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

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

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't imagine how a government education program could hope to achieve equality in outcome in the face of education-aware and education-prioritizing parents spending far more time and working with their children outside of school on enrichment activities that improve educational outcomes. Identify children without such parents and provide them and their parents with additional support; it's expensive , but it's t…

I agree with the futility of expanding the current schooling paradigm. I do, however, worry that the foundations are laid before the kids even arrive at kindergarten. How many words of in-person adult conversation does the child hear each week? How many minutes of 1-to-1 direct, focused time does the child receive from an adult each day? How secure does the child feel? What is their nourishment like? What is their sl…

> I'm doubtful of a government program being able to close those gaps in the 0.25 to 5 year old range and I'm doubtful that those early developmental deficits (especially around nourishment, sleep, and security) can be fully closed during the schooling years.

I do think thibk you can cure it immediately, but I think you can narrow the gap a bit each generation; it's a long term project that's doable because the outcomes of one generation are the starting conditions for the next.

And ideally it takes improved non-schooling intervention in the before school years. But if you don't intervene to do what you can in the school years now, you've got a worse starting point than you could have for the next generation.

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

#372
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But unless you're a highly placed executive no one travels on the company dime often enough to bother with air miles anyway This isn't really a true statement. Marketing and enterprise sales folks travel a lot on the company dime. I'm on the engineering and consulting staff in my company, and I travel a decent amount, mostly domestic. Most of our engineers do frequent on-sites. One might not be able to get status,…

> Marketing and enterprise sales folks travel a lot on the company dime Yes, my bad. I just meant at my employer; we've invested heavily in telepresence, so only the bigwigs here get to travel with any regularity. And I was really trying to say without regular travel you won't end up with a meaningful status. For example United has a raft of tiers so unless you're [1] 1K or Global Services [2] you're literally not at…

I understand now. My apologies for misunderstanding. Thank you for clarifying.

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

#373
post #57

The most obvious example of this in daily life is through airlines, where the difference is pretty transparent and you get night-and-day better service by being a loyal customer. With top status with AA and UA (EXP and 1K), you connected to U.S.-based very senior phone agents right away, who always make sure to take care of any issue that arises. 50min delay on your AA flight? No problem, sir, we are rebooking you on…

I never buy "Basic Economy" anymore. The new Premium Economy classes (the ones with extra legroom) being offered by most airlines these days are pretty reasonably priced and SO worth the extra money.

Even when my employer is sending me somewhere (and they only pay for basic economy - they don't care if I arrive at my destination exhausted, sore, and angry at the world), I'll purchase the upgrade myself.

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

#374
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes sense, but my reaction is the exact opposite. If they're going to structure it to be shitty so I do what they want, then I'm for damned sure not going to do what they want. One of my big life rules is "don't feed pigeons." I mean it metaphorically, of course. Pigeons are machines for turning food into pigeon shit and more pigeons, and I'm not a big fan of either. A clearer version is something like, "don't…

> If they're going to structure it to be shitty so I do what they want They've structured it to be shitty because that's what the market wants: the lowest cost product. When I fly the major carriers, I often still see the "premium economy" seats available for purchase at check-in. Those cost an extra $50-100 to get extra legroom, early boarding, etc. These are the same perks that they provide for free to their entry-…

> They've structured it to be shitty because that's what the market wants

Kind of. It's what the current market wants. But through anticompetitive mergers and deregulation, the airlines have lobbied and gamed the laws to create a market tilted heavily towards their own preferences, that the public overwhelmingly hates.

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

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes sense, but my reaction is the exact opposite. If they're going to structure it to be shitty so I do what they want, then I'm for damned sure not going to do what they want. One of my big life rules is "don't feed pigeons." I mean it metaphorically, of course. Pigeons are machines for turning food into pigeon shit and more pigeons, and I'm not a big fan of either. A clearer version is something like, "don't…

Same. This is also why I avoid credit cards.

Same, this is why I'm an Amish subsistence farmer.

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

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the futility of expanding the current schooling paradigm. I do, however, worry that the foundations are laid before the kids even arrive at kindergarten. How many words of in-person adult conversation does the child hear each week? How many minutes of 1-to-1 direct, focused time does the child receive from an adult each day? How secure does the child feel? What is their nourishment like? What is their sl…

> I'm doubtful of a government program being able to close those gaps in the 0.25 to 5 year old range and I'm doubtful that those early developmental deficits (especially around nourishment, sleep, and security) can be fully closed during the schooling years. I do think thibk you can cure it immediately, but I think you can narrow the gap a bit each generation; it's a long term project that's doable because the outco…

Fair point!

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

#377
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only do cashback. I currently get anywhere from 1.5 to 5% off of anything I buy via cash back. I don't think about it until I go to pay my credit card bill, then I just use the points to take the balance down the 5%

that's credit cards vs frequent flier programs. Two different things. you can double up on FF by having the 'right' credit card, yes. But that's not the only way to get miles.

Parent comment mentioned credit card points. I technically get points, but I just immediately convert them into money.

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

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm pretty convinced this all boils down to a sort of low-grade white collar corruption: people who travel a lot for business sometimes can get away with favoring one airline over another, I suppose it depends on the business but at my Fortune 50 we're required to use "lowest logical airfare". You can force a choice of Southwest over United by choosing one airport over another, and there's enough wiggle room to let…

What? There’s a whole cottage industry of helping business travelers accumulate miles and award tiers. And the vast majority of heavy business travelers are just rank and file employees. It’s definitely not only highly placed executives.

Just look at Kenny Tarmac :)

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

#379
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more you try to obfuscate your online sessions (eg: by disabling browser features, disabling JS, removing fonts, removing WebRTC, using the privacy-aware browser-of-the-day, etc. thus making your fingerprint even more unique), the more you stand out from the regular users crowd, the more automated tracking machines/algos get interested in you as an abnormal datapoint, the more you are paradoxically at risk of bei…

How exactly do they intend on fingerprinting me with no JS? They get my IP and referrer - that's it.

Browser user agent. Mine is unique for example. With sufficiently vast DBs they can match you or anyone with anything.

Also some 3rd party software may request to spy on you in the browser, e.g. Red Shell so called "analytics" used by many legitimate big video games on PC. It will spy on you in the browser and you agree to it in a kilometer long user agreement they shove in your face upon first launch.

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

#380

Honestly, this sounds like a pretty practical feature. Just do some basic arithmetic on key variables to let customer service know how much of that all too prescious resource (effort) they have to spend on that call. I think the real problem is a lot more nuanced, though. For one, even tiny unsophisticated call centers implement painfully slow numeric menu navigation that always gives you that extra little kick in th…

I don't understand where everywhere does not have an option to call you back. If it's a toll-free number, they're paying for the call either way. It wouldn't require extra staff or even extra time per call (start the callback slightly before the agent is actually free). It would, however, be vastly nicer for the customer.

Because it's cheaper for the company if you just give up and get help elsewhere. They have barriers in place to impede your attempt to cancel your subscription
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