“Missed Direct Calls”

Devolution toward Simpler

I saw this in a telephone call-routing presentation.

Problem:
This is an error on top of an error, and this phrase is not what the presenter intended to say.

Explanation:
The presentation in which I saw this phrase was about interactive voice-response (IVR) systems.

The presenter was talking about misdirected calls.

It has become a bad habit among IVR folks to refer to misdirected calls — calls that are directed to the inappropriate customer service representative — as “misdirect calls”.

I believe that this growing trend to use “misdirect calls” — with “misdirect” inappropriately used as an adjective — as the substitute for “misdirected calls” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis.

It’s simpler to say “misdirect” (three syllables) than to say “misdirected” (four syllables, with extra care required to say the “ed” ending).

Unfortunately, whoever created the presentation heard “misdirect calls” as “missed direct calls”, so we got an error on top of an error. Whew!

Solution:
“Misdirected Calls”