[COMPETITION] Give eircom good advice and you could win €100

Darragh

Hello there and welcome to the new eircom Talk to forum.

We've been working with the eircom team for a while in preparing this forum and we're delighted to welcome Mark, Tony, Ant and Eleanor onto the site to help you with any queries you have.

With this in mind, they're looking for your help. What do you think is the best piece of advice you could give them coming on to Boards.ie?

The best post or tip will win a €100 One for All Voucher.

Just post below and the best post received today, Wednesday 8th December, as judged between eircom and ourselves will win the voucher.

Good luck!

Darragh

T&C - This competition is open to all members of Boards.ie over 16 years of age. No cash alternative available. The winner will be contacted by PM. Judge's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. eircom reserves the right to substitute items/activities of a greater or equivalent value should unforeseen circumstances require it.

ciaglen

Hi

I couldnt post a reply on your competition link so I hope its ok to do so here. My advice is to be honest with customers, keep them updated with any problems etc and always keep them informed.

Thanks

C

eircom: Mark

ciaglen wrote: »

Hi

I couldnt post a reply on your competition link so I hope its ok to do so here. My advice is to be honest with customers, keep them updated with any problems etc and always keep them informed.

Thanks

C

Hi ciaglen.

Thanks for the advice, any help we get is greatly appreciated.

Mark

RedXIV

Tell the truth.

Trust me on this. If you don't know something, don't lie about it. Say you need time to figure it out. We don't mind getting told that if we know it's the truth.

Once you get caught out ONCE with a lie, credibility will be shot to pieces and you may as well forget about using this as a valid tool. Boards.ie members tend to have a long memory.

Aside from that, welcome to Boards! hope your time here is enjoyable!

eircom: Mark

RedXIV wrote: »

Tell the truth.

Trust me on this. If you don't know something, don't lie about it. Say you need time to figure it out. We don't mind getting told that if we know it's the truth.

Once you get caught out ONCE with a lie, credibility will be shot to pieces and you may as well forget about using this as a valid tool. Boards.ie members tend to have a long memory.

Aside from that, welcome to Boards! hope your time here is enjoyable!

Hi RedXIV,

Thanks for the tip, I am sure that no customer will be lied to. We might not give customers the answer they were hoping for but we will always try our best.

Thanks, Mark

ChainWhip

Sometimes, late at night, maybe after a few tipples at your local hostelry, you may log onto Boards.ie and casually run your cursor over the menu at the top of the screen.

Everything looks sensible and organised. You see forums where thousands of people contribute daily to discussion and debate. A great resource for the community.

But as you peruse the forum titles, one heading seems odd. What is this After Hours? Should I click in to see what goes on in there? Curiosity takes hold....

...then BAM! Like a car on black ice you are sucked into a wormhole of absurdity. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

Thread titles will jump out at you, but somehow or another they all branch off the central theme of "My junkie foreign taxi driver got free money from Bank of Ireland while the Gardai beat me for no reason with free Government cheese".

Most curiously however is why do these people keep referring to your mother so much.

Welcome to Boards.ie, the home of the After Hours phenomenon. You've been warned....

eliza64

Hi
Run lots of competitions please.
Welcome to boards.

eircom: Mark

ChainWhip wrote: »

Sometimes, late at night, maybe after a few tipples at your local hostelry, you may log onto Boards.ie and casually run your cursor over the menu at the top of the screen.

Everything looks sensible and organised. You see forums where thousands of people contribute daily to discussion and debate. A great resource for the community.

But as you peruse the forum titles, one heading seems odd. What is this After Hours? Should I click in to see what goes on in there? Curiosity takes hold....

...then BAM! Like a car on black ice you are sucked into a wormhole of absurdity. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

Thread titles will jump out at you, but somehow or another they all branch off the central theme of "My junkie foreign taxi driver got free money from Bank of Ireland while the Gardai beat me for no reason with free Government cheese".

Most curiously however is why do these people keep referring to your mother so much.

Welcome to Boards.ie, the home of the After Hours phenomenon. You've been warned....

Chain Whip.

That's quite detailed and a little abstract but we will take all the help and advice we can get.

Many Thanks, Mark

jaybee747

I would go with just this small piece of advice.

The search option above is a wonderful tool, It should be used often.
You'll find that no matter what thread you'd like to create,chances are its already there.
Even if Eircom have a new promo coming up,chances are its already in Bargain alerts.

To recap, search search search.

Rgrds

eircom: Mark

eliza64 wrote: »

Hi
Run lots of competitions please.
Welcome to boards.

Hi eliza64,

We will try and run as many competitions as possible

Thanks for the warm greetings.

Mark

eircom: Mark

jaybee747 wrote: »

I would go with just this small piece of advice.

The search option above is a wonderful tool, It should be used often.
You'll find that no matter what thread you'd like to create,chances are its already there.
Even if Eircom have a new promo coming up,chances are its already in Bargain alerts.

To recap, search search search.

Rgrds

Hi Jaybe747,

We have been using boards and learning as much as we can before going live so we're getting comfortable with boards. Thanks for the advice will keep track of all the boards as much as possible.

Thanks, Mark

cherryghost

Some people will go out of their way to hassle and annoy you, and possibly insult you because they're not getting the answers they want to hear.

Don't let it get under your skin and be cool

EvilMonkey

Don't mention TPB

eircom: Mark

cherryghost wrote: »

Some people will go out of their way to hassle and annoy you, and possibly insult you because they're not getting the answers they want to hear.

Don't let it get under your skin and be cool

Thanks, cherryghost

Nice to see you here as well

Mark

Nerin

EvilMonkey wrote: »

Don't mention TPB

Lol.
Hi again lads, good to see ye finally out in the open boards

No advice for ye other than remind people not to shoot the messenger,you're just doing your job and didn't personally do whatever it is they're complaining about.

I'll be back to give out about the company blocking sites later

Galadriel

Posting on boards.ie is a great opportunity for Eircom; it will be a lot easier for some customers to throw up a quick question here rather than phoning (and having to deal with various options etc).

So my tip is simply sign-in regularly and reply to people - even if you are dealing with their query in the background just let them know that, once people don't feel like they are being ignored they will be alot happier, no matter what the issue is!

ihateclowns11

For the love off god eircom drop your prices, 1 idea would be to get rid off your landline charge,i am on the verge off leaving eircom because off the expense off my 2 monthly bill,nearly all my friends have left allready and i am on the verge off it.

DrumSteve

Always be honest and don't take it personal.

Also run a lot of competitions that's always good.

eircom: Ant

Nerin wrote: »

Lol.
Hi again lads, good to see ye finally out in the open boards

No advice for ye other than remind people not to shoot the messenger,you're just doing your job and didn't personally do whatever it is they're complaining about.

I'll be back to give out about the company blocking sites later

Thanks Nerin,

Feels good to be finally out in board-isia! It's also resting to know that not everyone will be out to shoot the messenger.
Hope you are as excited after receiving your first open reply from an eircom boards.

Otherwise... bring it on and we'll try our best to help you out!
Take care
Ant :cool:

Squeeonline

Welcome,

Advice for boards.ie has already been give
1) be honest, you will be caught and discredited
2) search, and encourage others to do so.

Other than that, I'd love to hear Eircom recant its draconian 3 strikes rule publicly. Recording companies should not dictate and control the internet.

I'd love an Eircom press release promoting Net Neutrality.

So many of my friends (including myself, and separately my family) have left Eircom on principle because of the 3 strikes rule. Competitive pricing and a reversal of Eircoms current stance may encourage many to switch back for Broadband.

Vodkat

Hi Eircom,
Welcome to boards!!
My advice is to remember the customer is always right

Tarquin1970

Welcome.

The best piece of advice I could give is to reduce the cost of your fixed line broadband bundles down to the level being charged by Vodafone and offer a consistent service and all the disgruntled vodafone/ex-BT customers will come flocking back, just have a look at the ..talk to Vodafone forum pages for proof!

Good luck!

eircom: Mark

ihateclowns11 wrote: »

For the love off god eircom drop your prices, 1 idea would be to get rid off your landline charge,i am on the verge off leaving eircom because off the expense off my 2 monthly bill,nearly all my friends have left allready and i am on the verge off it.

Hi ihateclowns11,

If you private message me with your telephone number or eircom account number and outline what you are looking for I can see if we can improve your package.

Thank, Mark

BrookieD

My advice here is to remember the Customer is king, To be treated at all times the way you wish to be treated. All your staff need to remember that in some form they are a customer and as such when something is wrong how do they react and what would they expect from the support agents.

With this in mind:-
1) Treat all customers with the respect they deserve - we work very hard and in these times things like DSL are not cheap! please remember we are paying you all for a service that is to be supplied
2) Make sure to respond to ALL queries in a timely manner
3) If you say you will contact a customer at a set time make sure it happens NO MATTER WHAT!
4) Give customer time to vent - then take control of the situation and empathize Never sympathize it is condescending to the customer.
6) Attention to Detail - Get all agents recording all information spoken or written no matter how trivial it may seem at the time. This can clear issues up in moments should they arrive.

I have lots more but these are key.

Darren

Agent Smith

What do you think is the best piece of advice you could give them coming on to Boards.ie?

I Think the best piece of Advice is to be honnest. If I ask a question and you dont have the info off hand. Thats Fine. Let me know that your researching it, and That you'll get back to me. Nobody expectes you to have a magic ball in front of you

EAFC_rdfl

be informative. by that I mean that if someone opens a thread with a query or problem, and then that discussion is taken to PM, at least come back to the original thread and give a summary of how/if the query or problem was resolved.
I have been following the 'talk to 3' forum, and have looked at numerous threads there with titles I can relate to, only to see the 'PM me and we will see what we can do' line rolled out at the end of it.
It might also remove the chance of getting repetitive queries again and again and again and.....:)

Aidann

Do stuff like this thread, ask Boards.ie members do they think the things your doing (and also might introduce) is a good idea or not

BengaLover

Hi Eircom.
Another menu option for customers dialling 1901 would be nice:

To speak with an agent say 'Agent'
To report a fault, say 'Fault Report'
To make a payment or discuss your bill, say 'Payment'
If you have had a horrible day and wish to just shout at someone, say 'AAAAAAGGGGHHHRRHHHH'

Mountjoy Mugger

Impose reasonable caps on your BB products. 10GB is ludicrous in this day and age.

Vicxas

In the case of customers calling to troubleshoot their xbox connection, and its a problem with their ports/NAT etc. please do not bounce them back to xbox support. Its very frustrating.

Joan125

Reply To EVERYBODY ! and if you don't know the answer to what their asking ask them to explain their problem more or just tell them you need more time (as a fellow member commented). Just don't leave people without a reply because I know that there is nothing more frustrating than that and I think everybody else will agree with me.
Welcome to boards

BengaLover

Vicxas wrote: »

In the case of customers calling to troubleshoot their xbox connection, and its a problem with their ports/NAT etc. please do not bounce them back to xbox support. Its very frustrating.

An XBOX support thread for these problems would be great.

eircom: Eleanor

Vicxas wrote: »

In the case of customers calling to troubleshoot their xbox connection, and its a problem with their ports/NAT etc. please do not bounce them back to xbox support. Its very frustrating.

Thank You for your post,if you are having any problems with your ports,please contact us or private message me your eircom account information and I will look in to this for you with our support team

Eleanor

eircom: Eleanor

Joan125 wrote: »

Reply To EVERYBODY ! and if you don't know the answer to what their asking ask them to explain their problem more or just tell them you need more time (as a fellow member commented). Just don't leave people without a reply because I know that there is nothing more frustrating than that and I think everybody else will agree with me.
Welcome to boards

Thank you for your advice,that is definetly the way we hope to approach all queries received

Eleanor

Under A Funeral Moon

Don't ignore threads like a certain other communications provider on Boards.ie.

smk89

1. Avoid after hours, your name is used to invoke the devil there

2. Ask for stickys to be placed on some of the threads for common problems e.g. xbox router configuration preferably with diagrams and the main technology forums e.g. showing people how to change their router settings as this is a common topic.

3. Don't just send people to the helpline follow them up via posts or private messages.

4. The most important would be to have a code word for the eircom phone number only given to boards members that will automatically connect us to the duty manager who speaks a minimum of 3 programming languages a la.

Apart from that welcome to boards, great to see eircom represented here.

chahop

Two pieces of advice
1) The guys you have out trying to switch people back do not have all the info and have giving me lies for answers, I dont know if they work direct for you or not but it gives a very bad impression.
2) Tell IMRO to "GO FXXK YOURSELF" you either do "internet" or "specially selected internet pages we think you can view without hurting yourself"

Trevor451

Stop censoring the internet and actually spend money on upgrading your network.

eircom: Eleanor

BengaLover wrote: »

Hi Eircom.
Another menu option for customers dialling 1901 would be nice:

To speak with an agent say 'Agent'
To report a fault, say 'Fault Report'
To make a payment or discuss your bill, say 'Payment'
If you have had a horrible day and wish to just shout at someone, say 'AAAAAAGGGGHHHRRHHHH'

Appreciate your feedback, if you have any problems with your service, please let us know and hopefully then you won't need to say AAAAAAA

eircom: Eleanor

smk89 wrote: »

1. Avoid after hours, your name is used to invoke the devil there

2. Ask for stickys to be placed on some of the threads for common problems e.g. xbox router configuration preferably with diagrams and the main technology forums e.g. showing people how to change their router settings as this is a common topic.

3. Don't just send people to the helpline follow them up via posts or private messages.

4. The most important would be to have a code word for the eircom phone number only given to boards members that will automatically connect us to the duty manager who speaks a minimum of 3 programming languages a la.

Apart from that welcome to boards, great to see eircom represented here.

Thanks for your welcoming post,stickys are a great idea, we will look into this.We will endeavour to help you and all posters regarding any queries or issues with our service that you may have

Thank You

Eleanor

eircom: Eleanor

chahop wrote: »

Two pieces of advice
1) The guys you have out trying to switch people back do not have all the info and have giving me lies for answers, I dont know if they work direct for you or not but it gives a very bad impression.
2) Tell IMRO to "GO FXXK YOURSELF" you either do "internet" or "specially selected internet pages we think you can view without hurting yourself"

If your having any issues regarding your bill or serivce, please private message me your eircom details and I will address these for you

Thank You for your post

Eleanor

eircom: Ant

Thanks Joan125 for taking time to contact our Forum.

Just to add, it's great to give a clear solution.
On occasions it may not be possible to give an answer straight off. There may be several queries in a post, and some may be unrelated /or not concerning the company /provider. On these it may be necessary to get back or refer to a solution.

Thanks again
ATB ant.

Joan125 wrote: »

Reply To EVERYBODY ! and if you don't know the answer to what their asking ask them to explain their problem more or just tell them you need more time (as a fellow member commented). Just don't leave people without a reply because I know that there is nothing more frustrating than that and I think everybody else will agree with me.
Welcome to boards

eircom: Eleanor

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

Don't ignore threads like a certain other communications provider on Boards.ie.

We will do our best to respond to every post here on Boards

Thank You for your post

Eleanor

eircom: Eleanor

EAFC_rdfl wrote: »

be informative. by that I mean that if someone opens a thread with a query or problem, and then that discussion is taken to PM, at least come back to the original thread and give a summary of how/if the query or problem was resolved.
I have been following the 'talk to 3' forum, and have looked at numerous threads there with titles I can relate to, only to see the 'PM me and we will see what we can do' line rolled out at the end of it.
It might also remove the chance of getting repetitive queries again and again and again and.....:)

Good advice, thank you

Eleanor

eircom: Eleanor

Agent Smith wrote: »

What do you think is the best piece of advice you could give them coming on to Boards.ie?

I Think the best piece of Advice is to be honnest. If I ask a question and you dont have the info off hand. Thats Fine. Let me know that your researching it, and That you'll get back to me. Nobody expectes you to have a magic ball in front of you

Thank your for your post, that is the approach we take regarding all queries,we will always let you know that we are looking in to something for you and come back to you with a response.

Eleanor

eircom: Mark

Vicxas wrote: »

In the case of customers calling to troubleshoot their xbox connection, and its a problem with their ports/NAT etc. please do not bounce them back to xbox support. Its very frustrating.

Hi Vicxas.

Here is a helpful site:

Configure Your Modem For Online Gaming - www.eircom.net/tutorials - Step by Step Guide -Assistant - Video from Eircom.net Technical Support.

Hope it is of some help.

Mark

eircom: Eleanor

BrookieD wrote: »

My advice here is to remember the Customer is king, To be treated at all times the way you wish to be treated. All your staff need to remember that in some form they are a customer and as such when something is wrong how do they react and what would they expect from the support agents.

With this in mind:-
1) Treat all customers with the respect they deserve - we work very hard and in these times things like DSL are not cheap! please remember we are paying you all for a service that is to be supplied
2) Make sure to respond to ALL queries in a timely manner
3) If you say you will contact a customer at a set time make sure it happens NO MATTER WHAT!
4) Give customer time to vent - then take control of the situation and empathize Never sympathize it is condescending to the customer.
6) Attention to Detail - Get all agents recording all information spoken or written no matter how trivial it may seem at the time. This can clear issues up in moments should they arrive.

I have lots more but these are key.

Darren

Thank you for your post, everything you have said is absoluetly the key to the best customer service a company can give to a customer. We will pass on your advice to our colleagues who look after our customers on the phones and also take on board ousrselves the advice you have given

Thank You

Eleanor

giggsy664

1) Stop the whole blocking TPB thing. You have as much right and as much reason to block it as you do to block Google. Both are used for legal and illegal means.

2) Make the prize for the competition €90. :pac:

More or less the same as what other people are saying;

1. Treat all customers with the respect they deserve.
2. Get the broadband system up to scratch.
3. No more lies to customers about broadband related issues and making promises of "uncongested broadband".
4. Lower your prices.

Buttynic

Use the forum to give people a cross comparison of prices between the different telephone/internet providers and detail which provider provides the best value for money. From this customers might be able to give you advice as to the different areas where you could lower prices as demand requires etc.

CandyApple2010

My advice is to be open to the customers, even if sometimes they get a little annoying just put your self in there position for a second and think about a good positive word of advice you can give them. Always be honest with your customer and dont transfer them to someone else constantly if you dont have an answer to a question or problem. Customers should always be first. I know sometimes it can be hard to consider that. But remember we wouldnt call if there was no reason. So there is always a reason.
Be respectful and that will get you far:D I think if you done that Eircom would get a 5 star rating.