On Customer Service
Spending Your Life On Hold - 'Customer Service Guy'
I have decided it is possible to occupy your entire day handling customer service issues with things associated with your personal life. Reparimen, technical help, returns, etc. one could literally spend all day getting things resolved - or not resolved as the case may be. I think there are two factors in today's world that are driving this:
- The growing use of technology in our lives - adding more things we don't fully understand
- The practices and trends to use voice response units (VRUs) and automated information lines; outsourcing Help Desks to foreign countries and general corporate budget cuts reducing the amount (and quality) of help that is available.
The problem is we keep moving faster and trying to be more efficient, but the design of the systems are not good enough to really provide quality customer service. There really are 2 levels of service required today:
- Basic - This customer service level is personified by the question: "Is it plugged in and turned on?" There are a lot of consumers in this bucket and unfortunately most of the CS departments, personnel and response processes are geared for this level of service.
- Advanced - This is for the heavy user that has either found some flaw in the product or has gotten things jumbled up. This customer needs a higher level of attention - skip to page 42 in the CS handbook and realize there is a real problem to be fixed - the solution is not the need to teach the customer basic operation.
Most of the time I am an advanced user - I try finding the solution myself before calling the help line - anything to avoid talking to the basic level customer serbvice rep. Unfortunately, when I do finally call, I have to go through the first 41 pages of their CS manual - and then they try to transfer me to the higher level of service (on hold for another 30 minutes). But even then I rarely get satisfaction.
There once was a guy who changed his name to "Internet Guy" (or something like that) and he stayed in his house and did everything over the Internet for an entire year - never left his house - ordered everything he needed online and had it delivered. He did this to prove how important the Internet was, or could be, in our lives.
I'm thinking I may do the same thing with a twist - Customer Service Guy. I'll spend my entire work day trying to get things fixed; calling customer service lines and dealing with repairmen. Between the bank, my credit card company, the patio doors that were installed last May that still aren't right, etc. I know I can fill every day.
The situations are actually comical once I stop beating my head against the wall. So, I could entertain readers with my daily blog accounts about bad (and good) customer service experiences. Maybe I could also make a movie - kind of a Cable Guy meets Falling Down peice.
So, if anyone wants to pay my salary for a year so I can afford to undertake this valuable social experiment - please let me know.