The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

Recently I had one of the worst experiences with contact centers. It was when I was having some trouble with my satellite reception with a TV company. I lost my local channels and I called to figure out what was going on and to get the problem rectified and one of the first things that struck me about their customer service was that they did se IVR and they used it very poorly. By the time I got to a real person I was already ready to switch service from them, because it was so poorly mapped out and confusing.  The next area where they really fell on their faces was wait time.

They get very busy while dealing with some of their field reps. I know and they know that they are busy at certain times everyday but they don't effectively address that situation, either through staffing or use of technology. So they know that they are going to get busy and they are just fine with that. The wait time for me was over an hour and they were just fine with that. So that is really not a good way to put a customer in a good mood.

The other area where they really have trouble is when you speak to someone like I did and they take your information and assess the situation and inevitably in the six calls that I had to make to them over a two week period they had to pass you on to another agent or a supervisor. When they passed me through my information did not go through with the call and every time that I was passed I had to go through and recount my story again and go through all the standard questions that they are required to ask, which in the end probably ate up probably fifteen hours of my time with all of my calls with them. So integrating that data in a way that allows everyone who touches the customer to know what is going on and what the situation is I think required. I don't know how you can do business without having that sort of information in front of the people who are dealing with the customers.

Beyond that, either their training or their corporate culture needs a lot of work, because each person that I dealt with had a different story with what was going wrong and what the solution was going to be (which indicated to me that they had no idea or no training on how to answer that or even worse corporately they didn't know what was going on but they weren't going to tell the customer that). When you combine having to restate your problem every time that you call, and then having people come back to you with no consistency what so ever, it resulted in probably the worst experience that I've had with call centers. I am still dealing with them only because I am waiting for the best deal from Just network to switch, but it was enough to make me want to jump and shift

Matt Schwabel - Marketing Communications Manager, INOVA Solutions

I am notorious for having five or six mobile phone companies in my life. The last three phone companies that I have had have been horrendous.

One phone company charged me for international roaming charges while I was in the state of Florida. To fix this problem it took no less then six phone calls a total wait time of 120 minutes, only to discover that I had a phone with technology that required a different customer service representative, therefore; bouncing me around from department to department.

By the time I got to the customer service representative they had to contact the technical area to resolve my phone problems. Simultaneously, the internet portion of my mobile phone also went out. I was told that the service would be restored shortly, and again it took three weeks to restore the service, at least a half of a dozen phone calls, and a visit to their local stores (where they were no help what so ever). All of that only resulted in an eight dollar credit to my phone bill.

On top of all of that I was offered a free phone when I checked my statement on line, and the phone was never sent and the order was never processed. When I called they couldn't expedite the phone even though I had a very vigorous travel schedule. I went to the local store once again and they knew nothing of an offer of a free phone. I was thoroughly disgusted and changed phone providers.

As I changed phone providers I got another phone company, I received a phone that simply just didn't work in our office, it would not ring. I went back within the window of the return period and I w as given another phone to insure that I was in the grace period of returning and getting my money back. When I went back the second time, because the second phone wouldn't work. This phone provider said that I had exhausted the fifteen day period and they would not refund my three hundred dollars for the phone, plus they were charging me for cell phone service that I did not use. That took sixty says to rectify, including invoices that continued to be sent to my phone. Once again there was not help from customer service what so ever.

The third service provider in a row I signed up with had pathetic roaming services and every time I tried to call in my wait time was twenty minutes on the same cell phone that I was trying to use to contact the company and the service would disconnect nineteen minutes into my wait time of twenty minutes.

So I've finally settled on phone service provider and that relationship has lasted over six months. That is longer then most of the relationships that I've had in my life with the phone companies. I have had an adversarial relationship with most of these companies because I think that it is all about acquisition and very little service or retention and unfortunately that is the way that business seems to be run, and I think in the long run it will end up costing them business and customer loyalty.

Tony Compton - Marketing Director, eLoyalty

I have personal feelings with a cable company that will remain nameless. The problem that I had was that they had issued me a billing date that was simply inconvenient to my travel schedule and lifestyle. As a result of the inconvenient billing date I missed a couple of payments at the due date, so I called up the call center and spoke with a very pleasant agent. I informed her that I just wanted to change my billing date, there was a long pause and she said I am sorry but there is no way that we can change your billing date.I asked to speak with a supervisor because I found that very hard to believe and she said I will transfer you to the supervisor but the supervisor cannot change your billing date either and that upset me a little.

She did however execute the transfer correctly and I did speak with a supervisor who was very courteous and indeed informed me that she could not change my billing date. So I asked her very politely who in the company I had to speak with in order to change my billing date and she said after a short pause that the president of the organization himself couldn't change my billing date and I was stuck with my billing date. The only way I would be able to change it is if I terminate my service and then reinstate my service in a couple of weeks, and cross my fingers and hope that the billing service that I received would meet my particular needs.

I was very unhappy with that and I remain very unhappy with that to this moment.

Bill Durr - Chief Evangelist, Blue Pumpkin Software