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cacoPremium
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK | Re: It's not the agents.. Hate to tell you but most reps. have the tools, they just forget where to look for them . Like most companies when you have that many employees, you are going to have some dead wood laying around. Comcast is no different.
I am a firm believer that cable's low score problem in general is not service but price. Cable is generally perceived to be more expensive than sat and on most packages that is correct.
Stop yearly or mid year price increases on tv for a couple of years and see that score jump up.
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»www.seabee.navy.mil | |
|   RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2
1 edit | Re: It's not the agents.. Hate to tell you, but I know what tools they use (Comtrac, ACSR, Grandslam, Casper, Brite, DC Metro etc).
The tools are not "tools", but for the most part are ticket systems and form systems where they can enter ticket info and submit it to another department, or fill out form requests.
All this does is cause a delay and customer frustration.
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| | cacoPremium
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK | Re: It's not the agents.. Those ticket systems can fix most of your customer problems if you know how to use them. The problems is that many reps. don't take the time to learn everything those tools can do, if they did they would only have to escalate maybe 1-2% of their daily calls.
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| | | RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Re: It's not the agents.. said by caco:Those ticket systems can fix most of your customer problems if you know how to use them. The problems is that many reps. don't take the time to learn everything those tools can do, if they did they would only have to escalate maybe 1-2% of their daily calls. I'm going to disagree because I have first hand experience with these ticket systems. Agents shouldn't have to send out tickets for little issues. All this micromanagement only makes the situation worse. If Comcast gave their employees more power to take control and ownership of the call, then issues would be resolved quicker.
We'll have to agree to disagree.
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| | | jus10
join:2009-08-04
Sterling, VA Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Well the problem with the ticket system from the customer's point of view is that I lose track of what (if anything) Comcast is doing to fix my problem as it disappears into someone's inbox.
I recently swapped out a DS2 modem for a nice new shiny DS3 modem. Today it works fine, but naturally I had to call and say "please change my Mac". The guy on the phone was relatively helpful (not the best I've had but not terrible). The problem was that he couldn't get the modem to sync up so had to put in a ticket to escalate it. All the guidance I got at the point was "keep trying until it works". It did start up several hours later but there was no follow up, etc, etc. It's like, why bother. I've had better luck with the Comcast Direct forum for anything which is complicated. I figured the Mac Address change was simple enough but even that wasn't a joy.
Many of the reviews I see of Comcast are similar to my own review. They are fine if there are no problems. They give you net and you pay them and life is good. But if something breaks and you have to play phonetag circus of incompetence, its hell. I thought of even not upgrading my modem so I wouldn't have to deal with it. | |
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| KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | some of those ticket M&Ps exist because certain departments dont want to get downsized by giving front line reps the right tools.
if modems could be purged from the DB and UIDs transferred by the local helpdesk there would be much less need for people at Denver datacenter. so really lots of the micromanagement is job preservation by people in the right power slots.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Re: It's not the agents.. And I guess departments can get great statistics by closing tickets without doing anything, and then get bonuses for how many tickets were closed/completed even though the problem continues to exist because they did nothing. | |
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 funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | said by caco:Hate to tell you but most reps. have the tools, they just forget where to look for them . Even if that were true in most places, it's not true in this case.
First off, if it takes 12 weeks to get a qualified employee from the door to the phone, then something is already wrong. 9-1-1 operators get less training before jumping on the line with a trained operator at their side.
Second, you could make the training 24 weeks and still not raise the score unless you also tear down the false walls between the back office, the field, and the customer service reps. That is what "ComcastCares" accomplished. They're not better reps, they're better connected and they have authority.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL
Test your Broadband connection today! -- »measurementlab.net/ | |
| | cacoPremium
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK
1 edit | Re: It's not the agents.. Lots of these reps. being hired for the phones it is their 1st work experience and they need the extra training just to learn how to talk to a person over the phone.
There are walls but the walls are there for a reason. If you didn't have walls next thing you know you have an overflow of truck rolls for items that could be fixed over the phone. Guess which is more expensive?
You can't compare Comcast Care reps.to the regular reps on the phone. They won't have the knowledge or the experience of your typical phone rep.
Karl specifically mentions customer service score in his piece. Cable stops raising prices evey 6-12 months and watch those scores go up.
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| | | RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Re: It's not the agents.. Ironically, agents CAN schedule truck rolls as their own discretion and in order to prevent an overflow, the system utilizes a point system. The type of install/trouble call is assigned # of points, and agents can only schedule appointment windows that have that many points still available.
But what happens when a customer has had a tech out 5 times? All the front end reps can do is recommend ANOTHER tech.
On the other hand, if the customer contacts Comcast Cares, guess what happens? They get on the phone with the regional office, who dispatches their best tech. I don't have the numbers, but I'd bet that 4/5 calls to Comcast Cares get resolved on the first call. This is the type of service that Comcast should reach for with all their phone agents.
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| | | | cacoPremium
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK
1 edit | Re: It's not the agents.. The phone rep. can do the same thing only if they dig into the account and see that sub has called in before and continues to have the same problem. He/she can then escalate it via email to zone coordinator to handle. Problem that some reps. don't dig into the account and see prior history.
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|  MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2 | said by funchords:First off, if it takes 12 weeks to get a qualified employee from the door to the phone, then something is already wrong. 9-1-1 operators get less training before jumping on the line with a trained operator at their side. Your analogy isn't even in the same league as apples to oranges. It's more like apples to giraffes. I could make a joke and say that if you ever heard some of the customers that call their service companies, you would think they were calling 911.
In all seriousness, though, 911 does not have a wide variety of technology in people's homes. You call 911 for one reason and one reason only: emergencies. The SOP at 911 is to stay on the phone with the caller until help arrives. While each situation is different, the same basic principle exists to keep the caller calm and instruct them to not put themselves in danger. If they waited to put a 911 operator on the phone until they have been through simulations of every single different scenario, they would be retired before they got out of training.
In the case of a typical MSO that offers TV/data/voice, there are a lot of different tools, procedures, and technology to deal with. It can take 2-3 months to learn the basics of all of them. If they use your logic, they throw those people to the wolves in a couple of weeks like they used to do and you have a worse problem of agents who don't know what they are doing. They could put these people out there within a week of learning the phone system and have them learn everything else as they go, but I think the point is to enhance the customer service experience, instead of sacrificing customers for training purposes.
Don't get me wrong, these agents do not know everything nor are they perfect when they come out of training. They still learn a lot as they go. But I don't think you can fault a company for wanting to be thorough when it comes to training their employees.
BTW, the fact that 911 doesn't train their employees as long as Comcast is not necessarily a bad reflection of Comcast as it is a reflection of the 911 system. I have heard some of those operators at work and they could have used a 3 month training course or more. | |
| | | funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: It's not the agents.. said by MadMANN:You call 911 for one reason and one reason only: emergencies. The SOP at 911 is to stay on the phone with the caller until help arrives. While each situation is different, the same basic principle exists to keep the caller calm and instruct them to not put themselves in danger. If they waited to put a 911 operator on the phone until they have been through simulations of every single different scenario, they would be retired before they got out of training. Pardon me, but you have no idea of what you're talking about.
Here's just a few subjects for you to consider that 9-1-1 communications officers deal with:
* Communication Styles
* Conflict Management and Resolution
* Handling Domestic Violence Calls, Basic and Advanced
* Handling Suicidal Callers and Hostage Negotiations
* ICS, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Hazardous Materials Incidents
* Survival Techniques for Dispatchers
* Supervisory Workshop
* TTY and Deaf Culture
* Understanding and Dealing with Difficult People
Here's the curricula for a one-week basic course:
• A Telecommunicator's Role and Responsibilities in Public Safety
• Communication Resources and Confidentiality
• Telecommunication Systems and Technology
• Basic Communications Skills
• Call Classification and Procedures (Police, Fire/Rescue and EMS)
• Radio Communication Techniques
• Liability and Legal Issues
• Stress Management
That position is well trained, but it still doesn't require six weeks to get on the phones AND, TO MY POINT, doesn't assure a positive service result.
In the end, customers only want their problem solved. They don't want the run-around, they don't want to be upsold, they don't want a fast call time, they want someone to own the problem with them and see it through to a quick and fair conclusion.
(Yes, I know some customers call as if it was a 9-1-1 emergency when the TV goes on the fritz.)
I've been around 9-1-1 operators for a long time. I know exactly how they are and I think very highly of them and the career field. When there is a training period, it's between a few weeks and a couple of months. Then they're on the line with a trainer for several more weeks to a few months, first listening, then talking.
Even with the training, the washout rate is 2 out of 3.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL
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| | | | KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | Re: It's not the agents.. that would require thinking customer first and not stockholder first though when talking customer service phone jobs in general.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | | | MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2 | said by funchords:Pardon me, but you have no idea of what you're talking about. . . Pardon me, but I do. I have seen the cirriculum for 911 operators, so you wasted time spelling it out for me. Nice attempt at a troll, though. Good job.
I did understand your point. I was simply saying that the two are not even in the same universe other than the fact that they both utilize a telephone. It's a ridiculous analogy.
But, then, since you know what you are talking about all of the time, you realized that after you pressed [enter] didn't you? | |
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