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I would bet that everyone reading this column has had this experience: You called a company's customer service line hoping to talk to someone and instead encountered a series of recorded messages and prompts, and never did get any help.

I remember calling an Internet service and finding myself in a corner of its system that I couldn't back out of, so had to hang up and start all over again. Another time I called a company and was put on hold for what seemed an eternity. After more than 15 minutes, I gave up and tried again. And I can't tell you how many times I was asked to "try back another time" or my call was unceremoniously dropped.

Looking back, I probably have had many more "connects" and good service calls than bad, but I can't seem to remember the good ones as readily as I remember the bad ones.

Having been on both sides of this issue, I understand a company's desire to install some kind of automated answering system, or what the industry calls an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. It's the 80/20 rule at work since companies receive a lot of the same inquiries and questions from most customers (i.e., company hours, office locations and directions), and it doesn't make economic sense to pay someone to handle these routine calls.

And from the consumers' perspective, in most cases, an automated system should get them to an answer quicker. Many companies really do pass these lower costs on to consumers in the form of lower prices.

But those few calls that go sideways can be very, very irritating.

In response to what is a growing desire by consumers to speak to a human instead of a tape-recorded message, Paul English, a Boston-based consumer advocate and entrepreneur, created and funds the gethuman project. The project hosts a Web site, www.gethuman.com, that features a comprehensive database of major companies nationwide and the secret codes to bypass their automated systems and get a real-live human being.

For example, when calling the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, its database instructs you to "ignore any messages and instead press 450 at each prompt."

As Lorna Ranking, a director at gethuman, wrote in response to an e-mail inquiry I made, "The gethuman project is a consumer movement to improve the quality of phone support in the U.S. This free Web site is run by volunteers and is powered by over 1 million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use. Our site provides a unique opportunity for consumers to share experiences and information with each other."

So how can a company avoid these problems and win the hearts of their consumers? The gethuman project surveyed 4,500 consumers in September 2006 to assess what they wanted in terms of better customer service, and here were their top 10 responses:

1. Don't make it difficult to connect to a human.

2. Don't disconnect on errors - connect to a human.

3. Provide humans who I can understand and who don't have heavy accents.

4. Don't waste my time and confuse me with verbose prompts.

5. Do not advertise to me.

6. If I have to wait in a queue for a human, tell me what the wait time will be.

7. If I provide information to the IVR, don't ask me to repeat it to the human.

8. Don't attempt to entertain me with a persona.

9. Ask me occasionally what I think of your service.

10. Provide the option to call me back.

Interestingly, I checked their database to see if any local companies made the list, and I couldn't find one. I even took my own impromptu survey and called the major New Mexico-based companies and organizations I do contact on occasion (i.e., the city of Albuquerque, Lovelace, PNM), and all had very user-friendly services.

Most impressive was the city's Citizen Contact Center at 311, which is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. When I called, "Juan" answered my call before the phone even rang and politely asked if he could be of any assistance. Now that's what I call service!

Congratulations, New Mexico, you passed my test for excellent customer service.

Sacco is vice president of marketing at Kirtland Federal Credit Union and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico Anderson Schools of Management and Webster University.