this thread reminded me that when I was working at microsoft, I was in a business unit that had previously been a startup; the acquisition closed a few months before I started working there. I worked on voice recognition software for cell phones, but the bigger part of the company worked on "interactive voice response", which is the industry term for voice-activated phone trees.
unfortunately if there's a secret backdoor to these things I never learned it1, but what I did learn is that all of our products -- our IVRs included -- had an earcon2 when you first launched them for branding purposes3, and if you get a normal level of furious when you call whatever megacorp and hit a phone tree, you get at least 50% more furious when you call in, hear a two-note jingle you hear at work all day, and know that someone you've met irl is responsible for designing and implementing the circle of hell you currently find yourself in
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the deals for most of these things -- at least at the time -- had a service level agreement about how many calls were handled purely by the automated system. don't hit your targets? the company buying IVR service from you gets a discount. so putting in a backdoor is an easy way to not make money.
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the audio equivalent of an icon. get it? eyecon?
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branding was important, I think, so that in meetings with some corporate executive, we could play the earcon and suddenly they would flash back to the last time they called their bank or whatever, be overcome with awe, and whip out the corporate checkbook