Tips and Reminders

Hi I'm Abby Woreck. I’m the Manager of Interpreting Operations here in Frederick, MD.

Today, I’ll be sharing a tip for working with interpreters. You know what it's like as Deaf people, ready to make a video call. We get connected to an interpreter who dials out and …ugh, we get a recording. All we want to do is talk to a live person, not a machine.

Guess what. It doesn't matter if you're deaf or hearing, everyone wants to talk with a person, not a machine. We all hate phone trees and we all have to deal with them. Phone trees provide you with different options: press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 3, etc. Did you know that each phone tree has different, unique options? Some phone trees have, at the very end, an option for connecting to a live representative. Success!

However, some don't. So you will just have to decide what option to choose. For example, press one for sales, press 2 for purchasing, press 3 for the billing department. So let’s say you pick 2. That could take you to a different phone tree where you might find an option for a live person. Some phone trees never provide a selection for a live representative.

So what CAN you do when you need to talk to someone? Let me offer a couple of suggestions. Wait for the interpreter to go through each of the options. Sometimes if no choice is made it automatically connects to a live person.

Another idea is to press 0 - sometimes you can get connected to a live person. But, again, not always. Some companies don't offer a live person at all. Sometimes when you don't make a choice the phone will disconnect on its own. So, remember it’s YOUR call. You are in control of it all. You have the option to pick zero or you can wait through. It's up to you so you can always make a phone call your way.