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Musings -
HELP: I'm Trapped in a Tree
Among the worst part of doing business with a company is being trapped in their "phone tree". You may recognize it as "press one for..., press three for..." This ridiculousness can cost you a lot of business; it represents customer service at its worst.
Your client may have a simple question that needs a  simple answer, but after pushing several buttons trying to get to the right department they are put on hold; why should they put up with this level of disrespect? Often at this point they will just hang up and look elsewhere for their answer.
It is said that "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." In business this if often by telephone as your potential clients are comparing sources. You certainly don't want to be rejected because you have made a bad first impression, just like they don't want to do business with a company that doesn't consider them valuable enough to answer their call.
Your goal is to secure them as a customer or client and have them do business with you, but they may not if they are faced with a complicated phone tree. Their time is just as important as yours and so are their dollars. There is mutual benefit in connecting and a loss when you don't.
Phone trees were created to save money and reduce staff requirements, but aren't worth the savings if you are disrespecting potential or current customers so they feel they must move on to another vendor. Try calling yourself to review just what your customers are facing with your telephone system, and fix it if it is too cumbersome.
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