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Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable
HughPickens.com writes: Getting caught in a tech support loop -- waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again -- is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most mild-mannered person. Now Kate Murphy writes at the NYT that just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through as 92 percent of customer service managers say their agents could be more effective and 74 percent say their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences. "Don't think companies haven't studied how far they can take things in providing the minimal level of service," says Justin Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research and editorial at ICMI. "Some organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are on hold, you're hearing messages like, 'If you'd like premium support, call this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately.'" Mental health experts say there are ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster and being negative in your dealings with others can quickly paint you as a complainer no one wants to work with. Don't bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either. You're just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted ahead of time that you have come unhinged. To get better service by phone, dial the prompt designated for "sales" or "to place an order," which almost always gets you an onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated language difficulties. Finally customer support experts recommended using social media, like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not met.
If you don't want to be a phone slave to another soul sucking corporation then before buying a product you should search the internet for something that has the most open source software and the best component documentation. This way when something goes wrong, you can diagnose and possibly fix the issue yourself. It's been my experience that buying the correct product is more important than getting a "great deal" and more likely to last significantly longer.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Only the phones get you the full, real time attention of an agent.
The people put on phone support are at the absolute bottom of the hierarchy. They are the least knowledgeable about your problem, and the least empowered to do anything about. Oh, and they also hate you.
Email becomes unbearable if there are more than 1 or two rounds of back and forth.
Except that the email likely contains a cut-and-paste that may solve your problem, or at least a helpful web link. Likewise, with chat, you can send a cut-and-paste of your error message, or a screen shot. That is much more likely to lead to a solution. The people doing chat support have been promoted from the phones, and the people doing email support are higher still. These are the people that can actually solve your problem.
...however, speaking as a former support rep for a cable company, I'd say I disagree with at least the thrust of this story in relation to my previous job. The company I worked for shall remain nameless, however all support was done locally (during the time I worked there, approximately 8 years). During that time, I did my level best to resolve issues on the first call, and in general people I talked to understood after that call whether it was indeed a service issue, i.e. company related, or customer owned equipment issue, meaning their router/computer/phone system, etc.
In many cases, a simple settings problem could be pointed out and resolved. In some cases, customers did not want to believe it could possibly be their equipment, and insisted on blaming the company, regardless of the demonstrated service restoration once a.) the router was removed from the equation, or b.) that all (or any) of their other systems were online. When asked to be escalated, I made sure they went up the chain of command, not to a rep sitting next to me. A very few went on to become associated with the corporate complaints dept. ( in my interactions, 5 in 8 years ).
One of the biggest problems as I see it is that many customers don't seem to understand where their responsibilities end and the company providing the services begins. In the case of a service provider, as far as I see it no matter what the service is, if it is reaching your home, they are doing their job. The fact that we provided free general (but not specific) assistance for our customers equipment shouldn't mean that if we couldn't find the exact problem with their piece of equipment, but could prove it was the equipment causing the issue, that it was some how a failing on our end, but many customers see it exactly that way.
Having said all that, I would point out that not all companies are created equal, and I certainly have not worked for even a small minority of the companies out there. I am sure that not only are there companies out there that do exactly what this story is implying, but that it is seen as a major benefit to the company. I do not agree with that attitude, and would never have signed up to help perpetuate that kind of "customer service", which is no service at all.
If TS is unable to fix the problem I simply file a complaint with the BBB. That results in a call fom a real live person who can actully resolve a proble; at least with reputable companies. I state my case simply with no accusations and what I'd like done and have gotten positive results.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
So the local management started pushing for higher wages in order to reduce turnover and keep the quality people.
Here is your problem. I worked for a large international call centre once years ago and became "friends" with one of the female trainers. She explained that the business model doesn't expect worker retention. Customer Service has a short burnout time, which they calculated at an average of 18 months to 2 years which got factored that into the business. Their training process could train any monkey with sufficient language skills to do the job, and if they got 2 years out of each employee it was a win.
Why pay people more if you can just as easily replace them? If you have the training and QA process in place, retention is unnecessary.
I know this sucks, but if you are "quality" then customer service should only be a stepping stone onto bigger and better things.
I can understand this. I bought an HP multi-function device which was defective. On its first and any subsequent power-up it gave an error. It took approximately 40 minutes to go through its power up routine and get to the error.
The support made me go this process twice. Once with the first level support and again with the second level. The second level support did not ask me to do anything different. I wasted 40 minutes of my life because the second level support apparently did not communicate with (or perhaps did not believe) the first level support.
My level of frustration at the end of this was very high.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Probably didn't believe. As someone that's done Tier 2 support I can't even count how many times the problem could have been resolved at Tier 1.
Idiotic advice. You get to sales and waste time with them and they will politely explain you've called the wrong number and if you're lucky they'll put you at the back of the existing queue. (If you're not they'll just tell you what number to call).
ALWAYS ask for a supervisor and make sure it's being escalated. When they won't escalate further threaten to go to whatever external industry body overseas them - no company wants a large number of customer complaints to external bodies - that is always a metric. And FOLLOW THROUGH.
My girlfriend used the Microsoft Surface tech support chat. He told her he wanted to her to hold down a button combination to fix her problem (pen wasn't working). He didn't tell her what that combination will do.
After her device reset to their credit when she got back to the tech support website it opened the previous chat.
Also to their credit the guy didn't abort the call.
Not to their credit the tech support guy couldn't figure out why she wasn't responding and had typed "hello" over and over again into the chat box, and then seem to be in utter surprise when my girlfriend mentioned of course she couldn't respond he just asked her to reboot the only computer she had in the house.