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PC Call Centers Garner Lowest Satisfaction Score
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jun 14, 2007 04:13 PM
from the ouch-worse-than-cable-service-that's-harsh dept.
from the ouch-worse-than-cable-service-that's-harsh dept.
Lucas123 writes "The University of Michigan took its first American Customer Satisfaction survey and found that of six industries measured for the Customers' Call Center Satisfaction Index, the PC industry received the lowest score, according to a Computerworld story. 'According to the survey, nearly 73% of the people who have bad experiences with their PC companies' call centers said they will consider purchasing their next PCs from another company, while 85% of customers who had their problems resolved by calling a PC call center said they would continue doing business with the company. Other calls centers included in the survey included banking, cell phone service, cable and satellite television, and insurance.'"
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Profit! (Score:5, Funny)
1. Start computer company
2. Have good tech support
3. Profit!!!
Wait, somethings not right
Re:Profit! (Score:5, Insightful)
1)want to make more money
2) cut back on call center
3) profit!....this quarter.
Parent
Re:Profit! (Score:5, Insightful)
Retail customers aren't willing to pay for quality tech support. [Corporates are though.]
Even if they were able to pay them more (which they aren't), you aren't going to get good people who know what they are doing to sit on a phone all day every day dealing with angry/frustrated customers. No one ever calls tech support to tell them how happy they are with their purchase. I was a tech for a year, and it was horrible. You only get angry/upset people talking to you, and most of the problems can be resolved by following a script.
Add to this the PHBs who measure your performance based on average call times (not in actually resolving issues) and you get yourself micro-managed into mediocrity. Good people don't like being told to do a shitty job, and they will leave.
If you've got the skills to be a good tech, you can make more money doing a job that is more satisfying somewhere else.
Parent
No, the problem is... (Score:4, Insightful)
When was the last time you installed more memory on your cable box, or upgraded the operating system? Cell phones are getting more complex, but by and large they are self contained systems that don't get modified much either. I'm sure that customer satisfaction will decline, the more phones become like PC's.
It's just the nature of the beast.
Parent
Re:Profit! (Score:4, Informative)
- MOST problems cannot be solved by following a script
- Also, company knowledge bases (for the tech's) are usually outdated, inaccurate and poorly designed
- People ARE willing to pay for tech support
- When I did support for M$, customers of brand name computers with OEM operating systems would call in and ask for support because they couldn't get their problems solved through the OEM call centres (M$ customer service will just charge them of course)
- Customers are rarely angry unless you feed them with bullshit, keep transferring them, constantly put them on hold, etc. If you do like me and actually treat a customer like a decent human being instead of getting them off the phone as soon as possible, then you will probably not get promoted, but you will have a feeling of personal satisfaction that you actually bothered to help the customer solve their problem
Facts:
- most call centres have time limits for tech calls, which means techs are pressured to get people off the phone as soon as possible instead of giving them any type of quality support
- training is often limited to 2 to 3 weeks for a specific product, with much of the training time dedicated to human resources type training, i.e. how to talk to the customer to make them feel like you are helping them, instead of actually giving the techs the technical knowledge to actually solve their problems
- techs often make things up. Yes I've experienced this as a customer and have seen other techs do this. If people don't know the answer, they will just make-up there own answer just so they don't have to deal with the problem (having the customer do something that takes a long time can help to get the customer of the phone, like doing a chkdsk)
- With one company that I was with (that I quit in disgust), a customer told me that he noticed what seemed to be a manufacturers defect in the specific brand of computer. I went to my supervisor and he said this is not true. I asked my supervisor how he knew this since I never even told him the model number. He said "good point, I'll check", about 30 seconds later he said he checked and said there was no default with the product.
- Turnover rate is high in this business. So keeping experienced techs isn't so much an issue as keeping within the short term quarterly profit margin targets
Believe me I could write a whole book about my experiences, but I think you get my point. The only thing that seems to be saving any one company from bankruptcy through customer abandonment is that all companies seem to be colluding with the lie (or exaggeration at least) that they are providing technical support.
Let's face it, if a customer had a choice of saving their computer data or just getting their computer to work properly, they will pay. Often companies with out-of-warranty customers charge $2.00 per minute, often for the same poor technical support. It is a rip-off and a cash grab for the companies involved.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that good tech support is costly. In order to provide it, you need to pass the cost onto the customer. Customers will compare your computer to a Dell and purchase the Dell for its mildly lower cost.
FWIW, I've always thought it would be neat to find ways of improving computer packages up front rather than relying on tech support calls. For example, POD (Print On Demand) is getting advanced enough to where you could literally print a custom manual for each computer that
Re:Profit! (Score:4, Insightful)
If it was actually relevant to their computer and covered the basics, they would know it was a reference. Sadly, good documentation (and I mean good, not just "listing everything") is usually one of the first things cut, despite the amount of money it can potentially save.
Parent
When I call and hear a thick foreign accent (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:When I call and hear a thick foreign accent (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:When I call and hear a thick foreign accent (Score:5, Interesting)
Damn skippy. I am horrible at math (dyslexia related to numbers or something, they just run away from me, I have a hard time adding two three-digit numbers together even when you don't have to carry) and when I took pre-algebra in college, I had some kind of asian guy (sorry, I'm a typical dumb american in this regard [alllooksame.com]) as an instructor and his accent was more or less impenetrable. I had no idea what the hell I was doing and certainly couldn't learn anything from him. I ended up dropping out and to this day I still have never passed a single class in algebra (although I do utilize it in a limited fashion occasionally. I mean even to use ohm's law you need that, unless you want to draw a triangle every time you want to do that.)
When you're talking about something you know well, it's easier to hear through someone's accent because you're more used to the words and concepts being expressed. When you are trying to learn something you don't know jack about, it becomes substantially harder. Most people don't know shit about computers and most tech support employees are no exception, so it's no wonder that many of us have a spectacularly hard time understanding the Indian tech on the other end of the shit phone connection.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
win
Re:When I call and hear a thick foreign accent (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Exactly! (Score:2, Insightful)
Exactly! You know, folks got so pissed at me when I did customer support in China. They couldn't understand a word I said - even though I speak perfect English! Go figure! I was hired as a support person by management. But nooooooooo, the Chinese are so racist they refuse to learn and take the time to understand me! After all, they're the customer and they should adjust to me because they are giving me!
Isn't that the attitude with a lot
Your call is important to us (Score:5, Funny)
Complexity (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course there's the other obvious problems of poor call center training, etc. But that just compounds the issue.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Rude reps. (Score:2, Insightful)
I was once on a service call with a company's service rep and he was giving me instructions rather quickly and with a thick accent. When I asked him to repeat what he said, sometimes more than once, he became very irate and somewhat rude.
I had to call in because because of their lame website wouldn't activate their damned product. I no longer do business with them nor will I ever.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, lets look at this a bit closer (Score:3, Insightful)
Desktop computers and their attendant problems just might be more complex than:
- What's my bank balance?
- What are all of these calls to Bangladore doing on my cell phone bill and where is the damn ON button?
- What channel is Bugs Bunny on?
- Where's the lizard?
Not like Dell tech support is on my friends list (until you get to the server folks, they've seemed decent), but we're talking about a complex system in the hands of well, just about anybody.
Three types of support people (Score:2)
1. The guy who is clueless and couldn't care less about his job,
2. The guy who thinks he knows everything but doesn't really have a clue, and
3. The guy who really knows a fair amount and cares about the customer.
#1 will be working at McDonald's next week and knows it. #2 will also be working at McDonald's next week, but doesn't see it coming. In the intervening days, he'll be posting comments on Slashdot about how everyt
Re:Three types of support people (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Will the fairies on his planet help him? Your idea of reaping the rewards gives us all the warm fuzzies, but such ideals sadly belong to the generation before us.
Seriously, part of the problem is it is no longer seen as cost effective to hold onto good employees. Take the UK, sometimes people can wheedle(sp?) an extra couple of grand from their employer every year or 3, but, a 10 grand pay rise doesn't
Re: (Score:2)
Will the fairies on his planet help him? Your idea of reaping the rewards gives us all the warm fuzzies, but such ideals sadly belong to the generation before us.
If you had read the summary, it said "... 85% of customers who had their problems resolved by calling a PC call center said they would continue doing business with the company." I agree that many managers may not realize that these numbers exist, but your comment about ideals belonging to the generation before us is clearly untrue.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This has been true in tech in the USA at least as long as I've been in it (some twelve years now or so.) Getting a raise is like pulling teeth unless you are a) a big ass-kisser and b) very lucky. Not or, but and. Bu
You Sir, Are Misinformed. (Score:5, Insightful)
Read the following carefully.
-No caring.
-Know nothing. They provide scripts. Don't _ever_ deviate from the scripts.
If you are with me so far, read on carefully.
Call center productivity is *NEVER* measured by customer satisfaction. It is measured as calls per unit of time. Period.
Take a moment to comprehend the implications of the previous statement before moving on.
If you meet/exceed the calls per hour (or whatever) then another component of your productivity is the number of parts shipped. More parts bad, less parts gets you an atta-boy from your manager and maybe even a shiny nickel.
Finally, a call center is most profitable when there is a queue. Fewer support people processing more calls per hour = profit & productivity.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I worked phone support for a financial firm (via a contracted company) one summer as temp work. They would get mad at me if I was too quick in helping customers because the call had to be a minimum time length for them to bill the firm. So I had to purposefully slow down and delay the customer.
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Perhaps It's the Users (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But your point stands for other, less-distinctive types of hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
No Surprise (Score:2)
Compound the low pay with the high technical expectations and you get a recipe for a disaster. Doing it over the phone makes it even worse.
In summary, PCs are complex, the customers are for the most part not very good with it to start with, problems can be very complex, interface is so rich that it is difficult to describe over the phone and tech level needs to be high to diagnose
Partly depends on customer's abilities (Score:4, Funny)
Could the people be at fault? (Score:2)
nearly 73% of the people who have bad experiences
Possiby those people may not be very good with computers & would have had problems with any helpdesk.
Too many companies treat call centers as cost centers rather than seeing them as an opportunity to solidify the customer relationship, resulting in increased loyalty and retention
Also how many computer users need to ring heldesks ? Might not more bad, cranky & mad users ring the desks ? I'm not convinced that helpdesk callers are repesentative of users.
Sale Call Center Work (Score:2)
Now I work for a large software company and probably make 2 or 3 times his s
Completely unfair comparison! (Score:3, Insightful)
Both myself and the bank, cable company, insurance firm can get their hands on my account and/or their hardware (f'nar f'nar) and fix things if broken.
Many times I've tried to help people with their computers over the phone but when the problem is "I hit the power button and nothing happens" there's precious little I can do (other than get them to check connections) unless I can actually get there with a screwdriver.
Much as I hate computer as car analogues I wouldn't phone BMW and ask them to help me fix my Mini's engine over the phone! It just wouldn't work especially as I, like the poor broken computer users, I am no mechanic.
Ah well. My Mum bought a (pretty crap) PC a few years back but she deliberately bought it from a shop about 5 miles away. If it blows up instead of having to post the thing back or arrange pick up a bloke comes out with a screwdriver set and some spares. She paid more for that service but it was invaluable when lightning fried the modem.
PEBCAK (Score:2)
Dunder-Mifflin Ranked High (Score:2)
Of course this is just fiction and Dunder-Mifflin is quite the screwed up company (why we love it so much) but they have one thing right - human contact on the phones.
Re: (Score:2)
Expectations out of whack (Score:3, Insightful)
significance? (Score:2)
customers are partly to blame (Score:2)
Too many potential problems (Score:3, Insightful)
Before the Internet you wouldn't have so many different patch levels.
PC Tech support is hard, no mistake.
reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, the people running the call centers don't realize this. They give their employees the same sort of flow charts that are given in "non-specialized" fields.
There are people out there with the skills required to to these jobs very very well. Some companies, like intermec (mobile computer manufacturer), zebra (industrial printer manufacturer), or CLI (provider of dumb terminals for As/400 systems) hire very very good people. I have even gotten the same person on multiple calls who recognized me "Hey RYAN! did you get that battery charger replacement i sent you?"
Unfortunately, it hurts the bottom line to pay skilled labor, so the end user ends up suffering.
I was unsatisfied too (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
yea by phone.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Having done some tech support over the phone a decade ago, I know that some things can actually be done over the phone. ISP support for one isnt too bad if you have a decent technician. The problem is that they dont pay the price for a technician, so they force a script down the throats of the support personel, and caos ensues.
Your best bet is to call tech support BEFORE YOU BUY... call the line, wait a few minutes on hold, if they dont pick up with a real person in a tim
Re: (Score:2)