| Customer service is dead.... Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. |
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| said by moonpuppy:Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. Yes. That is the main problem. The metric that businesses use to measure performance for customer service reps is all wrong. They measure how long a rep is on the phone and NOT if the customers problem was solved.
So, why do they use the wrong metric? Mostly because, using call time is easy and automated. And measuring whether a problem has been solved is complicated and time consuming and manpower intensive.
So Comcast went the easier and cheaper route and the route that is std industry practice. An executive never gets fired for using std industry practice and since the budget is smaller and easier to control using an automated approach, they get nice bonuses to boot. So the customer service VP is taking the safer route to job protection. That is, it is safer until the Marketing/Sales VP goes headhunting for a scapegoat as to why his customers are leaving.
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join:2005-05-17 | said by fAcEtIOUs:The metric that businesses use to measure performance for customer service reps is all wrong. They measure how long a rep is on the phone and NOT if the customers problem was solved. Precisely this. Especially in the Tier (HSI) call centres, where it's hard to get much more than a powercycle done in the time they expect an average call to be completed.
On a side note, I'm glad they lengthened the training time, it was only 2 weeks when I went through it several years ago. Maybe they actually have time to learn the tools now.
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by fAcEtIOUs:said by moonpuppy:Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. Yes. That is the main problem. The metric that businesses use to measure performance for customer service reps is all wrong. They measure how long a rep is on the phone and NOT if the customers problem was solved. So, why do they use the wrong metric? Mostly because, using call time is easy and automated. And measuring whether a problem has been solved is complicated and time consuming and manpower intensive. So Comcast went the easier and cheaper route and the route that is std industry practice. An executive never gets fired for using std industry practice and since the budget is smaller and easier to control using an automated approach, they get nice bonuses to boot. So the customer service VP is taking the safer route to job protection. That is, it is safer until the Marketing/Sales VP goes headhunting for a scapegoat as to why his customers are leaving. well the Marketing/Sales VP now expects sales quotas out of the Support department so the support VP has more then just call time and repeat caller metrics to deal with because what was once ment to help customers is now expected to sell stuff to people with broken stuff.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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| reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by fAcEtIOUs:Yes. That is the main problem. The metric that businesses use to measure performance for customer service reps is all wrong. They measure how long a rep is on the phone and NOT if the customers problem was solved. So, why do they use the wrong metric? Mostly because, using call time is easy and automated. And measuring whether a problem has been solved is complicated and time consuming and manpower intensive. So Comcast went the easier and cheaper route and the route that is std industry practice. An executive never gets fired for using std industry practice and since the budget is smaller and easier to control using an automated approach, they get nice bonuses to boot. So the customer service VP is taking the safer route to job protection. That is, it is safer until the Marketing/Sales VP goes headhunting for a scapegoat as to why his customers are leaving. If they used the metric of problems fixed instead of call times, then they wouldn't have the PR problem they have with support as they do now.
Also, asking a pissed off customer whose problem is still not fixed whether or not they want to spend more money a month on a service that doesn't work is not only insulting but has caused more than a few people to cancel service. My service was working at all and they tried to sell me a DVR box.  I got FIOS as soon as I could. |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
kudos:1
 ·Vonage
·ViaTalk
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said by moonpuppy:Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. This is so true, plus the comcast box hit selection, never works. Dont they care about wasting resources, and not fixing problems. Comcast though is better then verizon DSL, or Voice.
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to moonpuppy
there is one job i wish customers would do, inform the reps if they are on a Vonage line. because the first thing when there is a connectivity issue is to send that reset signal to the modem.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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said by DaveDude:This is so true, plus the comcast box hit selection, never works. Dont they care about wasting resources, and not fixing problems. Comcast though is better then verizon DSL, or Voice. I had this happen to me first hand. I had an issue where my signal strength was low and I was having reception problems. After they tried to troubleshoot it, they decided on a truck roll. When the tech came out, she said that multiple people in the area had the same issue and they knew what the problem was (faulty node) but failed to repair it for a month. Now, 2 issues come to mind.
- Why wasn't there some kind of notation that a certain node was having issues? This would have saved thousands of dollars in not rolling out a truck for a known issue.
- Also, since multiple techs reported the same problem, why did they not fix it? It goes back to the first point in that a truck roll would not fix the issue but it made someone get off the phone early.
Comcast needs a new way of thinking when it comes to customer service and tech support. |
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| said by moonpuppy:- Also, since multiple techs reported the same problem, why did they not fix it? It goes back to the first point in that a truck roll would not fix the issue but it made someone get off the phone early. Comcast needs a new way of thinking when it comes to customer service and tech support. Employees aren't dumb. Most will do what is being measured because that is how they keep their jobs and how they get promoted. And if getting off the phone quickly is what they are measured on, that is EXACTLY what they will do - logic and the customer be damned.
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 swhx7Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia | reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by moonpuppy:Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. said by fAcEtIOUs:Yes. That is the main problem. The metric that businesses use to measure performance for customer service reps is all wrong. They measure how long a rep is on the phone and NOT if the customers problem was solved. So, why do they use the wrong metric? Mostly because, using call time is easy and automated. And measuring whether a problem has been solved is complicated and time consuming and manpower intensive.
It's more of a "bottom line" type of calculation: the executives have judged that saving money on call centers (and on the competence/training/etc. of field staff), and letting a lot of customers be angry about bad service, is better for profits than providing better service at higher cost.
This works only because of lack of competition. Almost everywhere in USA, there is only one cableco, and at most two choices for broadband (the other being the local-monopoly telco). If there were adequate competition, more of the dissatisfied customers would become lost customers, and service would improve. |
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | even in the FiOS areas the customer of course only has two choices for a complete service provider.
and TV while having a third tier of competition in the form of DBS services has lots of its rates dictated by the rights holders.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southeast
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Thats exactly what happened at Charter. I worked there years ago. When I started in the internet department, it was all very computer savy people. I learned tons in a short amount of time about networking and broadband in general. Then, about a year after I started, the push for sales came. They stopped screening people on computer ability and started screening on sales backgrounds. Toss in an inept trainer and the reps that hit the floor were nowhere near ready to take support calls. We had to train them on the job at the expense of the customer. Keep in mind that after the sales became a big deal, they only hired sales people for the support jobs. Technial support experience was tossed to the side. The good people quit or went to different parts of the company and all that was left was a handfull of good people in a sea of sales idiots that had no idea what they were doing. Funny how it was at this time that the HSI support satisfaction went into the toilet...
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Reviews:
 ·Comcast
·AT&T Southeast
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said by moonpuppy:Face it, good reps are worked to death and berated for staying on the phone too long while bad reps with short call times and less credits given out are what become managers. Agreed... and remember the larger the call center, the easier it is for the shitbirds to fly under the radar. |
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 uther
join:2001-12-04
Saint Louis, MO | reply to ender7074
I worked at Charter Communications too. I completely vouch for ender7074 on this. |
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