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Comcast Training Materials Leaked
WheezyJoe writes: The Verge reports on leaked training manuals from Comcast, which show how selling services is a required part of the job, even for employees doing tech support. The so-called "4S training material" explicitly states that 20 percent of a call center employee's rating for a given call is dependent on effectively selling the customer new Comcast services. "There are pages of materials on 'probing' customers to ferret out upsell opportunities, as well as on batting aside customer objections to being told they need to buy something. 'We can certainly look at other options, but you would lose which you mentioned was important to you,' the guide suggests clumsily saying to an angry customer who doesn't want to buy any more Comcast services." Images of the leaked documents are available on the Verge, making for fun reading.
The grabbing hands, grab all they can...
Mc Donalds cashiers are there to sell stuff.. That is different from the people in the back making the food. How fast would they start losing customers if the cooks started coming up and tried to pressure you into buying stuff before they would make the food you already ordered and paid for... Or if you came to the manager with a mistake and instead of fixing the mistake they tried to sell you more stuff...
When you cant win, ad hominem.
And if you REALLY piss people off then sooner or later someone is going to recall that excrutiating call with customer retention and post it up on the internet. And then the reputational damage will far exceed any benefit of being incalcitrant with departing customers.
There's a time and a place. Even the McD's employee mopping the floor knows better than to ask a customer who says "clean the bathroom, the stench makes me want to vomit" "Would you like to vomit some fries with that?"
It's one thing if the customer has called to ask a "how can I" sort of question, it's another if they're calling because you are currently failing to provide what they already paid for. All you'll do that way is make them smile as they imagine sledghammering your balls.
It's far worse if the customer only got angry during the call because your flipbook/flowchart isn't solving the problem. You've just convinced me that I know more about your network than you do and now you want to sell me more based on your "expertise"?!?
There's a lot of data that suggests you can get a pile of cash robbing people in the park as well, but that doesn't make it right. The only reason the megacorps get away with it is where the competition is equally slimy.
Your reputation only matter when your customers have an alternative.