Research has suggested that people aren't upset with automated phone systems per se -- they've actually become quite comfortable with the concept.  Automated systems are available when callers need them, easy to use for basic questions, and a solution that they can handle on their own.  What really ticks them off is when these systems act as a gatekeeper preventing them from getting to a human when they don't have a basic question and really do need to talk to someone.

From the moment a caller enters the queue, a contact center is in a battle to answer the question, "Okay, what's THIS guy's problem?" Having a human answer every call is just not feasible for companies facing large call volumes (read: millions of calls/year), unless they want to guarantee angry callers stuck on your-call-is-important-to-us hold music for half an hour.  And that's when these companies turn to (shudder!) technology to try and solve the problem. 

Here's a fun little note about angry callers that was brought to my attention yesterday.  The post is about yet another technology to try and decipher the mood of a caller, ranking the caller's happiness on a scale of 1-10.  "How do it know?" is the first question I have, but never mind that... who cares?  Unless you know what to do with the data, it's just another form of chart-based encryption -- numbers that look interesting but aren't helping you solve the problem.  And in case you didn't think it was a problem... just look at all the interesting comments from angry consumers complaining about how bad call automation can be.  The prevailing reaction is, "Now I have to be angry to get what I need?"  Even this other short article about similar technology jokes that anyone calling a contact center is already mad, because they've got a problem that they couldn't solve on their own. 

Automation should be a guide, not a gatekeeper.  If a call center is letting people through the gate based on who's the angriest (or if they detected curse words, or the person learned to otherwise game the system), then that call center is simply reinforcing the wrong behavior in its callers, and giving negative reinforcement to those who try to play by the rules.  And as any parent can tell you, discipline requires consistent, positive reinforcement to get the behavior you want.