Monday, April 23, 2007
"What, even me?"
As I type this, there's a major DSL service outage in parts of southwestern Ontario. It appears to be an issue on Bell's end, although I don't have any specific information about the problem right now, so it's possible I could be wrong.
Naturally, to save time for everyone, we've got a recording up so that when people call in to the tech support centre, they hear that there are significant system-wide issues. Nevertheless, some people still hear the recording, and wait to speak to an agent directly. Some of them have good questions, but a lot of them don't. Here's a sampling of some of the worse ones:
Caller: "I understand that there's a DSL problem?"
Me: "Yes, that's correct."
Caller: "Is it even affecting corporate customers?"
No, sir, we value you so much that your DSL service is exempted from the problem affecting possibly thousands of people all around you.
Caller: "I don't think I have the same problem, because I don't have DSL, I have high speed."
Me: "OK... DSL is a type of high speed service. Do you know what kind of high speed you have?"
Caller: "High speed."
Me: "Alright, can I please have your phone number so that I can bring up your account?"
Caller: "xxx-xxx-xxxx."
Me: "It looks like you do actually have DSL service with us, so unfortunately your service would be affected by the problem that we're experiencing."
Caller: "No, I don't think it is."
Me: "OK, why's that?"
Caller: "I dunno."
Yeah, I'm going to act on that information and identify your problem... hey look, it's a PEBKAC issue!
Caller: "Do you know how long it'll be down?"
Me: "No, unfortunately. As best as we can tell right now, it appears to be an issue on Bell's end, so we're waiting on them to let us know exactly what's wrong and when it'll be back up."
Caller: "How long will that be?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Since it appears to be an issue outside of our network and outside of our immediate control, we have to wait till Bell lets us know."
Caller: "Do you know when they'll tell you?"
Me: "I would imagine that they'll let us know as soon as they've identified the issue."
Caller: "When will that be?"
Me: "I have no idea, sir. Right now we have heard nothing definite, including an estimate on when we will hear something definite."
Caller: "Oh."
Hey, at least after the third time, he understood.
Caller: "So when you say that there's no estimated time for the issue being resolved, are you talking an hour, a couple of hours, a few days, a month, what?"
Me: "We're saying that we have no estimated time."
I mean, what do you expect?
Caller: "I heard your message, but I wondered if the problem is still happening?"
Me: "Yes, it is."
Caller: "OK, thanks!"
Even though that's a very easy call, in some ways it's the most frustrating, because that person waited on hold to confirm what our recorded message has just told them. They've acknowledged that they've heard the message, but they're talking to an agent... why? I'm not sure. We're basically telling them the same thing that the message did.
Here's the gist of it: if there's a recording up, there's a reason for it. It's going to be informing callers about any important information that might save them some time. If you're calling for a different reason, then you should definitely wait and talk to an agent and get things resolved, but if not, why waste our time? And yours?
Naturally, to save time for everyone, we've got a recording up so that when people call in to the tech support centre, they hear that there are significant system-wide issues. Nevertheless, some people still hear the recording, and wait to speak to an agent directly. Some of them have good questions, but a lot of them don't. Here's a sampling of some of the worse ones:
Caller: "I understand that there's a DSL problem?"
Me: "Yes, that's correct."
Caller: "Is it even affecting corporate customers?"
No, sir, we value you so much that your DSL service is exempted from the problem affecting possibly thousands of people all around you.
Caller: "I don't think I have the same problem, because I don't have DSL, I have high speed."
Me: "OK... DSL is a type of high speed service. Do you know what kind of high speed you have?"
Caller: "High speed."
Me: "Alright, can I please have your phone number so that I can bring up your account?"
Caller: "xxx-xxx-xxxx."
Me: "It looks like you do actually have DSL service with us, so unfortunately your service would be affected by the problem that we're experiencing."
Caller: "No, I don't think it is."
Me: "OK, why's that?"
Caller: "I dunno."
Yeah, I'm going to act on that information and identify your problem... hey look, it's a PEBKAC issue!
Caller: "Do you know how long it'll be down?"
Me: "No, unfortunately. As best as we can tell right now, it appears to be an issue on Bell's end, so we're waiting on them to let us know exactly what's wrong and when it'll be back up."
Caller: "How long will that be?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Since it appears to be an issue outside of our network and outside of our immediate control, we have to wait till Bell lets us know."
Caller: "Do you know when they'll tell you?"
Me: "I would imagine that they'll let us know as soon as they've identified the issue."
Caller: "When will that be?"
Me: "I have no idea, sir. Right now we have heard nothing definite, including an estimate on when we will hear something definite."
Caller: "Oh."
Hey, at least after the third time, he understood.
Caller: "So when you say that there's no estimated time for the issue being resolved, are you talking an hour, a couple of hours, a few days, a month, what?"
Me: "We're saying that we have no estimated time."
I mean, what do you expect?
Caller: "I heard your message, but I wondered if the problem is still happening?"
Me: "Yes, it is."
Caller: "OK, thanks!"
Even though that's a very easy call, in some ways it's the most frustrating, because that person waited on hold to confirm what our recorded message has just told them. They've acknowledged that they've heard the message, but they're talking to an agent... why? I'm not sure. We're basically telling them the same thing that the message did.
Here's the gist of it: if there's a recording up, there's a reason for it. It's going to be informing callers about any important information that might save them some time. If you're calling for a different reason, then you should definitely wait and talk to an agent and get things resolved, but if not, why waste our time? And yours?
Labels: wasteoftime
# posted by Terry @ 8:53 AM 
