Monday, July 20, 2009
Automated Phone Systems for Cusotmer Service SUCK
You know the drill. You dial a number (bank, credit card company, doctors office) and the first thing you hear is the voice of the robot announcing "to listen to your options press 1". Companies and organizations, both large and small, want to route less and less calls to their customer service departments. They deliberately set up the phone systems to keep each caller, the customer, in a 15 minute loop of number pressing until you are able to speak to a human being.
They usually ask you to key in your account number, so have it ready, and even though you followed the directions and keyed it in, when/if you actually speak to a customer service rep the customer service rep will ask for it again? So why bother asking you for it before you reach a customer service rep? Why waste everyone's time?
Because they don't want you to wait. They want you to hang up and go away. They figure if you are away from home making this call you wont have your account number and hang up. Many times you cannot proceed with your call without the account number. They want to waste your time so it looks like it didn't take them a long time to get to you. It was YOUR fault.
No one likes these automated systems. Half, actually more than half, of the times you call, the issue you are calling about doesn't have a prompt so you don't know which button to push anyway! Then if you go to the wrong department and they have to transfer you, you will most likely get "magically" disconnected and you can start this whole annoying, time-wasting, getting-ready-to-load-your-gun-and-go-postal process all OVER AGAIN.
THIS IS CUSTOMER SERVICE? What customer appreciates this? Doesn't everyone, the second they call and discover this automated "barrier" between themselves and a human being, want to take the phone and throw it in a lake? Exactly. That is their point. They want you to hang up.
Don't get me started on the "press or say ___" bullshit either, because you either must repeat yourself 14 ZILLION times before the automated system understands you, or you have to scream so loud that you would drown out Ty Pennington and his megaphone. Hell, you would have to scream louder than an AC/DC concert. I cannot believe how LOUD I have had to scream to get them to understand me, and I am in a house with little or no background noise. Many people have to call from work, or when they are out running errands, places where screaming your account number is not a really great idea. With identity theft being a rising crime, it is also a stupid option. Pretty soon every f'n company will have one of these customer service/tech support automated systems, and we will all be at their mercy.
Do these systems make YOU feel like you are getting customer support or customer pissed off? Tech support or tech infuriated? The words "service" and "support" should in no way be used to describe these bullshit systems. Can they get any worse?
They usually ask you to key in your account number, so have it ready, and even though you followed the directions and keyed it in, when/if you actually speak to a customer service rep the customer service rep will ask for it again? So why bother asking you for it before you reach a customer service rep? Why waste everyone's time?
Because they don't want you to wait. They want you to hang up and go away. They figure if you are away from home making this call you wont have your account number and hang up. Many times you cannot proceed with your call without the account number. They want to waste your time so it looks like it didn't take them a long time to get to you. It was YOUR fault.
No one likes these automated systems. Half, actually more than half, of the times you call, the issue you are calling about doesn't have a prompt so you don't know which button to push anyway! Then if you go to the wrong department and they have to transfer you, you will most likely get "magically" disconnected and you can start this whole annoying, time-wasting, getting-ready-to-load-your-gun-and-go-postal process all OVER AGAIN.
THIS IS CUSTOMER SERVICE? What customer appreciates this? Doesn't everyone, the second they call and discover this automated "barrier" between themselves and a human being, want to take the phone and throw it in a lake? Exactly. That is their point. They want you to hang up.
Don't get me started on the "press or say ___" bullshit either, because you either must repeat yourself 14 ZILLION times before the automated system understands you, or you have to scream so loud that you would drown out Ty Pennington and his megaphone. Hell, you would have to scream louder than an AC/DC concert. I cannot believe how LOUD I have had to scream to get them to understand me, and I am in a house with little or no background noise. Many people have to call from work, or when they are out running errands, places where screaming your account number is not a really great idea. With identity theft being a rising crime, it is also a stupid option. Pretty soon every f'n company will have one of these customer service/tech support automated systems, and we will all be at their mercy.
Do these systems make YOU feel like you are getting customer support or customer pissed off? Tech support or tech infuriated? The words "service" and "support" should in no way be used to describe these bullshit systems. Can they get any worse?
Labels: automated systems, customer service, customer service phone calls, poor customer service, telephone loops
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Customer Service ~ Consumer Behavior
Customer service - Remember when it really existed? Remember when a business actually CARED if you were satisfied and wanted you to do business with them again? Those days seem to be a thing of the past.
If I do find excellence in customer service I make sure to give them as much of my business as I can. I would rather pay a little more than deal with a company that doesn't give a shit about service. We should all hold companies to a higher standard in their treatment of us. WE are the ones with the power.
They want to treat us like we don't matter? Well, if we no longer shop there they will cease to exist. So spend your money where you feel like you actually DO count. Refer the good companies to your friends, and share your horror stories as well. We need to show big business that they need to "court" the consumer, and not with just price, but with service.
How many times have you gone to a store and there were 10 or more people wanting to check out, but only ONE register was open AND there were employees that COULD open their registers but chose not to? And what about the managers? Why aren't they paying attention to the customer's needs? As consumers we don't care if they need a break but as managers you should schedule their breaks during non-peak times and definitely not all at the SAME time.
Take customer complaints a bit more seriously. Don't hire people to work with the public that have a shitty ATTITUDE towards the public! Trust me, I know that the general public can be a handful and change your opinion of your fellow man, but that doesn't give an employee the right to take it out on all of us! I don't care if you don't want to let someone go because you need them to cover a shift, let them go and find someone that actually wants to be there.
Now on to customer behavior. Just because someone is waiting on you does not mean you are superior to them, nor does it allow you to treat them like a peon or rudely. If you are angry with a store policy it is the STORES POLICY, and the employee is helpless to do very much for you. Sure, if they add insult to injury by treating you rudely, then complain. But always think real hard before you do. Did what this person do to you justify them possibly losing their job? For that, they should have to fuck up ROYALLY. Did they? Or were you being someone that it was impossible for them to make happy? Complaining CAN get someone fired, unable to feed or house their children, put them on the streets. Think about that before you decide to fuck with their job.
If it is the companies fault, STOP SHOPPING THERE - IMMEDIATELY!!!! But don't cause an innocent person to lose their only source of income. And another thing, its easy to complain, but why is it so hard to compliment? How many of you will rush to make a complaint yet are a lazy ass when it comes to bringing to the companies attention that they have a GOOD employee? You want to be treated well when you shop? Then make SURE the company knows who their good employees ARE. Otherwise don't bitch about a lack of customer service.
I always make sure I inform a store manager or the company itself when I have a wonderful experience with their help. I have also seen really patient clerks, who if I were in their shoes, would have hauled off expletives at the asshole consumer and refused to wait on them, yet these people never lost their cool and were professional and courteous. When it was MY turn at the register I gave the clerks my number and told them that if they hear from corporate or their boss regarding that asshole to tell them to call ME and I will vouch that the customer was a douche and that they handled it wonderfully. I have done this many many times. In closing, customer service is important, but so is customer behavior as well.
GOO!
If I do find excellence in customer service I make sure to give them as much of my business as I can. I would rather pay a little more than deal with a company that doesn't give a shit about service. We should all hold companies to a higher standard in their treatment of us. WE are the ones with the power.
They want to treat us like we don't matter? Well, if we no longer shop there they will cease to exist. So spend your money where you feel like you actually DO count. Refer the good companies to your friends, and share your horror stories as well. We need to show big business that they need to "court" the consumer, and not with just price, but with service.
How many times have you gone to a store and there were 10 or more people wanting to check out, but only ONE register was open AND there were employees that COULD open their registers but chose not to? And what about the managers? Why aren't they paying attention to the customer's needs? As consumers we don't care if they need a break but as managers you should schedule their breaks during non-peak times and definitely not all at the SAME time.
Take customer complaints a bit more seriously. Don't hire people to work with the public that have a shitty ATTITUDE towards the public! Trust me, I know that the general public can be a handful and change your opinion of your fellow man, but that doesn't give an employee the right to take it out on all of us! I don't care if you don't want to let someone go because you need them to cover a shift, let them go and find someone that actually wants to be there.
Now on to customer behavior. Just because someone is waiting on you does not mean you are superior to them, nor does it allow you to treat them like a peon or rudely. If you are angry with a store policy it is the STORES POLICY, and the employee is helpless to do very much for you. Sure, if they add insult to injury by treating you rudely, then complain. But always think real hard before you do. Did what this person do to you justify them possibly losing their job? For that, they should have to fuck up ROYALLY. Did they? Or were you being someone that it was impossible for them to make happy? Complaining CAN get someone fired, unable to feed or house their children, put them on the streets. Think about that before you decide to fuck with their job.
If it is the companies fault, STOP SHOPPING THERE - IMMEDIATELY!!!! But don't cause an innocent person to lose their only source of income. And another thing, its easy to complain, but why is it so hard to compliment? How many of you will rush to make a complaint yet are a lazy ass when it comes to bringing to the companies attention that they have a GOOD employee? You want to be treated well when you shop? Then make SURE the company knows who their good employees ARE. Otherwise don't bitch about a lack of customer service.
I always make sure I inform a store manager or the company itself when I have a wonderful experience with their help. I have also seen really patient clerks, who if I were in their shoes, would have hauled off expletives at the asshole consumer and refused to wait on them, yet these people never lost their cool and were professional and courteous. When it was MY turn at the register I gave the clerks my number and told them that if they hear from corporate or their boss regarding that asshole to tell them to call ME and I will vouch that the customer was a douche and that they handled it wonderfully. I have done this many many times. In closing, customer service is important, but so is customer behavior as well.
GOO!
Labels: consumer behavior, customer service, rudeness, what happened to customer service
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