Shadow
Member
Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 62 |
>I am one of those total slime ball losers >that works in the outsource industry. I have >no connection to Handspring support but I >can respond in general to the way many of my >co-workers deal with things.
First, no one has said the outsourced folks were "total slime ball losers." Folks been feeling a great deal of pain due to poor CSR support and common sense would indicate that HS should step in and correct things with this organization they paid (probably very well) to handle order taking and customer support. If they do not do a good job, HS doesn't get customers. Which means no one gets paid and no product ships...etc. etc.
I'm speaking from experience at 2 different companies that rely heavily upon individuals providing phone support (both inhouse and outsourced/contracting). Both companies I worked (and currently work) provide phone support for order placement, status/tracking, and technical support.
>1. Phone techs will treat you with the same >respect you treat us. Therefore if you give >us a hard time and question our intelligence >we will toe the hard line; on the flip side, >if you are nice to us, we will be nice to >you.
[insert buzzer noise here]
Wrong tactic. I worked directly for the training organization that took care of the 800 line for all orders for this 1 [formerly] major company in the US. The first thing they told the support team was that even if the customer is a jerk (my words not theirs) you must conduct yourself in a professional manner - do not take your feelings towards the customer out on that person. If it gets out of control then you ask the person if they would like to speak to a supervisor. You do not let your feelings interfer with the call and make a bad situation worse.
The company I work for now tapes all calls for security (and the customers are aware of this at the time their call is answered) and if the customer continues to be difficult they are "reported" to management and action is taken. I think they are advised (when extremely abusive) that their call will be terminated if they continue. There is a special situation with this company that further detail isn't necessary.
>2. In general and specifically with �new� >products like the Visor, support personnel >have little information on the product.
I agree, but they usually have the basics. And we're talking Customer Support for order taking, tracking, and status. Not support on the actual product from Tech Support. Infact, my limited contact with Tech Support has been very positive.
>Additionally, I would be surprised if the >support team has many visors on site for >support to play with.
I would be suprised too since they shouldn't have units to play with if they are only taking orders and providing customer support on order placement, status, and returns.
>Currently, production of the visor is >impacted. For those of you that don�t >understand, that means that sales of the >visor are greater than even the wildest >projections in the business plan.
I think most of us do understand this. That is why folks call Customer Support to ask status on orders. For the CSR to continually state it will take 4-6 weeks (and a caller is inquiring about status on an order that has already exceeded that timeframe) and not really know what they are talking about then that is where the problem comes in. It is up to a phone rep to make sure they are giving accurate information (and in some cases actually listen to the customer to understand the issue). If someone has already told them "it has been 8 weeks since my order was placed and you told me last week I'd have it by Friday..." can't you see why someone would be very angry and not trust the CSR when they are getting lip service and inaccurate information? If the CSR doesn't know, then proper procedure is to put the customer on hold (for a minimal amount of time) and find a supervisor to get a proper response. They should not continue reading from their manual when the scenario doesn't meet that requirement.
To use your suggested experience as an example, I can just see the difficulty in trying to get the status on an order when a customer is getting upset at the lack of response from the CSR and the CSR is turning around and getting upset with the customer or playing hardball. A rude CSR can exacerbate the situation - or 2 wrongs do not make a right and unfortunately the Customer is always right.
I can understand your defense of the profession, but I can't see defending a company that is obviously flawed and needs to correct how things are done and how calls are handled. If they are not held accountable then there is no incentive to improve. So HS is the only one to take the heat when they hired a 3rd party to handle this for them.
>3. There is a cost to provide support.
[cut rest of text]
The discussion here has not been directed to Technical Support (at least not from what I've been reading). There were too many folks who hadn't received their unit to even be able to call Tech Support. And it isn't clear that HS has outsourced technical support, my guess is they haven't as that isn't a thing you usually leave to outsiders as the cost would be too great to keep them trainined. You bring in contractors, but you do not outsource the whole business to someone else. At least my experience has never seen this happen.
Think of it in another way...without customers the company cannot pay the salaries of the support people (outsourced or not) they hire. Lay-offs then take place. The first folks to probably get hit would be those individuals taking the orders over the phones...since no one is calling to place an order why do you need so many of them? Eventually you need less tech support...and so on.
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12-11-1999 03:26 AM
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