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Customers Treated as Culprits in Support Calls?
ApolloX asks: "I've worked in the software industry for a number of years and I understand how volatile large computer and database systems can be. Most of the time, I'm only called in when something breaks. I know first hand that issues such as a lack of concurrency control, or just a bad database optimization, can lead to corrupted or even lost data. What I don't know is, why most customer support representatives, in the event there is a data error, will treat the customer as if they are liars or are trying to scam them. I can recall many similar support calls to other companies over the years in which the phrase 'our computer system is never wrong' was repeatedly used as justification for an issue the representative knew little about. Since when did computers become so infallible such that the customer is always wrong? Why does it take multiple escalations of support calls before anyone starts believing that maybe the computer made a mistake?"
"On a recent call to a company, let's call it Givo, my account number was accidentally wiped from the system. Throughout the process, I spoke with half a dozen representatives who claimed I had never had their service before and at each step I was 'guilty until proven innocent'. What's worse was that at some moments, even when presented with evidence of my case history in their system, representatives would disregard it because the system told them my account did not exist and had never existed."
Have you ever had to work as a CSR? Have you ever had to take multiple calls per hour assisting users with various computing tasks? Have you ever had to spend hours out in the field diagnosing a problem with someone's machine, only to have them point out (once you finally find the problem) that they "tried doing this or that" with the computer? I spent 8 years as a CSR at a small ISP. We had a saying around the office. "The customer is always right, and the source of 95% of the problems." While the court system may describe someone as innocent until proven guilty, it's futile to apply that to a real-world application. No matter how an application "should" work (it bears noting that "should" is a curse word in the industry), there will always be a user that finds a way to royally screw something up and then blame it on the software (or hardware) not doing what the user thinks it "should" do. Remember the old adage, "make something idiot proof and God will make a better idiot".
Because so many customers who call up are wrong?
:) ). And another group who are clueless.
;).
That's why many companies separate the customers into groups. One group who are usually right (or pay extra to be treated that way
Even companies like Dell have an Engineer-to-Engineer support, and at that level if a customer says the CDROM drive is broken it's not because it was used as a cup-holder
Now if companies could semi-automatically sort long-term customers into separate groups that'll be good.
It'll be good for me and _them_ when I tell them that they've screwed up their routing config, and no I do not need to reboot my ADSL modem - they don't go uh "that's not in the script" and keep asking me to do pointless stuff.
People will have something break, try to fix it themselves, then call for help, then lie about what they did.
People will do really stupid things then lie about it.
People will do things that obviously void their warranty and then lie about it.
"It was broken before I opened it, so why won't you fix it under the warranty?"
"My baby likes to play with my cell phone, so I let her play with it. It stopped working after she put it in her mouth. You mean that isn't covered under the warranty?!? My husband is a doctor and we are going to sue you!"
"You mean the salesman lied to me? I am going to sue your company. What do you mean I can't sue your company, he was your salesman! What to you mean he doesn't work for your company, he sold me your product!"
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Yeah but they hold this line to stupid levels, I work in Woolworths and we are told to use our best judgement we are taught different ways to spot a someone trying to take the company for a ride, even when you miss it the boss will point it out and you learn from that. I've come across two organisations and three banks which held the view that the computer must be right and will give a few examples :
I signed up to Orange when I was 17, which was to young to own a credit card so my dad was the credit card guarantee while I was the account holder and the person whose account the money was being taken from. As time went on HSBC gave me a credit card and so I became the credit card guaranter. But strangely every billing statement went to my dad, after six months I couldn't talk to technical support without giving my Dads name and password, so six times over four years we had it switched over to my name I have three letters confirming that the number xxxx is in my name. I'd ring support or the leaving line and be told I need to be my Dad to access the account details. I could go into an Orange shop show the manager every scrap of paper Orange had sent me (and those bits they decided to send my Dad.) She would try and argue for me to access my account and no luck. We would then get it changed into my name, within hours I couldn't access the account again. Four years of this, when I left Orange the "we are sorry your leaving letter" was sent to me, fifth letter in four years from orange which wasn't addressed to my Dad. Would they ever agree that having the original contract letter from The Link showing the account was made in my name? The fact that the linked bank accounts were to do with me, the letters from them agreeing the account had been placed in my name meant nothing against that all powerful computer.
1and1 I hate these people, they charged me illegally for £650 worth of bandwidth heck I requested the phone reps and recorded half of my conversations with the telephone reps, then played them to a solicitor and showed her what little paperwork the company had given me. She agreed I was in the right but to win the case I'd need to front £800, I didn't have £650! But because the computer at 1and1 said so it was right, there was no chance of me being in the right it was only a threat of legal action to their CFO which got the bill reduced to a level I could afford.
What about city bank a friend was in tears recently explaining how a credit card company had charged them £25 on an account that didn't exist for a card which no longer existed. I spent hours with that person on the phone rather than the company agree that offering a "credit card protection service" on no card was not in fact offering a service at all, it's come to the point where I got the friend to demand a fraud investigation on city bank themselves as they wouldn't admit the computer might be wrong (still waiting on the reply of this one.)
There are hundreds of people out there to try and scalp a company for all they can get but there are times when the computer is wrong when a person can show this is wrong and the stupid operators need to be able to do something about it and not tell you want the computer says.
I was hanging out on a playstation-related forum. There was a thread there discussing the importance of getting an extended warranty on your PS3, so that when a new and improved model comes out, you can take the old one into the shop, claim it doesn't work, and demand a replacement.
Many participants planned to do this. The couple of people who suggested it might be unethical were laughed at.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Secondly, this would likely anger the customer even more than trying to blame them. "We believe you may have done x, y, and z wrong" (when the customer doesn't even understand the technical issues behind x, y, and z) is a LOT more effective than "We screwed you." In the first instance, the customer starts thinking to themselves "Well, maybe is WAS my fault." With the second response, he starts screaming at the rep and threatening legal action.
It's a lot cheaper to have one customer suspicious of you (and reluctant to use you again) than to be besieged by lawyers or having to pay for serious damages done.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
One of my favorite calls was when I was the junior network admin at a largish (40k customers) ISP. The phone techs would ask my advice if they were stumped. Our techs were all trained to reason through things instead of using a set script. It worked pretty well for the techs who actually stayed after the training.
So this call comes in, and this lady says our "software" is causing her screen to go solid yellow every time she dials the modem. Fair enough, the tech decides, we'll have her uninstall and reinstall the acceleration software. She isn't using acceleration software. So it's not _our_ software, at least. So he talks her through removing the modem from the Windows device manager and reinstalling the driver. Same problem.
So, the customer is quite upset, understandably. The tech is frustrated because he really doesn't want to suggest reinstalling Windows, which the customer assures us her husband just did last week. So he comes to me, and asks. We talk for a minute or two, and I deduce that if it's not software, it must be hardware. The tech can't understand how dialing the modem makes the screen go yellow, and under normal circumstances I wouldn't either. I'm just never quick to just assume the hardware is operating under normal circumstances or is fully operational in the first place.
So, he tells the customer it's a coincidence that it happens with our service, because it seems to be a problem with her hardware. She's slow to accept that her computer just suddenly stopped working (isn't that how they usually stop, suddenly?). So the tech comes back and asks what, specifically, would cause the screen to go screwy when the modem is dialed. So I suggest that either the motherboard is mis-routing signals on the bus or there's a circuit in the machine that shouldn't be there -- some loose screw, some bit of bracket that's shorting something, or something similar. I suggest to the tech that he suggest to her to just have her computer cleaned and checked.
Ten minutes later, the customer calls back and thanks the technician for the wonderful support. She had unplugged the system, popped the cover, and removed the Big Ball of Dust that was connecting the PCB of her modem to the PCB of her video adapter. With the cover back on and power restored, she could get online and still see what she was doing.
That was funny.
As an aside, the usual issue is the user/client borked something, doesn't know it, and has no reason to think they did it.
Last night I'm at the in-law's house and I'm asked to call DirecTV (Dish? I dunno what they've got). The preview channel wasn't working and they'd "tried everything" but did not want to call customer support, because they were "largely unhelpful and rude".
I fiddled with the setup for about 5 minutes and bingo, all was well. The receiver had coughed up a hairball and lost the zip code, which apparently is required to get a local channel list. Re-entered that and all was well.
I happen to know the user was not at fault, because the only remote in the house that can access setup has no batteries in it, simply so they can't accidentally mess up the settings. Never the less, they swore the problem was at the provider end and it wasn't. I have a feeling that this is the most common support call.
On a separate note, having them not think you've ever been a customer could be a good thing no? Get the new subscriber discount over again? (Unless you had one of those awesome lifetime deals, then yeah, that'd suck).
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
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I feel for CSRs. They get to listen to people after the bad music, company ads, and all the other drivel. By that time, I'm already right round the bend. And I start out irritated because I wouldn't be calling if there was no problem. I can't even tune the drivel out. I hear a voice break into the bad music, I think "Ah!" and then it's some perky twit saying, "Visit our website at jelloforbrains.com! There's a big support section! It answers your questions! See new features! Order new products! Jelloforbrains.com!"
Apparently, it never occurs to the jelloheads who put these things together that you've just come off an extremely frustrating couple of hours on a badly designed website.
By the time the poor first-line CSR gets someone like me, I'm loaded for bear and ready to kill. I try to be polite. Honest, I do. At the other end, it probably feels like a merry-go-round on a minefield.
So here's an idea for corporations: STOP WASTING MY TIME. If you have to put me on hold, just send out a slow, pleasant, monotone beep every ten seconds or so to let me know the connection is working. No music, no ads, no drivel. Let me get on with my life till the rep shows up.
If there's some useful information you can put at the beginning, by all means do it before the slow beep starts. But remember, I'm talking about useful to *me*, not you. For instance, the "real" support requests probably center around real faults in the product, and (hopefully!) that's a limited list. The top three real issues could be enumerated, possibly with extensions to go to a pool of CSRs used to dealing with that issue.
I know. Users are idiots and the system will never work. People will just push buttons. Sure, I've done it on occasion myself in fits of berserk fury. The reason it happens is because the goddamn choices are goddamn useless. Psych 101 will tell you that people tend to behave according to other people's expectations of them. So, just maybe, if companies stopped treating users like idiots, at least some of them would stop behaving that way. If it worked on only 25%, that would still save a lot of money.
When I was just out of college, I did tech support for a local ISP for about two years. I managed to net a promotion or raise every other month by not succumbing to the tendencies you're describing. It's a lot harder to not to that than it sounds.
The problem comes earlier than that. 95% of the people who call in are on the war-path. It wasn't really so bad for me, because the ISP only had about ten thousand customers, meaning we had a few dozen regular callers and a few hundred occasional callers. It wasn't long until the problem users (and there are a suprising lot of them) were all being shipped straight to me, presumably because I have a deep voice, careful use of the language, I'm polite on the job and I'll put up with a lot of crap on the job.
I'm not going to say we had the cup-holder CD guy, but there's a lot of that kind of stuff to go around. The problem is, it's not funny, good natured or any of that. It's really sometimes quite bitter and acrimonious. I'll give you the example of Dave, who called in just after he moved; he wasn't able to dial in, and he was "certain it was [the ISP]'s low quality hardware tripping him up again." The problem was that he had forgotten to put a phone cable in place between the computer and the new wall.
Thing is, he had a teenage son, and that son would go screwing with his settings on a weekly basis. It wasn't long before he was asking for me by name to just go through the settings and roll them back one by one. He'd get furious if I didn't help with non-ISP stuff, and any suggestion that he just discipline the child or lock the machine down got met with a tantrum about how he paid his twenty dollars a month and that meant we had to come change the oil in his car if he wanted us to and rah rah rah.
They aren't treating you as a culprit. It's just that the chances you're going to be tolerable are miniscule, and it's almost certain that the person they just talked to completely screwed them off.
It's one of the paradoxes inherent in reliable systems: the more reliable your system, the fewer of your tech support calls will be from reasonable people who didn't cause their own problems. The more reliable the system, the lower the likelihood you're not a moron, and the higher the likelihood you're a jerk.
Given that Tivo's internal system is likely to be exceedingly simple, it seems to me quite likely that the rate of defects in their system is so low and the rate of assholes on the telephone so high that nearly everyone you talked to really has never seen a fault in the system, nor has met anyone else at work who has. They probably really believe what they're saying.
Going on the stuff I put up with at work ten years ago, I figure there's a good chance that the employee thought you had just misremembered the data you were trying to get them to look up by. About eleven times in ten, that's what's going on, and humoring the customer means they'll keep flogging the mistake, instead of trying to figure it out.
Not to mention these people are adults making nine bucks an hour without benefits, dealing with angry people on the phone all day. Wouldn't you assume the worst, if that was your life?
StoneCypher is Full of BS