A poorly worded help screen

I discovered this afternoon, by accident, that my fax machine was preventing my voicemail system from being activated. An incoming call would cause the fax machine to answer prior to the voicemail. One way to solve the problem would have been to change the "ring count" on voicemail, so that it would answer on say the second ring rather than the fourth.

So, I called my voicemail number and listened for an option to change the ring count. I listened and listened but heard no options for it. So, I went to the "customer care" screen on the web site for Cavalier, my telephone provider. http://www.cavtel.com/help/ In the middle of the screen, under the title "Look Up Voice Mail Guide" is a field that asks for "telephone number." I entered my own telephone number, and the web page responded "No Guide Found for this Number." I tried two or three more times, and got the same result each time. By this point, I was getting annoyed and frustrated.

Then I stopped and said to myself, "Maybe that's not the number they're looking for." I thought some more and then said to myself, "Aha, maybe they want me to enter the number that I call when I want to use voicemail." I entered that number and voila, I was able to access the voicemail guide.

Even after I did so, I still didn't see a way to change the ring count, but that's another issue.

The point to remember here is the ambiguity in the screen. A field label that reads simply "Telephone number" is bound to be misinterpreted. Take the time to label things clearly. In this case, a better label might be "Telephone number you call to access voicemail."

Taking a little time here can save your customers large amounts of time as a result.