started to talk to it. I figured that as soon as it screwed up, it would connect me to a live human being. But it didn’t screw up. It just kept on doing its little robot thing, answering my questions and quickly reserving my seats without once asking me to repeat myself. When I hung up the phone, I felt as though I’d actually had a conversation with a real person.

Maybe IVR isn’t so bad after all.