This month, I experienced
misfortune of having two laptop computers break down on me within a single week. One laptop was less than eight months old; other had failed five times in less than two years. As you can imagine, I was extremely displeased. It’s always painful to see a loved one die.I’m not hear to bitch about flaky computers, though. (Believe me, I’ve done plenty of that!) No, I’m here to talk about very different experiences that I had with customer service representatives that handled each case. These laptops came from different manufacturers, and quality of service that I received seemed to reflect very different customer service policies on parts of these companies. In a moment, you’ll see what I mean.
Case Study #1: What were they thinking?
So I called up one of manufacturers to explain that my laptop refused to power up. I also pointed out that this very same computer had failed four times before—each time, manifesting same problem.
Without preamble, technical support rep said, “Tell me your e-mail address.”
I was puzzled by this question and taken aback by his bluntness. I asked, “Excuse me, but why do you need this information? That’s rather private.”
“I’m going to send you a troubleshooting guide,” he said.
“Wait a minute,” I interjected. “My computer is down, and you plan to fix this by sending me something via e-mail? Did it occur to you that I might not have any e-mail access? Besides, I know what problem is, since it’s happened repeatedly in past.”
Right off bat, this fellow committed three clear mistakes. First, he failed to show proper respect in dealing with customer. A properly trained rep would have asked for one’s e-mail address in more deferential terms. “Do you mind if I ask for your e-mail address?” would have been vastly more polite.
Second, he failed to immediately let customer know why he was asking for an e-mail address. People are naturally reluctant to share such details, as a matter of privacy (and as a safeguard against spam!). That’s why it’s very important to immediately let customer know why you’re asking for this information. “Do you mind if I ask for your e-mail address? I’d like to send you a troubleshooting guide,” would have been a perfect way to ask.
Most importantly though, this rep clearly wasn’t paying close attention to customer’s problem. It should have occurred to rep that customer might not have e-mail access—after all, his computer was down! Once again, this problem could have been avoided by asking a simple question, namely, “Do you still have some means of e-mail access?”
I suspect that these problems occurred because customer service rep had been minimally trained and was following a fixed script. I say that because my subsequent questions seemed to catch him off guard, and so he responded with same (rather non-sensical) answer.
“Can you put me in touch with a manager?” I asked. Instead of answering, he replied, “Well, if you send your laptop to us, we will fix it for a fee.”
This scenario played itself over and over again. “This computer has failed me far too many times, and is obviously unreliable. Can you tell me which phone number I should call to provide customer feedback?” I said. His reply: “If you send it to us, we will fix it for a fee.” (I rolled my eyes skyward.)
“That’s not what I’m asking,” I said with deliberate tones. “Can you tell me how I can contact your company to provide feedback on this product?” “If you send it to us, we will fix it for…” By then I had lost it. “THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M ASKING!!!!” I yelled back in frustration.
Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. Indeed, I had similar experiences with this company’s technical support reps before. This leads me to believe that problem lies in part with corporate culture of that company.
Now, some would point out that technical support calls are often outsourced to external call centers—agencies that are not directly under computer manufacturer’s control. That is a valid point; however, I think it’s safe to say that manufacturer should have some input into call center’s training and practices—after all, these people are representing them to public at large. At very least, they should be selecting a call center that does coach its representatives on how to deal politely and intelligently with Joe Q. Computeruser. Anything less would be foolish.
