PC Call Centers Garner Lowest Satisfaction Score

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.'"

Comments

Profit!

[slapout]

1. Start computer company
2. Have good tech support
3. Profit!!!

Wait, somethings not right ...

Re:Profit!

[geekoid]

That a great start, but then.

1)want to make more money
2) cut back on call center
3) profit!....this quarter.

Re:Profit!

[KillerCow]

The problem is that the margins in the PC industry are razor thin, and with the number of people needed to man those phones, they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

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.

When I call and hear a thick foreign accent

[lena_10326]

...I don't even try. It's pointless.

Re:When I call and hear a thick foreign accent

[N3WBI3]

Its not racist its damn hard to understand people through an accent *especially* if you dont know what you're doing looking for help.

Re:When I call and hear a thick foreign accent

[drinkypoo]

Its not racist its damn hard to understand people through an accent *especially* if you dont know what you're doing looking for help.

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) 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.

Your call is important to us

[Hoi Polloi]

I'd leave a better comment but I'm still on hold with Dell...

Re:Three types of support people

[tazbert]

No - #3 will have a short stay at his company, moving on when it becomes obvious that all his management chain cares about is his average handle time, not the quality of his support.

You Sir, Are Misinformed.

[asphaltjesus]

When you become a part of the average big soul-sucking support center, what passes as productivity is **precisely** tracked.

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.

Wrong

[WindBourne]

2 stays because management believes that the person has a clue. And if 1 has a nice enough personality, they will stay as well. 3 will normally move on.

reason

[blhack]

This is because computer tech support is actually a pretty specialized skill. It isn't something like calling visa where they have a flowchart of 5 problems in front of them.

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.