Remember the days when Customer Service meant something?

SkyBlueClouds · 03-10-2014 01:10PM #1

Press 1 to talk to a robot.
Press 2 if you wish to sell your liver for cash
Press 3 for pan-flute music.

Your call is important to us. Please hold whilst we play Mozart on a loop ad-nauseum, before the poor call handler at the end of the line asks you endless questions (in order to fulfill data protection obligations please state mothers maiden name, DOB, favorite pastime, dietary requirements etc etc...) before passing your complaint off with a scripted reply and asking you to call back because a manager is unavailable.

Just had this experience with a telecoms company querying a charge on my bill. I know the poor folks who take the CS calls are often powerless to escalate them - often many are just working for a average salary - still though, most companies and corporations only give a rats arse when you ring the sales line. I think I'll call up again to complain about this fact...oh wait...i'm number 27 in line...the call is important to them and shall be awnserd in due course :-)

What are your CS experiences, good or bad?

GalwayGirl26 · 03-10-2014 01:12PM

3 owe me almost a full day of my life that I will never get back.

AnonoBoy · 03-10-2014 01:13PM

Frankly, no. No I don't.

Yours sincerely,

A Vodafone Customer.

uch · 03-10-2014 01:16PM

I always expect to be treated like a cúnt, then occasionally I'm pleasantly pleased

whiskeyman · 03-10-2014 01:18PM

Good customer service to me in Ireland was always Superquinn.
If only Superquinn had a mobile phone service, gas , elec. insurance etc... back in the day.
Life would have been a whole lot easier...

RichardoKhan · 03-10-2014 01:19PM

Press #4 for Telephonic Abyss..................

SkyBlueClouds · 03-10-2014 01:26PM

RichardoKhan wrote: »

Press #4 for Telephonic Abyss..................

Ah yes. First though I need to inform you this call may (i.e will) be recorded for quality control and training purposes.

Wabbit Ears · 03-10-2014 01:29PM

as someone who is reasonably old, no, customer service never meant something, all large companies hire or outsource cheap first line staff and have huge staff turnover.

BoJack Horseman · 03-10-2014 01:31PM

Pepperidge Farm remembers

krudler · 03-10-2014 01:35PM

Having endured a few years working in a call centre it got harder and harder to provide good customer service when you spent all day mired in a swamp of middle management incompetence, policies that made no sense, ridiculously contradicting targets and work objectives that basically went like this:
"We want you to take as many calls as you can, but don't rush through the call make every customer feel amazed. But don't take too long on the call either, sell them loads of extra sh1te they don't need, but solve their issue too, just not too quickly.
Oh and don't put them on hold unless you have to, expect we've changed this procedure so now you need a manager to approve it first so you'll have to go ask one (if you can find one) and get them to do something you were previously allowed do yourself, don't take too long doing that as every second of your working day is monitored, scrutinised and reported on, now remember to have a smile in your voice!"

The CS agents mostly want to help people, it's just so hard to when you're battling all the absolute bullsh1t that goes with working in an environment like that every day.

Sauve · 03-10-2014 01:37PM

That's all good and well, but the sheer amount of people who call companies with the heckles up, ready and waiting to be treated like shyte. Bad way to start a phonecall.

If you're sound, reasonable and calm, you'll generally get on their better side and squeeze a bit of niceness out of them.

krudler · 03-10-2014 01:45PM

Sauve wrote: »

That's all good and well, but the sheer amount of people who call companies with the heckles up, ready and waiting to be treated like shyte. Bad way to start a phonecall.

If you're sound, reasonable and calm, you'll generally get on their better side and squeeze a bit of niceness out of them.

This, a million times this. The people who came on and explained their issue, didn't expect it to be solved yesterday already and had a reasonable expectation of what we could do for them were the easiest people to deal with. The ones who came on roaring down the phone over trivial matters, had zero sense or logic (think of it as like talking to a boards troll in real life).

Back at the beginning of the year when all those really bad storms were around the country? A mast got damaged in some rural area, I can't remember where there was loads of damage around the country so some coverage outages, this woman came on the phone screeching that her texts werent sending. I checked and the mast had gotten damaged because a huge tree branch fell on it, replacement parts ordered, engineers waiting on those, would get fixed in the next day or so. But oh no, this needed to be fixed NOW, how would she communicate with people? I think she expected that I could push a button and have a brand new phone mast spring out of the ground, just for her. Illogical people just do my nut in anyway and working with the people that's mostly what you deal with.

BBDBB · 03-10-2014 01:48PM

Yes, it was a Tuesday

topper75 · 03-10-2014 01:54PM

whiskeyman wrote: »

Good customer service to me in Ireland was always Superquinn.
If only Superquinn had a mobile phone service, gas , elec. insurance etc... back in the day.
Life would have been a whole lot easier...

There was meaningful competition in that supermarket sector though in the 80s/90s. So SQ tried to create a distinction for themselves that way. Slightly higher prices but better service. If you wanted cheap and nasty you had that choice too elsewhere.

The worst service is provided (or rather not provided) by utility companies as they are usually state-sponsored monopolies that have you over a barrel. And there will be a new one to contend with soon.

The mobile network market is carved up by a confusopoly (see Dilbert).

krudler · 03-10-2014 01:55PM

The other thing to remember is this, the reason most company phone lines are busier than they need to be isn't the fault of the CS agents, it's because of the sheer amount of morons who ring places clogging up the lines. I've been asked everything from what date it was to connect people to a pizza shop over the years, despite not working for a talking clock or directory enqury service. I've had hour long calls from people who rang up just to chat, but I'd get in trouble if I hung up on them (yes that's monitored too), yet I'm the one getting pulled for going over the expected time limit on calls.

Oh and anyone who rings a customer service line on Christmas day, fcuk you too. "Ahh isn't it awful ye have to work on Christmas day?" Yeah BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU YOU CUNTWAFFLE.

Guy:Incognito · 03-10-2014 01:56PM

whiskeyman wrote: »

Good customer service to me in Ireland was always Superquinn.
If only Superquinn had a mobile phone service, gas , elec. insurance etc... back in the day.
Life would have been a whole lot easier...

Superquinn don't even have a superquinn anymore, Nevermind a mobile network.

Riamfada · 03-10-2014 01:58PM

If you act like a **** and expect the moon and stars like a unrealistic **** you will be treated like a ****. Otherwise you shouldnt have any reason to say you have had bad customer service experience.

If you havnt got your way. Its probably because you were a ****. Shock & horror realisation is that companies are not out to shaft you.

krudler · 03-10-2014 02:09PM

Riamfada wrote: »

If you act like a **** and expect the moon and stars like a unrealistic **** you will be treated like a ****. Otherwise you shouldnt have any reason to say you have had bad customer service experience.

If you havnt got your way. Its probably because you were a ****. Shock & horror realisation is that companies are not out to shaft you.

Thing is that people often equate getting their own way to good customer service, and often it's not.

Remember the days when Customer Service meant something?

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