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Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

blogs.forrester.com

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Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#21

Post by maxerickson »

Someone else used my email address for their Ubisoft account. The problem with this is that Ubisoft doesn't verify addresses, so I end up getting a bunch of junk from them (maybe things they should not be sending me too...). I looked for an email contact form to ask them to remove my address from the account. No dice. Their Twitter person said to call Ubisoft Support. Not gonna do that, so now their user isn't getting messages and I'm training Gmail that Ubisoft is a spammer.

ESPN Fantasy Sports was similarly broken as of a year ago, if someone entered your email address for a league, the only way to stop getting messages was to create an account, join the league, and then delete the account.

Of course just clicking spam is far easier than trying to fix the problem, but I figure creating friction against these sorts of broken processes is some sort of minor public service.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#22

Post by devonkim »

I have to disagree with some of the implications of the article. Older people (baby boomers or older) like my parents or mother and father in-law immediately look for a phone number when they encounter an issue because they "don't trust computers to be as up-to-date as a real, live person" (summarization). This tendency seems to decrease as a person becomes faster at looking up information online, but even my father that's in IT will still reach for a phone if he can't figure out what he's looking for within a minute. For myself, the resistance to calling is because of the dreaded wait time in a call queue.

It should also be noted that while the statistics unequivocally show a trend upwards in use of non-phone support channels, this still leaves roughly 40%+ of interactions by phone at the moment. The other important implication is that when customers do happen to call you, it will increasingly be because all other sources failed first which means your call center should be moving towards higher-skilled problem solvers than mostly tier 1 / level 1 support agents that might as well be replaced with an AI but aren't because voice systems are expensive for the results in conversation.

My fundamental point is that you while you should understand general trends, you should validate against your organization. AARP probably should not think about dropping half their phone agents exactly, but maybe they should revisit the idea in another 4 years as the general population becomes more educated and the technology-handicapped pass on.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#24

Post by superuser2 »

nikanj wrote: post #4

I. WANT. TO. CALL. SUPPORT! Nothing is more infuriating than having a problem, and being endlessly redirected from a FAQ to user forums to email. Email gets me a canned answer from Bob, who didn't read my mail for more than 7 seconds. Replying to said mail gets me Chuck, who's very sorry Bob couldn't help me..and then pastes the same canned answer. With a phone, you're not running totally stateless, and can actually…

A thousand times yes.

Support articles are written from the perspective that the company's products and services are perfect and I might not understand how to use them correctly.

Only on the phone can I get someone who will acknowledge the existence of an actual problem and start drilling into it with me.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#25

Post by MichaelBurge »

gregpilling wrote: post #3

Anecdote: we recently made a few videos, explaining the most common tech support questions. Studio, lighting, mic, etc. and edited professionally. Calls dropped in half at least, with those specific problems almost wiped out completely. I am shipping 1000 products per month, and handling 2-3 phone calls per day to support them. Now planning on making more videos to cover the next most frequent generic questions, and…

When I type into your search bar, the text is the same color as the background.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#26

Post by razster »

my5thaccount wrote: post #19

Customers rarely call me, but when they do, it's fine -- I love them. It's usually because they can't figure out how to log in. It's especially painful when they call at 8:30am on the east coast and I'm on the west coast and my cell phone wakes me up and they say, "I can't log in." and they are mad at me and I don't even know who they are or which account and it turns out they've been typoing their username for days.…

I would say your comment is on par with my clients.

I work with all US and Alaska tribes, a lot of them older women doing enrollment that I assist with technical support.

They're always happy to talk with me and I tell them do not hesitate to call if there is an issue. Glad to help.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#27

Post by VLM »

nikanj wrote: post #4

I. WANT. TO. CALL. SUPPORT! Nothing is more infuriating than having a problem, and being endlessly redirected from a FAQ to user forums to email. Email gets me a canned answer from Bob, who didn't read my mail for more than 7 seconds. Replying to said mail gets me Chuck, who's very sorry Bob couldn't help me..and then pastes the same canned answer. With a phone, you're not running totally stateless, and can actually…

Its a lack of contract renewal, or monopoly presence, in that field.

In the telecom world, say whatever you want verbally, nobody records things, but anything written in email will come up at contract renewal time or in court if the contract needs breaking.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#28

Post by kdkooo »

I think this article leaves out a major question of whether or not people feel like being social. Some people like talking to people when they have a problem or question, some people have a strong resistance to explaining their problem on the spot to a stranger.

Re: Customers Don't Want to Call for Support

#29

Post by kecks »

zajd wrote: post #18
sandebert wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be rude or anything, but you might also had some effect if you updated the texts on your customer service page to not just be repetitions of Lorem Ipsum. :-) http://sascase.com/customer-service

Well that's because you need to go to the customer support area: http://sascase.com/customer-support/

... which is empty as well.
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