Punishing customer service workers for serving customers

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Apparently at some point a genius decided that customer service phone employees should not actually assist customers with solving problems or issues, but should instead act as human walls preventing said customers from bothering anyone above the CS employee’s pay level no matter what. Should you have an issue that you know can be solved by being kicked upstairs to a supervisor or higher, the employee will be scolded or receive a bad mark for allowing you to contact someone who can actually help you with your problem.

Am I the only one who finds this downright insane? :smack: This is just coocoo, people are not rewarded for helping customers solve their problems they are instead yelled at for not acting as a human shield.

I had an issue with my paypal account, this was the second time when using a credit card to buy something I was charged a cash advance fee. For whatever dumb reason paypal was coding my credit card payments as if I was getting cash back or out of an ATM, I had complained the first time and received a credit and an apology and told if it occurred again to just call again(it was a pain getting to the super the first time).

So I call and talk to the rep and say I need to talk to a supervisor, she insists she can help me fine. Ok explain the issue, she says oh that is my credit card companies problem not theirs. I explain no this happened once before and I was told to call in again if it happened again, she goes no the supervisor will tell you the same thing I did. I say no please give me a supervisor, she again says I will be told the same thing by them, I’m getting angry at this point and demand a supervisor. She says" transferring your call" in a voice that sounds like I ruined her day, the supervisor gave me the credit and apologized again.
My BOA debit card was cancelled with no warning due to a merchant I had used it at more than a year previous getting compromised, arggh! I called in and explained that this left me in a harsh position as that was my only way to access my bank account as I am not in the USA, and getting my family to mail me the replacement card would take a while. The woman I spoke to sympathized with my plight and told me she could reactivate my card for a short window so I could use it at the ATM to withdraw cash to tide me over til I got the replacement card, just call her once I was in town in front of the ATM ready to withdraw and ask for a supervisor in the security department.

Holy crap! Do you know how hard it was to get the phone employees to do this? They sounded like their job depended on NOT letting me talk to anyone above them, but of course they could not do what I needed done. Even telling me no such thing could be done, I was lied to.:dubious:

I had my wife google BOA numbers, she found one for the security department. The guy I spoke to had no problem helping me with my issue, after I laughed about the mess earlier he laughed and assured me his job was not going to be effected by helping me. Got the money out fine.
I mean seriously?!? Talking to people I know who have worked these kind of jobs they have said I probably got someone fired, for insisting on being helped?!

This is the craziest business decision ever.

2

You have to keep in mind the motto for customer service in companies like these. It’s We’re Not Satisfied Until You’re Not Satisfied!. Once it you accept that, it all makes sense.

3

Oh I forgot to add that a really egregious example of this horseshit is the US Postal Service, if you have any kind of issue or want to contact a particular post office you will be directed to a 1800 customer service number that is absolutely USELESS. The employees can offer no insight or assistance aside from telling you to file a lost mail claim:smack: They don’t even seem to have access to the public USPS website, totally useless. If your issue is anything above nonsense you’re wasting your time.

However if you can find the phone number for the individual post office where your issue occurred(using google or digging deep on the USPS website) and can be very POLITE when calling them you’ll have your issue solved in seconds. Often you’ll be accosted with questions about how you got this number?! Who gave you this number! :mad: Hah.

4

Many years ago, I read an article written by a call center employee describing their day at work. One of the key metrics they were measured on was average call length. They could be disciplined if their average call time rose above a certain number. But one of the rewards for keeping their average call length low was that they got to play supervisor for a day. The supervisor for a day didn’t get any extra pay or have any extra authority, but if a customer insisted on being transferred to a supervisor, the call would be transferred to them and they would just listen to the customer’s complaint all over again.

Generally speaking, call center employees now days are paid very poorly and hence develop no interest in or loyalty to their work. They may be trained to upsell customers: for example, if a customer calls up to complain about the interest on their credit card, they may be trained to suggest a balance transfer or some other kind of loan. And they may have a quota or a commission for upselling.

As far as problem solving goes, they are just trained to call up a screen and read from it. For example, I called a credit card issuer last year and complained that I wasn’t getting the promised bonus points for paying my phone bill with their card. The response was

“Thank you very much Mr Alley. Let me check on that. Thank you for waiting Mr Alley. When you use your Megabank Card you will receive 5x bonus points for paying your phone bill. Is there anything else I can help you with today Mr Alley?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m telling you I didn’t receive those points.”

“I see. Thank-you Mr Alley. Please wait Mr Alley. Thank you for waiting Mr Alley. The points you earn can be redeemed for cash and valuable gifts starting as low as 1000 points. Is there anything else I can help you with, Mr Alley?”

“You’re not giving me the points! There is something wrong. I can’t redeem the points until you credit them to my account!”

“I see. Thank-you Mr Alley. Let me connect you to the Megabank Points Center.”

Ring-ring. “Thank-you for calling the Megabank Points Center. How may I help you today?”

“I was supposed to get 5x points for paying my phone bill, but they never credited the bonus points.”

“Thank-you Mr Alley. And what would you like to redeem your points for today?”

“I don’t have any points because they are not being credited to my account.”

“I see. Thank-you, Mr Alley. You will need to contact your sponsoring bank’s customer service department. Is there anything else I can help you with, Mr Alley?”

Basically, at most large institutions a regular customer is going to know more about their products and services than a typical phone CSR. Heck, too often someone who has just skimmed the company’s web site will know more. Customer service is dead, dead, dead.

5

The worst are the phone companies since they still cannot get out of the monopoly mode that they have no competitors. They do and I now get my phone and internet service from my cable company. The cable company actually helps when you call them. One guy, spontaneously made a suggestion that saved me nearly $20 a month. He pointed out that I was paying for a quantity of up and down loading that I never came anywhere near. Amazing. Also you rarely, if ever, get put on hold.

6

What Alley Dweller said, especially the first two paragraphs. On a greater level, it can also be said/modified for any customer service position.

7

Sheesh Hari, what in hell are you smoking? A cable company? Responsive and helpful? Imma need a cite for that, I’m afraid. Such things are unheard of where I’m from!

8

Citation for Comcast being responsive and helpful.

(Keep in mind that this was six years ago. They’ve slipped some since then, in my book.)

9

The healthcare.gov customer service is flat out terrible. I have tried several times to create an account, get an error message, and the CSR says they cannot create an account, please try again during off-peak hours. Did I mention that I was talking to them during off-peak hours? I asked them when I should come back, and they suggested a window, and I glanced at the clock, and noticed that we were in that window right then. Suffice it to say, the website still didn’t work. The CSR had no explanation but to say that the website was very busy and they were working very hard to resolve all the glitches. I asked when the site would be working, and they would not say. Another time, the healthcare.gov CSR constantly tried to change the subject away. When I commented that they were not answering my questions, they told me to call the number on the website. Uhh, how is that going to help?

10

Hmm. I always thought it was: “Because Fuck You, That’s Why!”

11

Anecdotes are useless

cite a scientific study

12

I worked at a cable company customer service job once. It was a terrible job.

Bottom line up front: You are correct. There was not a stated number, but it was understood that it was up to you to “solve the problem” and not have to raise it to the supervisor. If the supervisor got too many of your calls, they would usually come to talk to you and let you know. So from the perspective of the customer service rep, the objective is, how can I either:

  1. Solve the customer’s problem (this can only be done about 50% of the time). If that can’t be done, then the next objective is to
  2. Get the customer to hang up.
    I hated that job so much. Everyone was angry at you and you had no control and no power, but were expected to fix things.

“Yes sir, I am sorry you stayed home from work for 4 hours yesterday so that we could come fix your cable. I am sorry we never came, the crews could not make it to your house in time. We will reschedule for tomorrow. You don’t mind staying home for another 4 hour window tomorrow do you? You do? Sir, please do not yell. We are very sorry. No sir, I am not authorized to give you any credit on your bill because we are evil.” Wait, did I say that out loud?

13

The OP is right. The managers have one job: TPS Report style “metrics”, blaming You, and building a case to get reps fired. They come in “bully” flavor and “brainless buzzword bingo spouting” flavor ( its more passive aggressive). If the OP wants to strike a blow against these idiots, just listen for anyone to use the word “synergy” (or any of the meaningless fluff terms that some us used to call Lucent-speak) and then berate them as they deserve.
Reps are hired Only to keep you away from people who are checking stock prices, surfing porn, or about to leave to play golf…