moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Customer service czars are worthless.....
....unless they actually fix a problem.
No one wants to hear "I'm sorry you are unhappy" from a customer service drone who cannot or will not fix a problem whether or not they have the power to do so. The apologies are hollow without a fix and actually make the customer angrier instead of calm. |
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jc100
join:2002-04-10
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Empathy only goes so far. What people want are their solutions fixed in a reasonable and timely manner. For most people, t his is well justified. You pay for the service, you should received what's promised. Sure, there will always be those 5-10 percent you can NEVER make happy, even if you gave hem the moon and the stars. That's part of business. However, a company should focus on making the other 90-95 percent loyal patrons. While this has to be done in line with costs and profit, it is feasible. Companies today are too quick to rush cuts and not foresee the problems they create. The less staff one has to field issues, the more qualified people one eliminates in the in the process. There has be be a fine balance between a reasonable trained staff and dollars and cents. That's a given. However, one can without a doubt equate a company's viability to how happy and loyal said customers are. Customers who feel that a company is willing to go above and beyond, are more apt to give leeway when problems occur. On the contrary, when a company has a bad track record, the retention department has an uphill battle. In many cases, customers are already lost by the time it reaches that stage in the game. Companies need to focus on prevention and training to make sure this doesn't happen. Simple and concise answers can save the company both time, customers, and money via future callbacks. |
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Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| reply to moonpuppy
the trouble is that while most of us dont care to hear the empathy statement, us CS drones are pretty much required to say it. the suits do listen to calls and expect to hear the prefab statements that they think are good customer service.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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tlbepson
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Reston, VA
| reply to moonpuppy
>>No one wants to hear "I'm sorry you are unhappy" from a customer service drone who cannot or will not fix a problem whether or not they have the power to do so.
Having recently switched from Comcast broadband to Verizon DSL, my experience with Verizon "customer service" is not a pleasant one.
I am hearing impaired and use a special phone to make calls and the Verizon phone directory is just a nightmare for someone like me. I've called twice--I gave up on live chat!
The first call took 1 hour and 5 transfers--each time I'm transferred I have to explain again that I'm hearing impaired and that there will be a delay before I can respond to what is said because I need to wait for the speech-to-text conversion (via a communication assistant using speech recognition software) and then read the text. That gets really old the 3rd time you have to repeat it.
The second call I made took 2 hours and 11 transfers!
It's ridiculous that Verizon does not allow their customer service agents to actually do their job. It's so pointlessly fragmented or maybe it's deliberate so that the caller will give up in frustration? I've had a similar experience with Office Depot so it's not limited to Verizon.
The very best customer service experience I've ever had was with Staples online customer service. Staples allows their customer service agents to actually make decisions and they are given the power to resolve issues. It was so refreshing that I now make a point to shop at Staples either online or local stores.
I hope never, ever to have to call Verizon again. |
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AtomicZero
join:2004-11-24
West Palm Beach, FL | reply to moonpuppy
Re: Customer service czars are worthless.....
so true |
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