Customer services not experience

We are having a really bad experience at the moment. In fact, this is the second time this has happened since we moved here (3 years ago) with the same company. And no lessons appear to have been learnt from the last time this happened. This is a service we pay for yes, but more than that it is a service which is offered by the provider, therefore it is their responsibility. Ok, the service is broadband and is provided by a pretty long in the tooth telco. But this is not about them per se, and it doesn’t matter what the service it; this is about how they should help their customer, not hinder them.

The first time this happened, it took 6 weeks to resolve. At first it was deemed our fault by the provider. But it was not our fault and when we did everything they told us to, at great expense and time to us, the problem still occurred. Time and money had flown past, many people were spoken to and it eventually took one person, with a little bit of initiative and presence of mind, to resolve the issue. So now we have the same problem, only this time exacerbated by the fact that customer services is based in India. I am all for globalisation, but when customer services is so far removed from the country of origin, the only way it will work efficiently, is to ensure that strict processes are followed to the letter. There is no allowance for proactivity or deviation from process to ensure that something gets resolved. And I do understand that strict processes need to be put in place, but it doesn’t help me as a customer. And that is what I want, help. From the organisation that we pay, to provide us with the service they sold to us.

We went through the same thing all over again, (at our cost and time) and none of this has resolved the issue. But try telling that to customer services, all they want to do is follow process and they certainly do not want to spend any money sending someone out. We even said we would pay a £1000 to have someone come to our house to help us, but no, it didn’t follow process, wasn’t scripted, therefore couldn’t happen. And there is no manager to talk to in order to escalate the matter. And there is no phone number on the providers website to direct you somewhere other than customer services in India. This is not the fault of the poor people having to deal with us, very angry by now after 3 weeks of this, they are doing their job as they have been told to do. But it is the customer that suffers. And it doesn’t matter where these customer services agents are, if they do not understand how to help, they will not be able to do anything.

This is a painful experience. Only through searching forums did we find a name and address of someone to write to in order to complain and then apparently if you are not satisfied you go to Ofcom. It should never get that far. In order to achieve a customer experience beyond just polite customer service, agents should be proactive enough to deviate from standard script, they should have the power to do more and fight for their customer, they should ultimately be able to close the loop. Unfortunately this takes time, training and money and probably some substantial organisational change, physically and in attitude. Surely it is worth it to ensure that the customer gets a simple thing like help? Beyond that, the provider’s processes are clearly too complex because even the agents don’t know how to handle a complaint, or a long-standing issue; they don’t know who to turn to themselves for resolution.

Most of all though, help is simply not at hand. No-one understand what the problem is, no-one sees that this had been going on long enough, no-one shares our frustration that this isn’t being resolved. A better customer experience would be to not provide broadband at all, because it is clearly an issue here. And that is what I was told by another provider, that they simply wouldn’t supply it because we would have such a poor experience. At least then you know where you stand.

Everything is just far too complicated and too big these days, for customers to get their heads round and for organisations to deal with and deliver a satisfying customer experience.