Rubbish CX Horror Story

I just spent 47 minutes on hold with my telecom provider.

In 2026.

Here's what happened:

Minute 1-5: Automated system asks me to say what I need. I say "technical support." It doesn't understand. I try again. "Technical support." Still nothing. I press 0. It says "I didn't understand that."

Minute 6-12: Finally get the menu. Press 3 for technical support. It asks for my account number. I enter it. It asks for my postcode. I enter it. It asks for my phone number. I enter it. It says "I couldn't verify your information." I've been a customer for 8 years.

Minute 13-20: Start over. This time it works. On hold. The music stops every 30 seconds with "Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold." If my call was important, someone would answer it.

Minute 21-35: Still holding. I've now heard the same 45-second music loop 20 times. I contemplate my life choices. I wonder if I should just live without internet. Decide that's not realistic. Keep holding.

Minute 36-42: A human! Finally! I explain my issue: internet keeps dropping every 2 hours. They say "Let me transfer you to our technical team." I explain I've been holding for 40 minutes already. They say "Don't worry, it'll just be a moment."

I get transferred.

The call drops.

Minute 43-47: Call back. Start over. Same automated system. Same account verification. Same hold music. Finally get through to someone different. Explain everything again. They schedule an engineer visit. For next Thursday. Between 8am and 6pm.

That's a 10-hour window.

This is why we built CloudInteract.

Not because contact centres lack technology. They don't. Most have plenty of it.

But because most contact centre experiences are built for the business, not the person calling.

Think about what I just went through:

• Asked me to verify my identity 3 times in one call
• Couldn't remember my issue between transfers
• No option to schedule a callback (so I didn't waste 47 minutes)
• No proactive notification about the outage (they knew—hundreds of customers were calling)
• Engineer visit window that assumes I have nothing better to do

Every single one of these issues is solvable with today's technology.

Every. Single. One.

But here's the thing: It's not just about adding AI or automation. It's about designing the experience from the customer's perspective, not the org chart's.

At CloudInteract, we call this vertical CX. Because a telecom customer dealing with an internet outage has completely different needs than:

• A patient calling about test results
• A citizen trying to access benefits
• A subscriber managing their service

Different stakes. Different urgency. Different expectations.

Generic contact centre solutions treat all these the same. They don't understand context. They don't understand that being on hold for 47 minutes about an internet outage is fundamentally different than waiting for a retail refund.

So we build vertical-specific solutions on AWS that actually understand the industry, the person, and the problem.

Not just better technology. Better experiences.

Because in 2026, no one should spend 47 minutes on hold only to have the call drop.

What's your worst recent contact centre experience? I know I'm not alone in this.