Customer Service, Tech Support, and the Perils of Outsourcing (or Offshoring!)
It seemed like a simple idea at the time. My DSL modem that provided my Internet connection at home had broken, and I had to get a new one. I could do it through my current provider, for about $100, and stay with my $30/month fees for moderate speeds. Or I could go to a new provider (call them “Novel Internet”, or Novel for short), get a “free” modem, and pay only $15/month for double the speed. What’s not to love?
Well, here goes. Novel had good radio publicity and endorsement of a talk-radio technology guru, and an endorsement from a family member who’d used them for years. So I called them to start the process – so far, so good. Got the modem in the mail a couple of days later – all still good. But then the fun begins. In short, after several hours on the phone with their tech support, who all seemed to honestly care and to sincerely try to help, NO ONE got it right until it was too late. Here are the details:
Novel’s web site, during the signup process, said very clearly “do not contact your current Internet Provider until your new service is working. Then you can call and cancel.” So I followed that rule, read the rest of the instructions with the modem (which said that service would be activated by midnight the night that it arrived), hooked everything up, and waited patiently.
But it didn’t work after midnight, so I called tech support. After politely going through the list of things they always want you to do (check the power, look at the lights, check to see if it’s plugged in to the DSL filter properly, …), I escalated to second-level support. Four calls and 2 hours on the phone w/ Tech Support yielded several claims that “we can’t share the line with your current provider” and “did you call them to turn their DSL service off?”
Of course, I didn’t make that call, since the instructions on the Novel signup page said not to, that Novel would do it.
On the near-final call to a third-level support person, Novel said that the old provider would have to come out to my home to do something in order to make it work. Novel tech support said the night before that Novel had not yet called the old provider to make this change; it appeared someone had dropped the ball. Then the message changed – I would have to call the old provider to turn off my Internet service.
Just when you think it can’t get weirder, it does …
Given all the trauma so far, I asked what, specifically, I should ask the old provider to do. Novel’s third-level support person asked me if I had my phone service with the same company. Since I did, he said, I’d have to ask them to turn off both phone and Internet service, wait for Novel to get Internet working, and then call the old provider to get my phone turned back on.
Conveniently, while I was on the verge of totally losing my temper, the line to Novel’s tech support dropped. They called back 30 minutes (!) later, but by that time I’d already called my old provider to ask them to send a new modem and turn things back on.
And then it gets weirder still!
The old provider says: “We’re sorry, but Novel called us on your behalf a few days ago to cancel your Internet service, so we have to start from scratch. It’ll take a few days, but we’ll open a new Internet contract for you.” Conveniently, this meant that I was treated by the old provider as a new customer, so I got both pricing and speed competitive with what Novel had promised.
Total time on the phone so far: Approximately 6 hours, AFTER the stated activation time provided by Novel.
While all this was going on, I found a tech support forum for all sorts of DSL providers. There, I happened across a direct access path to the general manager of Novel’s operations, so I dropped him a note with a more raw version of what’s above. He promptly connected me with the guy who turned out to be the last US-based tech support person for Novel – we’ll call him “Fred”. Fred clearly understood what had happened, called me on the phone to apologize, tried to make things right technically, and appreciated my sharing my insights with him.
Then we get to the financials! After trying four different methods (all recommended by Novel’s customer service staff) to cancel my relationship, they finally agreed to do so, but they couldn’t refund any of my money, and were going to charge me to restock the modem. Several laps around the stupid loop there led me back to the general manager, who assured me he’d take care of it, and, indeed, he did – Novel made my accounts whole, though they didn’t compensate me for the 6 hours of phone time, the cost to return the modem, or the cost to my mental health!
Now this isn’t a rant about offshoring – far to the contrary. Even as I was obviously frustrated, the folks I talked with clearly were sincere about trying to help, and never lost their cool. But they were also clearly new to their roles, and neither trained nor experienced with the products they were implementing, nor did they have a system that enabled them to see what was going on with my issues.
No one ever said “I see you just talked to Bob, and we’ll pick up where he left off.” Every call started with the first steps: Is the modem plugged in? What do the lights look like? Turn the modem off and back on again … This indicated to me that they had no continuity of service records, or didn’t know how to use them successfully. This problem could happen no matter whether the service operation is inside the company, or if it’s outsourced inside or outside the US.
Why am I writing about this? It’s a bit of a cautionary tale – good recommendations have to be current as well! My friends who recommended it: a) had implemented before the service and support were outsourced, b) almost never called tech support, and c) had started with this service, and weren’t trying to convert. So I was trying a scenario that was unproven, and perhaps had just been broken by their outsourcing moves.
I wish Novel all the best in resolving their issues – if they don’t, it’ll kill the company, and deservedly so!
Thoughts? Have you run into situations like this? I’d be curious to hear about it (without company names, please!)
Hello Prof Witman
There are a lot of customers have the same problem like your issue. I think calling a customer services and solving problem won’t help you as much as if they come to your place in fix the modem or the service. personally I never trust any company the provide service to my place, even if they have a really good service. Because I know one day I will face a problem and let me go through process that west my time.
if I were you, I won’t start any business with company until I face a guy who works there and talk to him face to face. Back home in my country (Saudi Arabia), we face a lot of problem like your issue and honestly we need get used to it, because it will come again and again. I had service with Saudi tech company to provide me A high connection to my home but guess what! the service was below what they said to me, so I had take a step by going to the company and talk to the supervisor. After losing my time with, I decided to change my service to another company and until now I didn’t receive my refund my money. So I have forget about it and keep going on. in my conclusion Companies these day are looking for benefits more than satisfy their customers. This is my personal thought about them.
Thanks
Bander Alfaiyez
Bender,
I completely agree with you that going straight to management is really the only way to go when you have a problem because they are the only ones who can offer you discounts or other options if your product isn’t what you expected. This also saves time because when problems arise going to management is usually the last option, so why not just start at the time and save everyones time?
Bander,
After reading your article, I must say I agree with you, most companies, if not all, are only triying to satisfy themselves. These companies, use nice terms, and are all about “customer service” but, in the end, they end up winning and we end up loosing. I can tell you this because, at my old job they made us sweet talk to the customer until we were ableto get their cash. For example offering them something good, at one price but in very little writting, the catch was that it would only last a few months. For example, they may tell you “It’s only 19.99 per month” yeah, for the first couple of months. But the reality here is that we have to think straight, because you’re right. We will have to face problems like theses sooner or later.
-Sarita Venegas
Bander Alfaiyez
I absolutely understand what you mean, not until a few years ago, customer service/care was not even a factor. Nowadays it’s getting better, but we still have a long way to go. More and more people are getting tired of “getting used” to poor services and out of that need arose competition and that killed a few companies literally overnight. !
Customer service is one of the most important aspects of any organization and even without the fancy publicity and products, if a customer is well taken care of by the service provider, they would have no problem repeatedly paying for that service.
Dami Ojo
Professor Witman,
I’m sorry for the bad time Novel made you go through. I know you must have been very upset and frustrated with their customer service, and not to mention having to answer the same question over and over and not getting a simple answer. I have also seen my mother go through the same problem as you, as she takes care of all the bills. I have seen her on the phone waiting for a couple of hours until the next available representative. One of the things I have learned from my father is that nothing is free in this world. I noticed that Novel offered internet connection for $15 a month, and a “FREE” modem. There’s always a catch to that “free” phrase.
I also work with customers on a daily basis, and I deal with happy, angry and sad customers all the time. At work, when customers have a question and they ask someone above me, say a manger, the manager at most times, lies to the customer to make them hear what they think is right. However, I see that it is unethical and I always try to find out the real answer to insure the customers safety and to have the customers satisfied, because for any business, customers are always right.
-Sarita Venegas
Sarita,
you mention something and it’s totally true, which taking care of bills and stuff, I know it’s completely hard to take care of these stuff, so what I suggest for your mom is to use her Bank account and take these money directly from her Bank, so she doesn’t need to think about. Customer service is really sophisticated to deal with them.
Thank you
Bander Alfaiyez
Sarita,
You are absolutely correct in that nothing is free these days; there is always a catch, or a give-and-take, as there was in Professor Witman’s situation. I, too, have worked with customers in several of my previous jobs, and I experienced the same issues that you mentioned in your post; often times, the customer would ask to speak with a manager or supervisor, who would generally lie, or stretch the truth, in order to tell the customer what they wanted to hear, rather than being honest and dealing with the consequences as they came. Although I felt that what they were doing was unethical, many times, as a subordinate, you have to bite your tongue and go with what upper management has mapped out. However, having experienced it first hand, it is interesting to think about how often others lie to us, as customers, or stretch the truth, rather than being honest and forthcoming.
- Morgan Kirkpatrick
Hi Professor Witman
Over the years of owning several different brands of computers, cell phones, TVs. ect. more often than not calling the tech support department has left me more confused and angry than satisfied. I now first troubleshoot by browsing blogs and internet posts of people who have the same problem that I do and I have found that very helpful because these post usually offer tips and tricks the manufacture “tech guy” won’t. I understand in your situation that the dreaded call to tech support was inevitable, necessary and provided you with a decent solution but how they handled your situation cost them your business. If I’ve learned anything from any business class I’ve taken its that happy customers fuel a business and without that there is no chance in success.
I think the biggest problem Novel is suffering from is the lack of effective communication. You explained that every time you were transferred to someone new you had to explain your ordeal all over again, effective communication on their part would have skipped this annoying step. This is key because when people call customer service or tech support they are already annoyed because their device or service isn’t working correctly, so you would think they would have a customer information database to make these calls as smooth as possible. Product knowledge is also key for any kind of customer service. How is someone supposed to help fix a problem when they have little knowledge of the product or how it works? Little product knowledge also seems like a downfall to Novels tech team, which should be unacceptable to any business. If I was is the management of this company I would take customer service very seriously and highly train the tech support staff because they are the ones who will be interacting with the customer base first and can make or break the reputation of the company.
-Gabriella Mattei
Gabriella,
I completely agree with you. Novel’s lack of communication skills and product knowledge will never help their product take off in the market. Communication must be on point in order for a company to fully convey their message to their customers. Novel can change their customer service and satisfy their customers by: establishing protocol and guidelines for the customer service representatives, train employees to learn each and every function of the product and its malfunctions, and monitor communication to ensure that consumers do not have to reexplain their problems. A set protocol that determines how calls are answered and maintained will help to ensure that all customers are treated with the same respect and knowledge. Employees must be able to answer questions from all angles in order to thoroughly possess the brand and quality of the product. Lastly, monitoring communication will help expedite calls and negate any miscommunication of the initial problem.
Megan Nicholson
Gabriella,
I believe you bring up the alternative that many people have turned to in their time of need, the Internet. Rather than wasting time being transferred and annoyed with people who seem to know less about their technology than you do, people could possibly find the answer online through the numerous blogs and posts that others have left. I also believe that many people have come to use the Internet to research their companies before making such a commitment. I know that my roommate investigates every deal that he takes before he actually commits. It allows him to attain the best quality product or service. It is unfortunate that we cannot fully rely on a company to offer the complete support, but the reality is that we must now be thorough in our decisions.
Proffesor Witman,
I went through a similar problem latley while trying to swtich providers, This included a bundle package for phone, internet and tv service. Once I went through many hours of talking with the new provider they finally told me to to cancel my existing service. After I canceled the service I called back the new provider only to be told by a different customer serivce agent that this product was not available in my area! I think many companies have the down-fall of poor communication, is there not a computer program that can keep track of customers (when they called, what they called for, who they spoke to) ? Each time you are transfered the information shpould appear on the agents computer- that way customers are not restarting the whole process with every person they are transfered to ( which can be many times). I have found that when speaking with customer service sometimes the only way to get things done is to ask to speak to a supervisor, this seems to be the problem with Novel as you had to reach out to a 3rd or 4th level technician. Companies would save moneyt overall if they employed more knowledgeable staff as customers would be more satisfied and the problems would be solved sooner.
Gabriella,
I agree with you that a huge problem with the tech companies support lines is the lack of knowledge of the agents. The fact that one may have to dread making a call to a suport line is a tell tale sign that things need to change for comapnies like Novel. You should be able to get quick, effective help when calling about a service that you pay for every month, not more confusion and frusteration.
Customer Service is one of the most important things that could maintain the company’s profit. Many people have similar kinds of problems with customer services around the world. Like you mentioned, the company is most likely fail with this kind of customer service. Nowadays, people are trying to make benefits from this high-speed developing technology which means if one wants to compete with the other companies, one has to do the best to beat them from different angles.
In this case, I see some reasons that lead them failed. Novel internet spreads the message without figuring out the worst case scenarios that could occur. They just want to persuade customers; however, that would only give them one-time customers but not life-time ones. So, before they announce that kind of message, they should first find the reasons that could affect their service or be prepared for the worst cases that could occur so that they wouldn’t let a customer spend hours without any result. Moreover, as a professional business, everything they are doing should be professional. Customers are very important for a business; so does the technicians for this kind of business. The way they are working was not professional; they should train the employees very well at least they should experience well with the field before they are in touch with the real customers. In addition, time and respect are also important things. They should respect the customers and their time. That is one of the ways that could make them succeed.
Gabriella,
It is true that both efficient communication and product knowledge are the keys to make things smoother. All the customers expecting from the company are not only a good product but also a good service. Like you said they are already down with their products. The service at least,should have made the customers feel that they have chosen the right company for their needs. Customer service is the main department that can provide that kind of service to the customers. Reputation is the life the company. Without the good products and good services, the company won’t live longer in its rivaling situation.
Hay Mun
Hello,
Unfortunately the problem you had is very common when it comes to support. Companies try to save money with outsorcing/off-shoring because they think support is not a core competency for them. Sometimes, like in your case, they forget to train the people, do not have an appropriate computer system (customer data; who was talking to the customer; what did the customer already try to solve the problem etc.), or the people who are sitting somewhere else in the world do not know about values of the company and do not have a relationship to the company.
I think it should be a big issue for managers or CEOs who want to go off-shore to think about their goals and the outcome of their projects. They also should try to make a scenario analysis to make sure they are aware of every problem that can occure. At least they should train their people. Like you said in your article, everyone was trying to help you but the only person who was able to was the last US-based tech support.
In my opinion the whole situation shows that preperation and scenario analysis is everything if a company wants to outsource.
I totally agree with you Chris, if these companies plan to go off shore from the U.S. they need to properly train their workers and have the systems in front of them to be able to handle the situation every time. They don’t get paid enough to value the job that they have so the customer service level goes down. The companies try to save money with outsourcing but lack customer support when choosing competent workers. The U.S. workers can relate more to the people they are helping so the customer service is better.
-James
I agree with what your saying when it comes to outsourcing. The quality of work shouldn’t go down because you can do it off shore. In the end it is one company and customers should be able to rely on the employees. The management at Novel should make sure that the quality of work from their employees are kept through proper training no matter where they are.
Dear Christoph,
I totally agree with you, it is evident that many individuals are not being trained properly. Therefore, they just turn you to the next representative and no one has the answer. It is extremely frustrating when I have called companies for basic questions, and their response is that they do not work for that department and I must call another number then that individual turn me to another number. I believe that if companies took time to train individuals on even just some of the basic information their costumer service would improve. Companies also need to figure out a way in which the next representative knows where the first one left off, that would save so much time and energy for the costumer and representative.
- Erika Medina
Professor Witman,
Your situation is very unfortunate, but also somewhat common in today’s business atmosphere. In situations where there are too many steps in communication to solve an issue, most of the time information gets lost in translation. Customer service should be a very strong portion of a business not only because it will help the business’ customers stay satisfied with the product, but because the customer service department is one of the only social ways the business can communicate with their customer. To have a faulty or disorganized customer service department is the best way to ruin a brand’s name and reputation, whether or not the product satisfied the consumer.
I witnessed a similar situation recently at my summer internship with a Marketing and PR firm. One of our clients has a brilliant product that makes the small competition they have obsolete. Though this product is sure to gain notoriety on its own, how the company is run is sure to hold the product back from actually taking over the market. Part of my job was to monitor the Facebook and Twitter accounts for this particular company, however, it became clear that I was not the only one active on the page. The son of the owner of this company would go on the Facebook page and answer consumer questions from a fake profile in order to not make the actual company look guilty. Consumers would complain about paying for 3 day shipping but not receiving their product for a month and also about how the customer service line attendants would tell them that were busy and could not answer their questions. The comments the son would answer with were rude and inappropriate, which caused more and more complaints to go to their office. Eventually, the complaints were directed to our firm, in which we would log each consumers information and make sure they were satisfied. Overall, this product is one of a kind and an excellent contender to the market, but it will never see its full potential unless the company works on their customer service and public image.
Opposite of my situation, the customer service you received was friendly and genuine, but lacked structure, reliability, and quality. Clearly, you did not stay with this company because the product did not work, but others might have discontinued their use of the product simply because of how the company was run. This just comes to show how important customer service is to a business. The people answering emails, social media sites, and phone calls are a business’ portal to the public in which their image can either be made or broken.
Thank you.
Megan Nicholson
Megan,
I totally agree with you that customer service should always be professional and reliable. As a customer, I always want to be sure that if something is wrong with my product I can call a qualified person who will be able to solve my problem.
Making sure customer complaints are dealt with in a proper way should be a matter of course for every company. For some organizations, especially those offering highly sophisticated products, this might mean keeping customer service within the own company in order to make sure qualified personnel is working on these problems. For others, like the one you were working at, this might mean determining standardized processes in order to ensure good customer service.
Dear Megan,
I agree entirely with your comment that customer service should be a very crucial part of an organization. The customer service section is what keeps customers like ourselves coming back to a business. For myself personally, if a product is more expensive, but has better customer service, I am much more likely to stay with that product versus a cheaper one with a more inadequate customer service. It can make or break your experience and trust within a company and thus is definitely not something that organizations should treat lightly. Experience, especially amongst our generation today, is what keeps buyers buying and that is what companies should focus on because customers are what keeps businesses afloat.
Melissa Muntzel
Hello Professor Witman,
This situation is starting to become the normal for anyone that calls a customer service for technology help these days. It is really terrible what companies make their customers go through to get support for their products. I have gone through a similar experience when I purchased printers and wireless routers. I used a larger company in the past that was not exactly the most expensive but not the cheapest. I did not have problems at first with the product but when it had problems I thought I could easily solve the problem with their customer support. I called the support number and the first thing I went through was not a person on the other end but was a automated recording to find the department that could help me. This process took 30 minutes until I was helped by an actual person.
Once I spoke with someone and not an automated recording, I thought it was gonna be better but in fact was worse. The man did not know how to explain to me how to solve the problem. He transferred me to the manager which knew better than he did. The manager knew exactly how to explain the solution to me. The problem is poor communication skills and lack of experience with the companies workers. The companies are out sourcing their low end jobs to third world companies because the labor is cheaper in those companies. They try to save money which is good but the trade off is lack in the customer support.
Thank You,
James Duus
Hi James,
My own experiences with customer service varies a lot, there’s no one trend that I can label them with. Sometimes I’ll spend hours on the phone with someone and get nothing solved. Others, I’ll have a brief conversation with a service rep and my problem is solved. My best experience was with Dell Computers, where I chatted online with a rep about a broken park on my laptop and he sent a truck out the next to repair, great experience. Overall, I think it depends on the nature of your problem and the company that you’re dealing with.
James,
I can totally sympathize with your dilemma. If there is one thing I hate about bad customer service it is bad automated customer service. With communication technology becoming more and more advanced it seems as business is becoming more and more impersonal. Companies can provide inferior products and hide from unsatisfied customers behind a wall of phone extensions, transfers, and tacky holding music. To tell you the truth I don’t know if this will ever change, outsourcing is here to stay. Companies are struggling to simply keep their heads above water by cutting dead weight…and in this economic climate who can blame them? This seems to be a unique situation where what is good for the target market is almost the opposite too what is good for the industry. Our best bet is to find some sort of middle ground, but I think it is safe to safe the days of personalized customer service has come and gone.
-James Wilder
James I agree with you fully. With companies coming out with more technical products they need to make sure that their employees fully understand what the product is used for and how to fix it. I have had this same problem every time I have ever contacted customer support. I have never had my problem solved on the first try. what always ends up happening is I get transfered to the top and the they can finally help or sometimes they even have to send there tech guy to my house. Hopefully one day they smarten up and just transfer me straight to their manager in the first place instead of having me be on the phone for over an hour.
James,
I totally agree with you. Nowadays, companies are so focused on saving a few dollars by putting in an automated service, when in reality they lose money because their customers aren’t getting the quality they expected. I think that customers are too far away from the companies and the customers are losing their faith and reliability in the companies. I had the same experience with the automated recordings. They aren’t very helpful and you always end up speaking to a person anyways. Hopefully that companies take their customers’ concerns more seriously and improve their customer service.
Professor Witman,
I’ve never personally run into the same problem, the only problem I’ve run into is that the cable guy never comes when he says he will. Anyway, $100 for a new modem seems pretty pricey, couldn’t you have gone and got one yourself? But then there’s also the possibility that only certain modems were compatible with your original ISP. I’m also curious to know if you did end up having to buy a new modem from them or if they instead offered you a free one.
It’s pretty ridiculous that you were passed from one customer service rep to another, the customer service line should have a categorizing system that should direct you to a rep that could immediately help you. Perhaps it was just a difficult problem. This whole thing still doesn’t really make sense, Novel stated you should keep the internet connected, yet this may have caused all the problems. It makes Novel look pretty incompetent. Anyway, everything seemed to work out in the end, you got the low prices and the internet reconnected, I guess we’ll all have to be cautious of that “new, low priced” company the next time.
I cannot stand when the tv guy says he will be there at whenever……but then he never shows up. Its horrible and bad for business.
This situation truly makes Novel look infantile and most likely they will be either going under or going out sooner or later if they keep up their bad habits.
Matthew
I would have to say that you hit the problem right on the head. When you stated that “It’s pretty ridiculous that you were passed from one customer service rep to another, the customer service line should have a categorizing system that should direct you to a rep that could immediately help you.” I thought this was a mandatory system that all companies have that system. The employee plugs all the information onto the computer and then if needs be another employee can pick up from where they left off and continue to help the customer. With regards to your question I don’t think that professor Whitman had to buy a new modem. He stated that because he was a new client for DSL that they treated him and gave him the same prices as Novel was going to do. I also agree that novel did look very incompetent with their business and had no idea what they were really doing in this business.
Thank you, Adam Hayes
Hello Professor Witman,
In these days, outsourcing seems to be the perfect solution for more and more companies around the globe. Many organizations are eager to outsource every activity which is not one of their core competencies in order to save money. Customer service is one value chain activity, which seems to be easily transferred to another company.
Although I have never had an experience like you had it, I know that in my home country Austria this problem exists as well. A friend of mine who is also a student used to work 10 hours a week at a Call Center which processes customer calls from several well-known Austrian companies. After her first month working there she resigned as she was never trained properly in order to enable her to deal with the different problems customers encounter.
This example shows that some companies might be more successful keeping activities like their customer service within their own organization in order to ensure having qualified personnel dealing with customers.
Stefanie,
On some level I do agree with your statement “some companies should maintain their customer support within the company”. When companies outsource their customer services to different context cultures, communication barriers can exist on different levels. Often times, the company’s culture that is responsible for their success, can be lost when customer service is outsourced.
I don’t think that delimiting the outsourcing of customer service is the solution, but I do think that companies should consider if outsourcing is a legitimate investment or if it instead limits their ability to provide genuine customer satisfaction.
Hi Professor Witman,
Just reading your story I could feel your frustration, I even became frustrated. When it comes to technology, I have never really been a do it yourself type of person because I always tend to screw things up or miss a step. The hard drive on my laptop crashed two weeks before finals. I was panicked because all of my notes and documents were it and not backed up. I took it to go get fixed, and I thought my nightmare was finally over. I was quoted a price and told it wouldn’t go up. I had them retrieve everything off my old hard drive, which were merely word and excel documents since I do not keep pictures or music on my laptop for school. Three days later they finally called and said it was ready, once I got there I was surprised to see that the price had jumped up $150, and they didn’t even put any of the programs that they said they would on my laptop. I was pretty disappointed with their service especially with the price I paid for it.
After I complained about their poor customer service and not following through with what was promised, I was asked to leave. They obviously did not want my business. I had to reinstall everything on my computer without the help of the people that I had paid to do it. At least in your situation it was nice that they were trying to help. Although it isn’t very helpful when you make a call and each time they make you repeat the steps that you had already done early with the last representative. At least once you went to general manager he apologized and tried to make that frustrating situation a little bit easier.
Dear Professor Whitman –
This situation that you experienced is almost comical in how unorganized and misinformed Novel’s employees were. Upon reading the blog, I was somewhat embarrassed for them because, like you said, they were trying to be as helpful as they possibly could, but because they had not been properly trained and did not have a good communication network amongst them they were just running around in circles in order to try and help you. I personally have never experienced anything like this when it comes to internet modems, but I have had it with various other companies and it does leave the customer somewhat stressed and upset despite the employee efforts to help.
I think that it is obvious what the causes of failure were for Novel. These include, but are not limited to, miscommunication on all levels, inadequate training of employees, and obviously issues with conversion from another provider. All of these issues can be linked to IT. I personally feel that in order to improve their quality of service their first step would obviously be to invest in a better communication system amongst the tiers of customer service. I feel this alone would eliminate a lot of stress for customers like yourselves just based on the mere fact that as you go further into the tiers you are not constantly forced to explain your situation every time, nor try the same simple solving methods that they had you do. In addition, I think that employees of course need more experience, but also need to have more options of help versus just the basics that they had been offering you. They need to be provided with better trouble shooting techniques. Although these are just a few recommendations, I think that these two ideas will help the company immensely. I hope that in the case that you have the issues again, it will not be such a hassle to get the issue resolved.
Melissa Muntzel
Hey Melissa,
Like you said Novel really has to work on their communication and for that they should think about a good CRM system that fits to their needs. But they do not only have to buy the system and implement it, they also have to work on their processes, because the newest and best system is not worth its money if people are doing things the old way.
Hey Melissa,
I completely agree with your thoughts on how poorly their training must have been and how obviously they need to have a better plan about communication and troubleshooting. One of the most annoying thing about customer service is when you have to explain your troubles, over and over again. Somewhere in their system there has to be records of what your problems are or what you bought. If there isn’t record already, there should atleast be a record after you explained it the first time. If this system was in place I believe the time Professor Witman spent on the phone would be cut significantly.
Trevor Koons
Melissa,
I agree with you that there clearly is just miscommunication on all levels! This includes, but is not limited to, employee to employee, employee to customer, and customer to employee/company. It doesn’t make sense for a company to have various levels or tiers of employees if they all have the same level of knowledge and training, or lack of in this case. If there are transfers made of a customer from one employee to another, it should be reasonable to expect them to also transfer the basic situation and information that they gained, rather than proving that they completely wasted your time as the next employee asks for all the same information as the first employee. Consumers need to also understand the importance of their communication to businesses. Their feedback and reviews are crucial to the success of a corporation. Without feedback, we cannot expect a company to fix problems found in their products if they are never informed about it.
-Cody Kowalczyk
Dear Professor Whitman,
I know exactly how you feel, haven’t had a problem like that with internet modems. I once switched tv service providers and oh boy was that a hassle. It was like everyone was on a completely different planet. The people you talk to stay calm and try to help you through everything, but like you stated it seems that the majority of these large corporations (offshore or home grown) are just under-trained and it kills business. What most companies have started doing though which is a plus is they get your name and all your info pops up on their screen and they can diagnose problems from there.
Outsourcing saves money for companies, but at what expense. Good customer service and highly instructive training is what brings customers in and back. If I receive good service and product, I would stick with that company even if it means paying a little more than the competitors every month. In our society businesses need to be broken down to the basics.
A good example of what I am talking about is my Father’s company. They make cables and what not and he has strived to keep his company in the US along with all its employees. His company is the only one left of its kind in the US, because most have either moved to China or Mexico. That being said his products and services are far more expensive than everyone else, yet he has better quality and customer service. Which brings customers in, and also keeps them coming back.
Kyle Burk
Kyle Burk,
You brought up a great point about the quality of customer service. People these days are trying to get the most for their money. They do not realize when they purchase something for a “great” price what they are also getting, a lack of quality customer service. Although to purchase anything American made can get pricey, it may just be worth the price because of the customer service people will receive.
Dear Professor Witman,
First of all, I want to commend you for not loosing your cool with the situation you were put in with the extremely poor customer service. Although the customer service agents were being helpful, I would assume that 6+ hours talking to people who obviously know nothing about the service would get even the most mild-mannered people pretty angry. The thing that baffled me most about the whole situation was the constant incorrect instructions you got from Novel. The mixed instructions of calling your old provider to cancel or not confused me and I didn’t even go through the situation.
In response to your question of if anything has happened to me of this nature, I can honestly say I have been lucky enough to have never run into these problems. When setting up internet and television the company was extremely helpful, gave us a distinct hour window where the technician would be coming to set up the service, and it all went smoothly. To make light of this situation, there is a show on NBC called “outsourced” which is a comedy which is a made up company, employees, and tech service room. That was the first thing that came to mind when I read your post, a comedy TV show. I hope to never have to deal with what you went through. Thanks
Trevor Koons
To respond to your post Trevor, I was shocked to read about the terrible communication of Novel towards Professor Witman; and between Novel and the old company. I get the feeling that either certain workers at the company were lazy or since they couldn’t figure out what was wrong they just decided to forget about Professor Witman’s problem. Considering the length and intensity of the situation, I think we can say that Professor Witman handled the situation with great patience and perseverance. I actually think your connection of this situation to a TV comedy is a great parallel. After all, that’s what Novel’s customer service turned out to be… a joke, a comedy, a farce, nothing more than a representation of what business is about.
Hello Mr. Witman,
I have fortunately never had to deal with a situation that was this extensive. The only time that I believe I could relate to this was when my car broke down and I had to call a service company to pick me up. I have called this company before and they have been quick and effective in the past, but for some reason, this night was different. It took them roughly three and a half hours to finally come and the driver wasn’t even sure if it was me that he was supposed to be picking up. I believe he was looking for another car in the area, but stumbled upon mine. While waiting for the tow truck to come, I repeatedly called the company, merely to ask for an update. Although they could see that an order had been placed for my car, they would not offer any sort of update. I ended four conversations with a service representative saying they would call me back in 5 minutes, but I never heard from them again. The fifth person finally told me that they could not get in touch with the tow truck company. It turned out that the tow truck company just happened to be extremely busy and was completely backed up with calls.
In short I was extremely disappointed in my service company because they left me in the dark. Although they answered my call and told me that my car was in the system, they never called me back. Instead I was left sitting by myself, in a remote place, wondering when am I going to be able to get home. I understand the occurrence of a fluke, but all I was looking for was a little information. I believe that a company has a duty to their customers to always operate at maximum efficiency when it comes to their assistance. When paying for a service or product, I believe we, as customers, are entitled to a degree of professionalism that assures us the best form of assistance possible. This could entail continuity service records or being able to update a customer about his or her problem when asked.
-Patrick McCoy
Hey Professor Whitman,
I have recently ran into a similar situation during my summer internship at an Aerospace manufacturer. The company I worked for made liquid propulsion rockets to launch satellites (and many other things) into orbit. As we all know the Aerospace business is facing challenges now because of NASA’s recent funding cuts so they have been making strides to find ways to further cut cost and one of these ways is outsourcing. Since Aerospace is such a highly bureaucratic business there are all sorts of regulations as to who you can and can’t do business with but our newest is a small metal forger located in Puerto Rico. I had to call them in order to get a request for quote on some items that needed purchasing and the person that picked up the phone was speaking slang (this person was very unprofessional). When I went on to ask about their in-house capabilities and metal treatment it sounded as though they did not know what I was talking about (keep in mind that I was an intern, my knowledge on these processes were basic to say the least).
Bottom line, if we weren’t negotiating a high priced contract this would not be a huge concern but because it was this Puerto Rican company’s lack of professionalism and proper business edicate really raised a red flag. Building and successfully launching rockets is a very dangerous business and if one part doesn’t meet specifications due to miscommunication then it can be unbelievably costly in the long run and ruin the company’s reputation. Now, the argument could be made that one person doesn’t reflect the whole company ,and this could very well be true, but at least have someone that can speak proper English on the phone (if not then no one is going to take you seriously…let alone give you business). Moral of the story: Cheaper doesn’t always mean better.
P.S. As far as know they have yet to receive the contract.
-James Wilder
James,
That is pretty cool that you got to work for aerospace company! That sounds like a blast to me. It sounds ridiculous that they would have an uneducated person answering the phones for them. My dad works for a company that sells parts to an airline company and if they are not perfect in everything they do, they will lose the work because people’s lives depend on it. I figure it would be similar in the aerospace business. Even if everything is perfect with the products, but the receptionist is bad at his job then the products will never be sold. It is a good tool to learn now that a weak link in customer service can put a big dent in the companies reputation and sales.
- Kevin Ramay
Dear class and Professor
I would have to say a saying that many people know and use on a regular base “Quality over Quantity” or this case “customer service over faster internet”. As I was reading this blog that you have posted Professor I could not help but think I have no idea how you kept your clam attitude!! I would have to say after the second or third hour I would have blown a fuse and ripped one of the techs a new one, but that’s just me. It is hard to imagine that this novel company even still exists today for this simple reason that customer service I think is the main way to make your company. I know from personal experiences the better someone is treated in the business world the better off the company will be I the long run.
The crazy thing is that you were on the phone for a total of over six hours and in the end you still had to go back with the same company that you wanted to leave. This is a good and a bad thing I would say. IN the long run do you think that DSL will be better in the long run for you? This situation is a pretty good learning experience that you as a person were able to maintain your calmness and handle this situation. ON the other hand I think that Novel needed to learn something but in the end they really didn’t.
Thank you , Adam Hayes
Thanks for the posting Professor Witman, it was quite an interesting story. I have had a similar story, but regarding an oven. The oven’s door at my house was broken and had latched shut. It was during the summer so I was put in charge of taking care of it. I called the company and they sent a representative out to fix the problem. So far so good. He came out, but he obviously had not worked with the model of oven that was in my house. While working on it, he damaged a panel on the outside of the door. He apologized for his mistake and his inability to even fix the problem he came to resolve. The part was then ordered and a new representative came out to install it about a week later. He brought the part into the house, but when he opened it, it was the wrong part. He explained there was a discrepancy with the order part number and the part number that was received. He quickly ordered the new part, but the same thing happened again with the next representative. Three visits from three different representatives over a course of over a month resulted in two wrong parts and an oven that still did not open. After talking on the phone with multiple different customer service agents, and explaining all the problems and process I had gone through with all of them, they finally put the district representative manager on the phone. He personally came out to my house and fixed the both the broken panel and the latching problem.
Just as in your experience, if the information could be better communicated between individuals within the company, there would not have been a need for four different people to come to my house. There needed to be two changes within their company. First off, every customer should have a profile that is easily accessible so that when I call they can bring up my file instead of me having to tell them what model I have, who came to my house, what they did, etc. Secondly, all of the representatives need to be trained on every model so that they can fix them properly without further damaging a unit. It is a good tool to know that good customer service requires good communication between employees. When there is bad customer service it makes people not want to buy their products anymore. The oven that is installed in our house is a good oven, but I will probably not buy from that company again.
Professor Whitman,
When companies are competing against one another, they put more emphasis on satisfying their sales quotas which are often based on new customer adoption, not client retention. Therefore, companies put less importance unto the value and necessity of tech support and in contrast, invest more time and effort into their sales division.
While companies may have slid by with poor tech support in past, our modern society is largely driven by the free and quick access of information; information arbitrage. As a result, a company who develops a poor reputation is at a large disadvantage and will have a more difficult time withstanding against its competitors.
As for being a consumer, we have the expectation that we can trust companies to provide the service that they offer, fulfill their mission, and ensure that we as customers, are fully satisfied. We assume that when we call tech support, the answers to our questions will be the quick solution. But unfortunately, over time, companies loose the initial culture that the procured within and through-out the organizatio- the same culture that enabled them to grow into a successful big business. The mission often changes from “providing the utmost client satisfaction” to maximizing profits and returns for stakeholders…unfortunately, organizations often forget that their customers are their stakeholders as well.
This has me thinking about how important customer service can be. I react to how many companies treat their loyal customers, you would believe that being a returning customer would have benefits, which it does in many cases. However in suprisingly many cases it does not. Like in the case with the internet service provider mentioned in the blog entry where being a new customer has advantages. I have personally experienced the same, when my friend signed up for a years membership in our local gym, which notably is a large franchise. I was there with him as he requested the membership, and as I was paying the equivalent of 80 dollars a month, he was only paying 60. Having been a member for over three years I felt unappreciated and ended up leaving the gym, in favour for a smaller franchise with only 3 locations, opposed to 60. Instead of having to sign up for a whole year, you could leave anytime you wanted to. The monthly fee was 60 dollars and as a sign of appreciation to their loyal customers the monthly fee was reduced by 25 percent for members who had been with them for 6 months or more. When I left the staff were very interested in why, and they sendt me a nice e-mail asking me to take the time to answer a few questions, to help them get better. The customer service in this smaller company was significantly better than in the large one, matter of fact is the product they offered was pretty much the same.
It seems like some large companies forget about the single customer, not realizing that each one is equally important. Like the first gym where I was a member for over three years, not even caring about why I was leaving them. From 2010 to 2011 the smaller company expanded from one to three gyms, which can be interpreted as a growth of 300%. which is far more than the large company. I realize that it is probably a lot harder to match that growth when you are as big as the large company, who are doing well. They just expanded to both Sweden and Denmark (Norway’s neighbour countries) However if the smaller company manage to maintain their customer care and service as they become larger I believe that the large company need to reconsider how they treat their customers. Or else they might get knocked of the throne.
Jesper,
You brought up a good point about giving feedback to second gym. Feedback from customers is essential. Companies have to know what the customers are thinking and what they liked/disliked about the experience. This way they can anticipate potential issues and resolve them before they arise. I think you identified a great way companies can improve their customer support teams. Just asking the customer a couple quick questions can give them valuable insight as to how consumers see their operation. I also agree with your point on the expansion of the smaller gym. Maintaining strong customer support teams can definitely help a company to grow and prosper.
This blog made me think about what we talked about in class about customer retention and how Novel did a dismal job in doing so. We discussed how keeping an existing customer is more important and cheaper than finding a new one. I feel as though customer service is a good bridge to do so. If there is good customer service you are more likely to stay with that company because they will be able to fix your problem and can make you feel special by keeping records of what you have previously talked about.
Novels upside was that it was way cheaper than the other DSL modem and in return got back willing but incompetent employees. They weren’t trained well enough to solve problems efficiently. The Novel customer service employees had to connect you to other employees when they couldn’t fix the problem on their own. I think the most irritating thing for you is that every time you were reconnected you had to start the same conversation from the very beginning which resulted in having to explain the same problem numerous times. Novel should definitely improve their customer service if they plan on retaining customers. If this happens to a lot of their customers they will drop Novel and find a new reliable company that can do their job.
I completely agree when you said that a company can make you feel special and help you solve all of your problems. If a company can keep their current customers and make them happy it will expand to making even more customers, especially with all of the blogs and social media to spread good word about these companies. The calmer and happier the customers are when they call customer service the more prosperous the company will become.
Professor Whitman,
As I read this blog posting I completely understood what you were going through. I have been in this situation a few times before, as well as heard this stressful conversation between customer service and others. I feel like almost every customer service place called has a very dysfunctional method of communication and effectiveness, and if they did have a good customer service communication plan it would definitely be remembered.
If companies like Novel created an effective plan they would increase their customer satisfaction, and it would help create positive recommendations from current customers to others. I have been at the point with some companies where the service was so bad that I changed or did not continue with the same service. Companies should really strive to become their best in customer service because like you said in your article, it can completely kill the company.
Jami Whitten,
I completely agree that all companies should implement and follow through with a good customer service plan. With this type of plan implemented it will improve the way current customers view a given company, which will ultimately lead to more customers seeking that companies service due to their great track record. Something so simple as good customer service can truly make or break any company. Customers should never have to go through an experience as bad as Novel put Professor Witman through.
-William Brannan
Professor Witman,
This is not the first time I have heard about customers having a bad experience with customer service, and it would certainly not be the last. I have had several aquintances go through the same experience that you went through, including myself. I think that most companies underestimate the value of customer service because it does not earn the companies monetary value. However, by providing poor customer service the companies are loosing customers and potetential future customers.
I remember when I was looking for a decent car insurance, which would provide a quote that a poor student could actually pay off, and a service that would actually help you out if you did get into an accident was no easy task. By doing research and asking friends and relatives I came to the same conclusion, all the car insurances just want your money. I finally ended up on yelp, a review site and found a representative for one of the bigger car insurance that got 4.5 stars by customers saying how helpful and caring that representative was. I deceided to call the representative, and asked about the rates he could offer me. After a quick phone conversation I noticed how honest that person was, and he did everything he would to help me. Even though my rates with that car company was the amount I had to pay with other companies, I choose them, just because I was satisfied the customer service he gave me. This just proves to me that customer service not only satisfy the customers, but also represents a company’s level of professionality. I dont think that the net income is the most imporant part of a company, but customer satisfaction and the willingness to return for more business is the back bone of a successful company.
Hanh Tran
.
Professor Whitman,
While reading the blog I was able to completely relate to your experience. Going back and thinking about it now even makes me laugh a little, but at the time laughing was the last thing I felt like doing. Repeatedly explaining the situation, from the beginning, to countless customer service reps really wears down your patience. The only thing worse than that is when each representative provides you with a different solution and contradicting information. I don’t believe there is anything else a company can do to more quickly deter customers. As well as, assuring them that nobody within the company has any idea how to do their job. I understand that on paper outsourcing may seem like the best decision. However, companies should take into account the number of customers that could potentially be lost, by hiring inexperienced and distant employees. There may not be an exact dollar value to assign to a company’s goodwill or intangible value, yet a good company should be aware of this value and the possible effects that outsourcing can have on this value.
When making the decision to outsource a major part of a company, such as a customer support department or any other department, the company needs to be aware of all the possible drawbacks. Novel, for example, has already made the mistake of outsourcing without being entirely prepared for such change. There system to keep track of customer records is severely flawed. There staff is clearly poorly trained and inexperience. They lack the capabilities required to accommodate and properly service customers from around the globe.
-Gustavo Miranda
Dear Professor Whitman,
I am sorry to hear about your endless struggle in the process of converting internet services. I cannot believe you were on the phone for six hours during this seemingly unnecessary troubleshooting! I commend you on keeping your cool during this nightmare; for I can’t imagine myself dealing with such a ridiculous situation! I encountered a similar situation, but in a minimal comparison to the nightmare you endured. I was setting up an internet wireless router for the first time in a house we began to rent starting this summer, and as expected, found myself calling their tech support line very shortly after opening the box. They took me through the same process as you descried in getting general information and basic check ups. Then, after talking and following the man’s directions for about an hour, I finally got it all figured out and set up. Even though it was only an hour compared to your six, it was extremely frustrating for me to be patient with dealing with someone for so long who I cannot see, understand, or even hear clearly for an unexpected period of time. What really upset me was that the steps and directions he had me follow, were nothing that I could have figured out or found in the directions or troubleshooting documents provided in the package along with the router.
I feel that this lack of information and false or misleading instructions that are provided in some products and services (typically technological) today are a serious issue. As found in your troubles, there should never be an issue that arises from one following a set of instructions. This would mean that everyone who has the same circumstances as you in trying to switch from one service to Novel could potentially have to embrace the same horrific experience as you did. It is crucial for a business to fix such a problem to uphold customer satisfaction, and the only way for them to learn is through reviews and feedback. This is why it is necessary for customers to do what you did in contacting and informing a business of troubles that they need to fix. Finally, businesses need to show their appreciation for such feedback and take action on troubles they are informed of about their products, otherwise they will lose all customer satisfaction and receive poor reviews and bad recommendations that could ultimately result in the failure of a company.
Cody,
It seems that a lot of problems these days are more with technology. There is so much competition, and companies will try to make themselves look good only to later on give their customers a hard time being happy with a product they did not expect to be. Very good idea about contacting the companies to let them know how their product is not what it seems. The problem I would have to say is that many people are lazy and do not want to go through that extra trouble. That may be a key reason to why most of these companies are still going about keeping their product the same.
-Nicolby Atallah
Dear Professor Witman,
Your encounter with Novel was very interesting. Looking back to our discussion in class with the different telephone service providers, I take it the same goes with internet. There are always going to be people in the business world to one up the other. In your case, they advertised good to you, and the fifteen dollars a month with faster internet was advertised well. Its always in the small print that those details that they would expect to have problems with are already there with solutions. Sometimes we are so blinded by the amazing price, that we forget about the small minor details that turn into major problems down the road.
I recently had a similar problem with my cable provider. They gave a better price and said to have had the same channels and quality as my current provider. So with the eye catching price I decided to switch over. It worked fine the first two weeks and after that it went downhill. Channels were static, DVR would not record. It was problem after problem. Every time I would call the tech and support it would be the same thing, unplug this, reset that, etc…By the end of the month I was ready to switch over, and they said if not happy, no cancellation fee. Of course they gave a 7 day limit. I was more than happy to pay that cancellation fee and have normal cable again. Its all the hidden fine print once again that I learn to go back and read. No matter how excited I get about a product I will always research it first.
-Nicolby Atallah
Nicolby,
I completely agree with your comments, it’s fascinating how easily we fall for convenience especially when it has to do with our personal finances. Also, I can easily relate with your cable provider situation because my dad went through a similar situation with phone providers. It really is frustrating when you have to deal with all of the issues, but then it is also very easy to follow through with such a “great deal.” Companies should really spend more time on better improving their customer service because it really comes down to how loyal their customers will be.
Nicolby,
I think that in situations like this, you get what you pay for. It´s like that for the majority of the products that is on the market, and it´s us, the consumers that control the supply and demand. The consumers sets the standard for what is acceptable or not, and once a customer leave, the company would either improve on their current service or eventually shut down. Just like in your situation, most customers would rather pay a little bit extra to save themselves more time and hassle. It´s a good thing you learnt your lesson about reading the fine print before you buy. I know that I should be better at doing so, but I keep getting so overwhelmed by all the products today that I don´t have the time and energy to do so. But I do know that nothing is as good as it appears because nothing is free in this world. You have to pay for everything.
Hanh Tran
Professor Witman,
Customer service should be something all companies put a great amount of effort towards. Without good customer service companies are going to cost themselves current customers and potentially future customers. Although this type of situation is something that should never happen, it seems to happen all too frequently. Almost everyone I have spoken to about this type of situation can honestly say they have experienced something similar. This situation seems to be inevitable when dealing with internet, cable, telephone companies, etc.
As I read through your blog post I could relate extremely well to what you were going through. About one month ago my Dad and I decided to switch our cable provider to what I will refer to as Cable Net. When they came out to install our cable boxes, we learned that we were being given “temporary” boxes for about a week. This meant that we did not have HD or a DVR, both of which were going to new to my Dad and I. When they finally came back to install our actual cable boxes we found out that one of the features was not working for any of the cable boxes. We then called customer service and ultimately had to set up another appointment for a tech guy to come back out to diagnose the problem. The first appointment we made the tech guy decided to just not show up. We made another appointment and the tech guy actually came out and resolved the issue, however, we realized that whatever he had done created yet another issue with our boxes. They ended coming back the next day and fixing everything, but after going through all of this hassle my Dad and I decided to go back to our previous cable provider. This goes to show that bad customer service can cost a company customers.
-William Brannan
William,
It sounds like you have had bad experiences with customer support from companies. I agree, that companies should put extra effort into making sure their customer support is fast and efficient. Companies will lose more and more customers who have bad experiences in dealing with their technical support agents. It is a common issue for people to have encountered issues with the customer service from an internet/cable/phone company.
-Ray Worley
Professor Witman,
I cannot believe that you had to spend over six hours of your time dealing with Novel’s horrible technical support! When you mentioned that you were going to switch internet providers, I could not imagine the new company being that difficult to deal with. For the customer, it does not really give a strong impression of customer support. I think that they could improve their customer support by having records in their database for all of their customers, so it would make customer support issues much easier to deal with when jumping from representative to representative.
An issue I had a few months ago was when I called up my cable company to simply add a sports channel to my package. After going through an automated guide for 30 minutes without having any option to speak with a representative, I finally got through to someone. Right after I explained to the customer service rep what I wanted to add, the call dropped. I had to go through the SAME endless menu for about 30 minutes. But after the second time I got connected with someone they were able to help me and it was pretty simple. Just adding one channel to my tv guide took about an hour, when it really would have taken 5 minutes if I could have directly spoken to someone.
Ray,
Almost the same situation happened to me over the summer. I wanted to add the fox soccer channel and it seemed to take forever! It was of course an automated representative that I initially spoke to and it asked me many questions. When I would answer, many times it could not understand my responses. It wasn’t until I was transferred to an actually employee that the task was fulfilled. I think companies should invest into hiring more employees and stop providing automated systems. This would create better customer service which would result in more patrons and company satisfaction.
I see this happen a lot, not only adding a TV stations but for a lot of services these days there are automated answering machines. They are so annoying. About half of the time an option to speak to a representative isn’t present until further in the automated system. There are so many options and steps and it’s hard to keep someone’s attention for such a period of time especially when it’s over the phone and something you probably aren’t really interested in. You knew what you wanted that’s why you called and there should always be an option to talk to a rep. right away. This probably wasn’t an option right away because people wouldn’t even listen to the system which could possibly answer the questions they had and it could become an inconvenience of time for the company which makes sense. But again customer service is key to the success of businesses and listening to an automated system for 30 minutes without an option to speak to someone is not good customer service.
Dear Professor Witman,
I find your situation to be very aggravating and completely unacceptable by Novel. You were very patient and put in countless attempts to correct the situation. This is probably more efforts than anyone else would have done in your same position. You would think with the rapid growth of technology in today’s society any established company would not let this unfair customer service occur.
Customer service and communication within a company are the most important aspects of running a successful business. Every employee must be adequately trained and each one of them should have the same knowledge and understanding of their products, customers, and transactions within the company. If businesses want to keep customers and create patrons they must make it easy for customers to get what they want and within a timely fashion. Dependability and efficiency are key aspects in maintaining customers and running a profitable business.
Professor Whitman,
When I moved to my apartment in thousand oaks a couple weeks ago it was my job to call a cable company and get tv set up. The 45 minute phone call was too long for my taste (I realize my impatience sound insignificant compared to your ordeal) and when the cable guy came to my apartment he was unable to set up cable and informed me I would have to wait 8 days for another tech to come out. Needless to say I decided to call a different provider and got cable set up the next day. The old company lost some good business because of their inadequecies in the customer service department.
I don’t know where you gathered the 6+ hours of patience necessary to sit on the phone with that company. Personally, I would have lost my temper much sooner and switched companies. It is unfortunate that players in this technological market underestimate the benefits of having a friendly and efficient support team. As ubiquitous as the various facets of technology (and technology companies) are, you would think natural selection of these firms would begin to occur. If I am on the phone with a company about a laptop for example and they can’t resolve my issue promptly, the next time I buy a laptop you can be sure I will be going to an alternative provider. It’s a wonder how some of these firms can compete without investing in their customer support teams.
The solution for these companies is a simple one: money. I think if you could look at a budget report of the company you dealt with you would find that there is an insufficient amount of funds going towards the support team. Spending more money to train techs and customer service representatives would produce obvious benefits and leave customers happy. Money could also buy more adept programs to keep track of the progress made during a call to prevent the “check the power cord” advice every time a new rep takes over. If companies such as Novel spend more money on customer support then maybe customers won’t fear the dreaded “contact us” tab on their website. Unfortunately, the afore mentioned benefits aren’t as explicit as some would hope. One can’t decide to increase the CS budget 10% and simultaneously have a good picture of how it will affect profits. It’s difficult to attribute increased sales to the customer service department, so it is easy to see why companies do not spend money where it shoud be spent.
Dakota,
You are definitely correct when it comes to tech support budgeting. Often, the tech support representatives aren’t paid or trained very well, but are expected to solve a grand majority of issues. If more money went into training employees and in my opinion, actually equipping them with the company’s products or services for home use, then the average tech support representative would be able perform better under pressure. There isn’t a direct correlation between budgeting more funds in to tech support and an increase in profits, yet companies have a social responsibility to respect their customers enough to help them with their problems in a delicate and graceful way. After all, the customers are the ones who invest in the product that keeps a given company afloat.
-Nick Pann
I agree that more budgeting needs to go to customer support services but many companies in this economy are forced to cut certain budgets and customer service seems to be one of the main department effected by this. It is easy for a company to allocate more capital to a department such as sales because there is a direct relation between that departments output and the effect on profits.
Customer service on the other hand has an effect on profit but it is not as easily traceable as sales so in the end less of a budget is allocated to customer service.
Dr. Witman,
While reading this article I began to relate the examples in the article to similar experiences in my life. Having to waste countless hours on a phone repeating pointless steps over and over doesnt seem like an ideal way to spend your day. Although my personal experiences with these problems havent reached the extent of your problem, I can still relate. Not because I understand the pain of waiting around and not being answered but because I understand that customer service is everything if a company wants to be successful. In my experiences, from trips to different businesses (Four Seasons Resort), I noticed that the great success that they have comes from never disappointing a customer. If they manage to disappoint a customer in anyway, they will go to extreme lengths. Novel, although did attempt to fix the customers problem, did not go above and beyond to pay back the customer for their time lost.
Cameron
I could not agree with you more. The Four Seasons is an excellent example that you brought to our attention. Everyone is flawed and makes mistakes but I believe its how you go about fixing those mistakes that determines whether you are successful or not. Putting in the effort will go along way. This seems so obvious in Novel’s case. There are great examples of successful companies, Novel must follow in order to continue.
Danette,
I agree with you. First of all, I can hardly comprehend someone being patient for that long, especially in a day and age where customer service is so critical in success. And YES, customer service and communication within a company is not just critical but vital for the success of the company. Having training for the employees and making sure that all employees are on the same page is also critical.
Professor Witman,
I definitely respect your patience and resolve in a situation like this. Your interactions with tech support, although frustrating, are pretty commonplace in the field. As an individual who has worked in tech support for a professional studio hardware company (Apogee, Santa Monica, CA), I’ve found it easy to point fingers at tech support, making them seem like the bad guys. Just to play devil’s advocate in this regard, they have a difficult job dealing with customers that usually aren’t very happy (thus proliferating the call in the first place). Tech support representatives aren’t in the room with you, don’t have any idea of the extent of the customer’s technical knowledge, and have different technical terminologies to describe various parts or processes. Often, you will have to describe a particular feature or process multiple times in different combinations of words to get through to the customer. Every customer is different and requires careful attention to the way he or she listens to your words and exchanges their sentiments back to you as a tech support representative.
That being said, you were definitely not the problem in this Novel situation. Your experience with Novel tech support boils down to a lack of knowledge regarding their products and services. A tech support assistant/representative in our modern time must know the product or service in and out, most likely to the point of owning a unit or employing the service in the first place. Without this comprehensive knowledge, it is easy to ask 5 tech support questions and receive 5 different answers from 5 different people, which severely derails any progress a customer might have with tech support. Novel essentially is the process of cooking their own profitable goose here. It doesn’t matter if they offer cheap ISP services and free hardware, if that hardware doesn’t work with the customers needs. More importantly, the outsourcing of Novel’s tech support ensuring that a human being cannot come and fix the problem for you only puts the company in a worse position when it comes to customer satisfaction. It is probably beneficial to your own internet service that you went through this headache to see a company’s true colors.
Regards,
Nick Pann
Professor Witman,
I’m sorry to hear that you had to spend over six hours of your time dealing with Novel’s horrendous technical support. When you stated that you were switching internet providers that supposedly had a better deal which usually includes a very healthy customer service program as well, I wouldn’t even begin to imagine that they would be absolutely ridiculous to deal with. As a customer, the long winded wait in order for you to solve your issue with their product does not bode well as does it fails to leave a good impression on the companies customer service. I believe that Novel can definitely take means to improve their customer support by having actual people instead of machines to talk to and also keeping a good record of their customers in a system database so if the customer would have any other future problems, they can retrieve their data in the system.
An issue I had a few months ago was when I lost my ATM debut card and i immediately called my bank and ask them to cancel the card and send me a knew one. However as simple as this seems, it wasn’t. Instead of speaking with a bank, representative, i ended dealing with their automated phone service that was an absolute tedious task. The menu was very frustrating to deal with and the way it was set up made it impossible to speak to a representative. After going through a very difficult task and varies options i finally found a way to speak to a representative and explained my issue to the person and he immediately was able to fix my problem. If the bank were to have an option that would have allowed me to speak to a representative immediately, instead of going through a very tedious process in order to speak to one, then i would have saved myself 30 minutes and i wouldn’t have been as frustrated as i was.
Ray
I agree that dealing with TV companies can be an absolute nightmare. Me and my family had the same issue with our cable provider when we wanted to upgrade our package so we can get the extra features and channels. I really believe that TV companies especially need to improve their customer service and instead of having us customers going through an automated process, give us the ability to request to a representative instead so it keeps us happy and satisfied so we will continue business with them or else customers will take their business elsewhere if they feel that other providers have a better customer service system and ultimately people will begin to switch their alliance and business would e terrible for that specific provider.
Professor Witman,
It is very unfortunate to hear about your experience with Novel, their lack of communication seems like the main reason for the complications and confusion you encountered. This is most likely due to their shortage of experience and professionalism. I have learned that most times it is best to stick to what is known and well recognized by the public. Though in your situation, you had family that were already familiar and experienced with Novel, which makes your decision of switching from your current service provider to Novel so much easier.
Surprisingly I have never encountered a situation like this, but I can say I have been a witness to some terrible customer service. Once when my dad decided to switch phone providers, after receiving a convincing phone call. My dad was being offered a convenient deal, so in spite of the moment, my dad decided to go through with the offer. Though once my dad was set up with our new provider, he received the first bill and all was fine, but once the second bill arrived the balance was not accurate to what the representative had confirmed with my dad. So like anyone else would have done, my dad contacted the provider and explained the situation. The representative then stated that the offer was only valid for the first bill. Of course my dad was upset and attempted to switch to our old provider, which was Verizon at the time, but they informed my dad that they would have to charge him an extra start up fee due to the prior cancellation. After going back and forth with providers, my dad was better off staying with the new provider. Though had he stayed with Verizon and not switched to begin with, it would have saved him a lot more money that he thought he was saving by switching to the new provider.
Many companies outsource to save their company money, but at the same time are risking their customer’s loyalty. Just as you did, many customers become frustrated and fed up with the poor customer service so they choose to remove themselves from the inconveniences.
Professor Witman,
I have actually better luck with my TV and internet service set up this month. The difference was that most of the customer service I received was in person and was probably better than I ever could have asked. But once there was a problem and I was told I was going to be contacted in a few days for a different crew to come and asses the problem I encountered some issues. First I was never contacted and I had to call the cable company myself and they did not know what the issue was and I had to explain it to them but they did know all my other information.
I think that saying, “you get what you pay for” applies to this story. The deal “get a “free” modem, and pay only $15/month for double the speed” seems to good to be true. Obviously some corners had to be cut to lower the price and customer service had to be lowered to offer such a great price. If I was in this situation I would have talked to friends and gets some reliable feedback on this company because with such a common service as internet someone you know is bound to have them.
Brian Dwyer,
I agree when it comes to this situation it is an example of the saying “you get what you pay for” and that includes the customer support. When you pay any company not only are you getting their service and/or product your also paying for their support staff. What may seem like a great deal could become a rip off because of the difficult process some companies put customers through. That’s why it is a good idea like you said to always look at the reviews of the company from various sources to ensure you really are getting. Checking other people’s opinions is a good way to go because with so many good deals being advertised how else are you supposed to filter out the ones that are really worth the payment and effort?
Dear Professor Whitman,
I have to say that I am very impressed with the way you handled the situation, and how calmed you were throughout the process. While reading the blog I had flashbacks of a similar situation I had during the summer, my incident also dealt with terrible customer service. During the summer I went to visit my grandparents in Mexico, and they had recently installed Satellite TV. When their bill arrived at the end of the month my grandma was not sure why she had so many extra charges. Therefore, she went to the location where she bought the service, but they could not give her an answer and asked her to call costumer service.
This is where I come in; a few days after I arrived my grandma explained her situation and asked me if I could make the call. I called to ask what the extra charges were for and I was directed to five different representatives. Finally, after two hours of waiting they told me that the extra charges were because my grandma had ordered an extra modem. However, they were charging her the full price for the extra modem instead of the extra fee they had offered. Therefore, I had to call again and after a few hours on the phone the extra charges were dropped. The whole situation is extremely disturbing first of all I could not believe that the bill was not detailed enough for us to figure out what the extra charges were for, and that I had to go through such a hassle for such a simple thing.
Hi Professor Witman,
I definitely have had the same experience as you and I feel your pain. It is hard dealing with a company who has not caught up with the technology or services that can further a company; training, information services, etc. Although outsourcing can make the situation worse, there are still companies that don’t outsource and the customer service is worse than the companies that do outsource. Companies that outsource do save money, but is it really worth it in the long run? Companies should focus on keeping their customer base, rather than trying to save money. If they improve their customer service, then with a little word of mouth and advertising, the company could get more money that way, rather than cutting on their quality of customer service.
Although you did have a different experience than your friends, it shows that the company was not ready for people that wanted to switch providers, but only ready for customers that were new to this idea in general. The company did not take into consideration the customers that will be switching providers and if they do not improve their communication/information skills in that department, they will lose any new customers in that department. I think that they should increase the training given to their employees and make sure that the customer can get their problem solved quickly. If the company had a system that could state the customers information, then the company would be better able to help the customer and therefore increase their customer base, instead of frustrating their current customers and losing them to other companies.
Dear Professor Whitman,
This is a story that I hear to often We hear of a good deal that we think will save us a few bucks in this financial crisis but when you actually invest in the product you find nothing but problems. With companies that are growing tech savvy they need to make sure that their support lines know the products ins and outs. I myself have had this problem were you get transfered from person to person until you reach the top were they actually know what they are talking about. Companies need to start employing people who know about their product and not just their top level employees.
I know that companies are trying to save money by employing less experienced employees but this just makes their company get a bad reputation for customer service. Which will ultimately reduce their profit making those employees that they hired counter productive. Another option companies can do is instead of going threw three different people have a group of managers that their only job is to help customers. This will connect the customer straight to the source and ultimately reduce the amount of useless customer support employees.
Dear Erika Medina,
It sounds like your visit to Mexico was a little more stressful than expected. In addition to the unclear bill, the steps to solving the matter were equally unclear. Your grandmother had to elicit your help in order to figure out what exactly was going on and what she was paying for. I’ve also had to help grandparents and other family members numerous times with installing new internet and/or television devises. I understand that companies face a huge challenge trying to simplify their complex systems and devices in order for the average person to comprehend their installation and usage. However, this is something that these companies need to figure out if they want to succeed in the market.
Hello Professor Witman,
I can totally understand where you are coming from. I’ve been in the same situation couple of times with different companies and it gets so frustrating. Most companies should make technology an asset for their business and not a problem. Too many times, I myself have been in a situation like that, where I’ve spoken to customer service/management and they can’t recommend solutions that will fix the specific client’s needs until they make a lot of transfers and it gets to the bottom of the problem. As they routinely bring down an entire business while they perform routine maintenance on a server is not a good look to their company. As for me that is just unacceptable. They have to make technology integrate with the customers so their business can grow. It’s just not about the price that’s going to bring “them” customers.
It’s very important for employees to interact with their clients quickly and clearly whether it’s through the phone or internet. It’s very doubtful that any business doesn’t have some piece of technology that it uses regularly nowadays. They just have to have the proper technology and know how to use it and train their workers as well to get a good result. I think the most obvious benefit of IT is that it improves communication. It should provide faster and more efficient methods of getting a job done but if the company doesn’t have the right people and the right databases stored it’s going to get more complicated. As for me I wouldn’t put up with a company like that for too long.
Dear Prof Whitman,
It’s unfortunate that you had to go through all that trouble just for changing your internet service. Hopefully the Novel staff will be able to learn from the flaws in their customer support system and have a better plan of solving that type of situation. I know from hearing other people’s personal experiences dealing with any type of customer support can be frustrating that’s why I really gave up on using a company’s support system and I turn to the internet to find assistance from actual customer’s on forums because they are essentially looking out for my best interests because they are a customer like me. The people behind these support lines only know the bare minimum, that’s the problem with outsourcing. Yes, it is cheaper labor, but it’s out of the company’s sphere of control.
The problem with these types of situations is a lack of managing communication and proper knowledge. There is communication happening it is just misleading and unorganized making it confusing to the customer. Companies like Novel are missing a good way of keeping its staff on the same page when it comes to information. You were informed of two different step methods from waiting to cancel your previous internet provider according to the setup manual to then being told to cancel it by the customer support sooner. That is a flaw in the company’s information system that could happen to almost any customer trying to change their internet service. Novel needs a better trained staff for its customer support which emphasizes product knowledge and a better management of communicating with itself to avoid the time consumption of the customer. Some companies though don’t try to help the customer and try to do the least amount to get a customer’s service.
-Emanuel Ultreras
Dear Erika Medina,
I can relate to your frustration about being transferred to different representatives and still not getting the job done. I literally went through this couple of days ago with my mobile company. After seeing extra charges charged on my bill and after calling them, being transferred from one customer representative to another and they still couldn’t manage to know what the charges were for actually, I had to go in the store and talk to their manager and show them my bill then go through this long process of online accounts then they finally figured out the problem which was their fault. Bottom line, I just think no matter what state, country, city or wherever you are, big companies or even companies who want to grow won’t, unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. You’ll just start losing customers because of your bad customer service. With a slow customer service or without a technology support that you can work, you will get a lot of complaints and losses.
Professor Witman,
I am sure each of us can resonate with a similar issue of customer service at one point or another, as the world has gravitated further towards technological support rather than face-to-face interaction, which can often make seemingly solvable issues much more complicated. I commend your patience throughout such a frustrating ordeal; having dealt with customer service issues of the same nature, I found it nearly impossible to stay as calm and forgiving as yourself.
In the past, I have had problems with the customer service department for my cell phone company. The situation took place a few years ago, when I was experiencing an abnormal amount of dropped calls, and had trouble maintaining cell phone reception in the most common of places. Being that I had just purchased a new cell phone a few weeks earlier, I figured that it was probably just a defect with the device itself, so I decided to place a call to the customer service department in hopes of resolving the issue and possibly exchanging the phone for one that was better functioning. After being passed from one representative to another, being placed on hold for obnoxious amounts of time, and running through the same routine questions countless times, it was determined that my problem needed to be handled through another department, which was already closed for the day! Although I was beyond frustrated, I called back the following day and spoke with a representative in the department that I had been advised to contact; after going over the same series of questions, they deemed that my dropped calls were just a result of temporary bad connection, and that my cell phone reception was perfectly normal. Obviously, I was completed unsatisfied with the aforementioned response, as the representative basically told me that there was nothing wrong with my phone; I insisted on being sent a replacement phone, which I was told would take about a week to receive AFTER I sent them my phone, meaning that I would be without a phone for over a week! Eventually, I decided to take the financial hit and purchase another phone from a local store, which instantly solved the problems that I was experiencing with my previous phone.
After much time and money wasted, I can’t help but think that the resolution could have been reached much more quickly and efficiently had the phone company properly trained its customer service representatives. While I don’t blame the representatives themselves, as they were all very courteous and genuinely wanted to help, it would be wise for the company to invest more time and money into training their employees to avoid similar situations in the future.
Professor Witman,
I’m sorry to learn about your unfortunate encounter with Novel’s customer service. It seems that the majority of companies need to improve their customer service. I understand completely why you got frustrated and I commend you for how you handled the difficult situation. It’s ironic how at the surface level Novel made this whole process sound easy but yet it turned out to be six hours longer than you were led to believe.
As an avid gamer, I must say I love my gaming console, which I’ll call “zsquare”. When my zsquare has a problem, I like to call customer support to get the problem fixed as soon as possible. Most of the time I’m connected to someone in customer support in India who wants to help but just doesn’t seem to be trained in the manner in which I need them. As you experienced with Novel, It gets frustrating and old very quickly. If companies are going to have their costumers rely so much on outsourcing in regard to customer service, they need to thoroughly train their workers for every situation. That might be easier said than done though.
Prof. Witman,
While my bad customer service experience wasn’t as intense as what you experienced with novel, I have had my fair share of absolutely helpless and clueless customer service representatives. And just like Novel, even with a soft tone and keeping their cool, they were just not trained enough on the technical aspect of the job and company technology is not up to date enough on real time error reporting and trouble shooting. While training is rather difficult, especially with new updates in technology almost weekly, it is still very vital because it would be the demise of any organizations that can not provide prompt services to customers when they need it. I personally would rather have customer services jobs onshore just to eliminate problems like language/accent barriers, context issue which might throw and already aggravated customer off the wall. On the same note, i have no problem with a company outsourcing the job, as long as they can ensure that the same standards would apply and not just an attempt to save money at the expense of customer satisfaction.
Professor Witman,
What you experienced with Novel and their customer service is something that happens quit frequently over the phone in today’s world. Unfortunately, this has got to be one of the most extreme cases of customer service gone bad. The lack of communication between Novel’s employees as well as the little or no structure internally with this company if not corrected properly, could result in them failing as a company.
In order for Novel’s to gain successes as a company as well as with it’s customers major changes MUST be done. You had expressed in your article that when dealing with multiple employee’s over the phone, each and every time they request your information. To make the process less time consuming and more efficient over all they should create a customer profile they can be available to each representative.
I feel as though Novel must step back and look at the quality of their employee’s as well. You had mentioned that you had reached the 3rd or 4th level technician for such a simple problem. Unfortunately this to me is a bad sign. More qualified employee’s could result in less phone time and quicker problem solving.
Professor Witman,
In my opinion this situation happens to almost everyone who uses technology. It could be the internet as in this case, a TV, radio in a car, or even video game consoles. In this particular instance it seems as though you were quick to jump into Novel. Perhaps this was a result of the “free” modem, the cheaper payments per month, or even the double speed connection. The new provider seems good from the simple looks of things on paper but it doesn’t seem as though much research was conducted to see how the services are or how the internet actually performs in comparison with the DSL modem. To me, time is money and 6 hours on the phone would absolutely drive me crazy. In this case again, on paper it looked promising having the system set up by midnight the day the modem was received, but sometimes things are too good to be true. Especially when there are deals that are way over other competitors it is crucial to do some research to see the company’s actual performance. It is good that you asked for a manager because the support tech’s didn’t seem to have a solution or a way to address the problem you were having. I think the biggest upset here is the time spent trying to boost the new system. It can be really frustrating dealing with tech supporters who continuously repeat the same questions. It goes to show that the customer service was not an area of high training or qualified workers.
I have only had one situation where I have been on the phone for tech. support. I was calling about a problem on an XBOX and I went online prior to search for people who have had similar problems. Sometimes people are able to explain how to fix a problem in simpler language then tech supporters through a company. After doing that I called XBOX and had a really nice man help me out. He walked me through some steps and described to me what should be happening. He was very understanding of my lack of XBOX terminology and was patient which made a dreadful phone call not so bad. By the end of the call he came to the conclusion that the XBOX had to be sent in to be repaired or replaced. He then gave me some great news that the XBOX was still under warranty even though it had already been replaced once before and gave me all the directions of what to do and how to send it in. Although the shipping cost as in your case as well were not covered I didn’t mind because the overall service and quality of the outcome outweighed the shipping cost.
Tech support can be very frustrating, time consuming, and in some aspects can really effect someone’s mood. I think it is critical for companies to have tech supporters who can really provide quality service to the customers because customer relationships are what allow businesses to be profitable and successful.
Thanks,
Lisa Borgialli
I think this topic is greatly undersood by the vast majority of consuners. Weall have called a customer service number or technical support line and have to speak with someone that hardly understands your needs and that one cannot understand either due to their heavy accent. It really has become a liability to some companies rather than an overhead cost being cut down. Once an event such as the one highlighted in this article, most custromers become so frustrated that they just move over to the competitor’s business, therefore in the long run, these type of companies end up loosing their customers. It is really unfortunate that these type of issues have become a really huge problem in the corporatre world.