Comments on: Corporate Phone Support Pet Peeves

By: drone

drone — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:30:43 +0000

Corporations are designed to make it impossible for peasants to communicate with them. They are an invincible wall of babble and nonsense designed ONLY to get you to do what they want, and that is GO AWAY.

Modern businesses see customers as gullets which are supposed to eat advertising and crap cash. Anything else is “non-value-added.” That means if a “consumer” (we allowed ourselves to be called that) is doing anything except tossing heavy bags of money over the counter, they should be met with maximum and accelerating contempt up to and including outright hostility.

They are not interested in providing a service, product, or anything else. They want your money. Period. Want proof? See how long it takes to hear a big gleaming smile from an actual human being after pressing “1″ for “sales.”

By: Matthew Lowes

Matthew Lowes — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:31:45 +0000

Nothing irritates me more than spending my time making up for other people’s mistakes, oversights, and incompetence. If a service is down, or an error made, or there’s a problem with a product, the customer shouldn’t have to suffer so much to get it fixed. Aside from healthy venting, this is a business issue. Companies lose customers through poor customer service, and often gain loyal customers through quality customer service. Those customers are often even willing to pay more not to get the run-around every time they try to make contact with an issue.

By: Howard Rauscher

Howard Rauscher — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:24:05 +0000

I hate it when you first call a support line and the automated anwserer gets you to enter in your account number, then once you talk to a person you have to tell them your info again.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:31:22 +0000

Two things annoy me most about support. One, support people who clearly don’t know what they’re talking about yet pretending to have a clue. Two, customers who can’t follow instructions and answer questions.

The solution to the first is to call them out. Politely hint that they may want to ask the opinion of someone more senior. It’s their fault if they’re bullshitting but not their fault if they’ve not been trained. You don’t have to put up with the former but don’t be rude because of the latter.

The solution to the second requires the customer to recognise when the support tech does have a clue. When you see that happening, follow instructions to the letter because the tech will be working from a plan and needs to be able to trust that what is happening on your screen matches what is happening in his head. When you are asked a question, answer it concisely. If he asks “are you receiving mail?” the possible answers are ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘some’. You do not need to tell him the history of all your worldy woes at this stage. If he wants to know something he will ask.

Mike

By: A Tentative Personal Finance Blog

A Tentative Personal Finance Blog — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:09:13 +0000

By far the worse automated system is HPs

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:03:41 +0000

@Michael: regarding Verizon Business vs. Residential. Watch for a post coming soon about this very topic…the difference in treatment between business and so-called residential customers and how we web workers fall into a frustrating hole in the middle. We have Verizon Business DSL at our office, and I have the same connection here at home. The difference in service is staggering and the price difference isn’t steep enough to justify it. Up until recently, it was the same with Dell Home/Dell Business.

By: LapinLove404

LapinLove404 — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:45:22 +0000

Altough I agree with Michael on staying calm and being respectful, You should also want to avoid letting the “poor fellow” in command, or else he will just follow the script and propose with his inane solutions. Question him, do not hesitate to interupt and remind him ta you are a client and that you will eventually leave the company if your problem is not solve in due time.

Take note. There are very few chances to solve your problem in one call or talking with one single person. Note “everything” so that you can remember and recap it all on your next call: name, timing, solutions offered,…

By: Deirdré Straughan

Deirdré Straughan — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:07:46 +0000

Honey, you ain’t seen BAD tech support til you’ve had to deal with Telecom Italia: http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/telecom.html ; )

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:57:10 +0000

Stay calm, and be respectful as you can to the poor fellow on the other end. If they don’t sound too intelligent, try to explain the problem in as simple English as possible.

On a side note:
Verizon Business DSL support line = great, helpful Ameicans answering your calls
Verizon Residential DSL support = India or elsewhere, difficult accents, make you do a gazillion things that aren’t usually necessary