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What Would You Rather Do?
Last night, after trying everything I could think of over the course of two days to get my computer to work again, I finally breathed a heavy sigh and picked up the phone to call Apple’s technical support center. Now, I’ve dealt with Apple before and had a great experience. But for many companies, service is so inconsistent that, based on my broader services experiences overall, I didn’t know what to expect.
What I got was a helpful sounding IVR that was “happy” to help with my problem. But, when I accidentally hit the wrong prompt, I became trapped in the system. I did the only thing I could think of: I started shouting at the phone. My 10-year-old daughter called upstairs to me: “Everything OK?” I replied, “I’m just on the phone with customer service.” Her telling response: “Oh, no wonder you’re shouting.”
After I laughed to myself about her quip, I said “agent” and promptly got the help I needed.
But the whole got me thinking about why some people are reluctant to call customer service. In fact, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and RightNow Technologies, 54 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed would rather clean their house than deal with poor service. Worse, as a result of a poor service experience, 29 percent of respondents have gotten a headache, felt their chest tighten, or cried—and 47 percent swore or shouted as a result. Hmmm, sounds familiar…
So, for a little bit of fun this Friday, I thought I’d ask: What you rather do than phone customer service? For inspiration, check out RightNow’s “Don’t Fear the Phone” video.
And to answer that question myself: As you saw from the beginning of this commentary, in most cases I’d rather spend too much time trying to figure out the solution for myself, or when possible, use online self-service, than phone a customer service center.
I rather sit staring at the wooden walls in my study or sit in my window seat watching the birds fly about or read my 17 year old's text messages (can't understand a word -- if you call them words.) or maybe learn how to send a text message.
I share your pain Ginger. Here is what I rather do..
1. Get my wisdom teeth pulled.
2. Listen to a bunch of Michael Bolton CD's.
3. Read Webster's Dictionary from A to Z
4. Smoke crack
Great blog Ginger,
I actually have been having some really positive customer service experiences lately. I think a lot of companies are really starting to understand how to respond to customer expectations when they call a center. However, there's a lot of strategy work that needs to be done in terms of when to use the IVR and the proper blending of self service with real agents.
It's funny that you talk about shouting into the phone. Because I'm aware that many companies now use emotion detection to understand when callers are distressed, I sometimes purposely raise my voice or sound aggravated when I'm stuck in IVR hell because I suspect my call might be immediately escalated to a human.
What a great idea Ginger .... and I had a similar reaction with a Lenovo experience this week. Briefly, I ordered a laptop and upgraded to a burner vs the existing reader. By the time I installed it though ( after the 21 day return policy ), I found out they shipped an incompatible burner ( from Tech Support ). Tech Support passed me over to Sales/Customer Service - as they can only replace an existing p/n, not change it. Sales/Customer service would have nothing to do with it - even though I had a 3 year warranty. I got both parties on the line ( one woman from India, the other gentleman from the Caribbean working in Atlanta ) and they started yelling at each other with me listening LOL ..... Still not resolved yet - as it has to escalate to overrides etc, but I have faith !
So to answer your question:
1) Root Canal
2) Live at a Barry Manalow Concert
3) Flying in a middle seat - between heavy perfume and smoke infested clothing ( and of course - both seats occupied by very large people )
4) Riding shotgun with Ginger in her Mustang ( just kidding - she is a good driver when not doing her nails and iPod headphones on ! )
I'd prefer being kept awake for five hours listening to the high-pitched screaming of a six week old baby, for no apparent reason.
Hi Ginger
I share your pain
Seems like a game of snakes and ladders at times. Press the wrong button and ...
I look forward to the day that speech recognition is married up with content - enabling more natural interaction
in the mean time - I think companies can help their customers by mapping out their call centre decision prompts and posting that on their website. That way customers can map out their strategy in advance and spend less time on the phone waiting for the voice message to scroll through the various options. Why is it that your option is always the last anyways???
as another extention to this thought - imagine marrying avatars with Behavior Targetting. A branded company spokesman waiting there to assist and guide you through the site.
Brave new world indeed.
Cheers
Miro
Wow....what a tough question, with the drought we are having here in the south there are two things I would rather do.
1. Go to Home Depot and pick out a very good, user friendly shovel (I am handy man challenged)
2. Dig a well in my back yard, there's got to be some water down there.
Oh yeah, it is also time for my annual check up and at my age it is fun...."Moon River"
Press 3 to continue my......
I'd rather watch:
- The View
- A Sex in the City Marathon
- American Idol
Celebrity Apprentice or Celebrity Mole
_ Another presidential debate
I'd rather listen to:
- Soft Hits from the 80's
- Kenny G & Michael Bolton's Greatest hits
- The Howard Stern Show
I'd rather read:
- War in Peace....in Russian
- Milk carton labels