On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score • Hacker News Board

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#31

Post by Scoundreller » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:52 PM UTC

bb2018 wrote: post #24

azinman2 wrote: post #6

“Not all customers deserve a company’s best efforts,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who helped popularize lifetime value scores. I feel like this is a succinct argument against the idea to privitize everything — there’s no accountability nor notion of “fairness” baked in whatsoever.

It all depends on your notion of fair. If one percent of people call up customer service to complain about 50% of their transactions they are clogging up the system. I only call if something is breaking and I've exhausted all troubleshooting and automated methods.

You’ll get put on hold forever: “this person’s calls take 30 minutes to resolve”

Edit: and makes our call takers feel dumb with low resolution rates

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#32

Post by benologist » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:52 PM UTC

bb2018 wrote: post #24

azinman2 wrote: post #6

“Not all customers deserve a company’s best efforts,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who helped popularize lifetime value scores. I feel like this is a succinct argument against the idea to privitize everything — there’s no accountability nor notion of “fairness” baked in whatsoever.

It all depends on your notion of fair. If one percent of people call up customer service to complain about 50% of their transactions they are clogging up the system. I only call if something is breaking and I've exhausted all troubleshooting and automated methods.

These systems only exist to help their customers so if it is "clogged" it is probably indicative of fat execs and a successful round of layoffs after they realized they could "make more" by supporting their customers less.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#33

Post by crdoconnor » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #29

azinman2 wrote: post #6

“Not all customers deserve a company’s best efforts,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who helped popularize lifetime value scores. I feel like this is a succinct argument against the idea to privitize everything — there’s no accountability nor notion of “fairness” baked in whatsoever.

>argument against the idea to privitize everything Go to a different company next time? If the government denies your paperwork, you get to keep working with the same government.

Complaining to a congressperson is usually more effective than complaining to a monopoly/oligopoly like Comcast.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#34

Post by tomcam » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #6

“Not all customers deserve a company’s best efforts,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who helped popularize lifetime value scores. I feel like this is a succinct argument against the idea to privitize everything — there’s no accountability nor notion of “fairness” baked in whatsoever.

Who wants to privatize everything?

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#35

Post by LanceH » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

LiterallyDoge wrote: post #19

This is a great argument for the intangible value of the right to individual privacy.

You have every right to individual privacy. Once you yield it you don't have a right to make other people pretend they don't remember you.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#36

Post by DonHopkins » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

notyourday wrote: post #9

hiei wrote: post #2

At least for my phone provider, you can hit 0 about 6-7 times after the automated responses and be directly sent to a live agent.

Anecdata: The more advanced systems monitor for customer irritation while the customer is "on hold". It is quite possible to skip the line by fitting the profile of a really irate customer. While saying "agent" would put one into a standard queue, saying " agent" does magic on some Verizon, ATT, Comcast and Optimum CS or billing numbers.

The Uber customer service line just transferred me to Uber Escorts.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#37

Post by monochromatic » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:54 PM UTC

I wish there were a rule against posting paywalled content here.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#38

Post by amingilani » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:54 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #20

I worked in different call center environments, things may have changed but hold time really was more a matter of dumb luck and incompetent call routing systems more than anything else. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I wouldn't necessarily read a difference in response as some sort of panned customer score or system necessarily. Incompetence reigns supreme when it comes to call centers, even when someone tries…

Oh boy, can I vouch for this!

And sometimes, during outreach, we'd call customers and their spouses would pick up and say something like "My husband/wife is out of town for a week/month" but the CRM had only one button "unavailable".

They got calls like that every day or two until the customer came back home.

Also, this is getting OT, but since my country's native language isn't English, I'd call customers who were out of town, and their wives would thank me for not butchering their names. Apparently, my colleagues would mess up non-stereotypical names. Calisle would become "Carlizzle", Jose would become "Joez", "Lucian" would be "Lucky-un", etc.

In general, most off-shore support and telemarketing rigs, not the best technology out there.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#39

Post by azinman2 » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:55 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #29

azinman2 wrote: post #6

“Not all customers deserve a company’s best efforts,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who helped popularize lifetime value scores. I feel like this is a succinct argument against the idea to privitize everything — there’s no accountability nor notion of “fairness” baked in whatsoever.

>argument against the idea to privitize everything Go to a different company next time? If the government denies your paperwork, you get to keep working with the same government.

Right.. except most of the time I don’t have a choice for internet, power, garbage, etc. So much of infrastructure and basic services are regional (for a variety of reasons) that you don’t have this infinite choice. Often even if you do have “choice,” it’s a few equally bad options. When startup cost to challenge is so high, and the switching cost means most people won’t, the idea that anyone would just break into the market falls flat. Add non-accountability, and there’s no recourse. At least with the government, they cannot legally prioritize one person over another, and there exists judicial recourse.

Re: On Hold for 45 Minutes? It Might Be Your Secret Customer Score

#40

Post by dawnerd » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:55 PM UTC

notyourday wrote: post #10

ergothus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for both of these, "directly" often means being on hold.

Prefix it with the famous f word and become the next call answered.

Twitter too in some ways. Publicly say something negative about the company and if they have a reasonable support team you'll be helped instantly. Tmobile is really good about this, as is Delta and Chase. Also surprisingly enough got some good support from California DMV over twitter. Who would have guessed!