Changes to our Support structure

[Jeremy_M]

Hey Community,

In order to best assist you, we are making some customer support changes in the coming days.

Presently, we support customers through social media, web forms, and the Community. Having multiple support channels has given customers more flexibility but it has also led to longer response times, delays in our service, and confusion for our customers.

In order to continuously deliver the best possible customer experience, we are simplifying how you can reach out to one single place: our Community. It’s easy - plus, you’ll never have to wonder if you should Facebook message us and post on our Community. On our end, it will streamline all your questions and make it easier to get back to you.

Here’s how this breaks down:

Today	July 13th
Support Channels: Social Media: Facebook, Twitter Web Forms Community	Support Channels: Community

Part of making this work is also changing how you connect with our Moderators. In the past, every moderator has had their own account to help you. In our new support model, all the Moderators will share one account so you get help as soon as any Moderator is available to help - first come, first served!

Finally, since the Community will now be the only way to get in touch with our support team, we will be disabling our web form queues and direct messages via social media.

We are really excited for this change because we know it will get you help and answers faster than before.

FAQ:

I’m used to sending web forms for support. Why have you changed this?	Great question! A couple of reasons why we decided to make the change: Very few customers were using web forms Most of the web form questions we received were general inquiries; with answers that can be found in our Community. And yet, we still had to have a team checking web forms, taking time away from the Community (where most of our customers are)! By streamlining how to get help, we make sure that you get help faster!
With the new support model, will I need to have a registered Community Profile to directly communicate with your support team, In addition to my Self Serve account?	Yes. Register for a Community Profile by clicking here
When should I reach out to the support team?	When you can’t find the answer you’re looking for in the Community, or a fellow Community member advises you to reach out to our support team
How do I contact support?	Follow these instructions here
Who is Simon? Not referring to our awesome 'mod' @Simon_O	Simon, is a ‘ChatBot’ that can help answer any general inquiries you might have about our products or services. More info on Simon can be found here
What are the Contact Support’s hours of operation?	Monday - Friday 9AM (EDT) - 9PM (EDT) Saturday - Sunday 9AM (EDT) - 7:30PM (EDT)
What is the average wait time to get account assistance from the Support Team?	During business hours, we strive to answer all customer messages/inquiries as soon as possible. Usually, that is within an hour, but in peak periods, it could be as much as within 48 hours of receiving the message.
What/Who are Oracles?	The Oracles are a small group of Community members who really know their stuff. Find out more about our Oracles by clicking here
How do I post a question to the Community?	Sign-in to the Community (by clicking ‘Sign-In’ close to the top of your webpage) Choose a category that would best suit your question On your right-hand side click on ‘Start a topic’ Type your question and click on ‘Post’ For detailed instructions click here
How do I know if the Support Team has answered my question?	If your email notifications are enabled, you will get an email notifying you that we responded to you.
How do I enable email notifications?	This function should be automatically enabled. You can check here to make sure ‘Receive email notifications for new private messages’ is checked.
How do I contact support? How will I know who a Moderator is?	There are two ways that you are able to contact our Community Moderators: Private Messaging: You can do this by ‘searching’ for our unique Community Moderator’s profile (as shown below) then, once on the moderator profile, on the right-side click on “Send this user a private message”.  The unique blue square with ‘MOD’ is how you identify our Moderators. Tagging: If you would like a Moderator to weigh-in on a discussion, simply tag the Moderator profile to the post you created i.e @Moderator_Team
If I’m a Legacy customer will I still have access to the Call Center?	Yes, if you activated before January 27th, 2015, you will still  have access to the call centre
Will I get a ticket # for reference when contacting the Support Teams?	Working on it! We should have this functionality implemented soon!

[Rockdaddy22]

Not sure what your talking about. If you have a problem, send a moderator a message and they'll reply, simple 🙂

[thelazylynx]

This Community based support system is not working very well.

Any other business that leaves a customer without a proper support and issue resolution simply goes out of business.  Not sure how this is supposed to work.

[Snoopy28]

Good morning,

I am unable to do anything, because even my phone number doesn’t exist on Public Mobile site,

my email not accepted, could you please help me to log in on my account.

[srlawren]

@Echofoxtrot did you get your private message sent off to the moderator team yet?  Did my message help?

[srlawren]

@Echofoxtrot no need, just remove the "@" 

EDIT: or use this link:  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

2nd EDIT:  good luck holding PM respnosible for interst or damages--they were explicity excluded via the terms of service you agreed to while activating:  https://publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Public_Mobile_Terms_of_Service.pdf.  Check page 3, Warranty section.  

[Echofoxtrot]

WTF? Nice to know, when I'm having trouble with my accout a Team moderator is not available and there is no means to communicate with staff.  Sending this to twitter and CRTC.  My phone service has not been working and I'm locked out of my account.  I have bills to pay, doctors appointments and work related things I need to take care of, any and all damages/interest charges I will hold Public Mobile directly responsible.  

[kav2001c]

For Public? I communicate monthly at the very least

Even simple things (eg such as why the autopay rewards are not being applied to my account) need to be manually adjusted and investigated

(The last email I received today said matter is still under investigation, they manually credited the account, and contact them again in 90 days if not resolved)

I probably contact them more often than most members (since I have 6 active lines plus I help out my referals) but still

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@will13am wrote:

Seriously though, how often do you interact with customer service?  If you had to do it on a daily basis, I am sure you would hate the service even if you had a live person to yell at every day.  As long as Public Mobile shares the savings by not having physical stores and running large call centers with the customers, we should be happy. 

[Michael77]

Thank you. 🙂

[Rockdaddy22]

We're more happy to have you 🙂

[Michael77]

Thank you. Happy to be here. 🙂

[srlawren]

@Michael77 we're happy to have you for as long as you like 🙂 🙂

[Michael77]

Hi srlawren,

Thanks for your response.

I guess my main point is not that I want to leave, it is that I don't think PM will reach their target of new customers. With the new higher PM prices, to stay competitive with the other carriers, I think PM will need a call centre. As for me, I like my plan and promotion. I will stay around and see what PM does with my plan price in the future. So for now you guys are stuck with me for a little bit longer. 😉 🙂

[srlawren]

@Michael77 yes, we understand your point of view also.  This is one of the ways in which PM differentiates itself from other competitors, for better or for worse.  If availability of somone you can call up with issues is a high priority for you, you may want to explore other options out there in the market that might serve your needs better. 

[Rockdaddy22]

It's definitely a new way to do things, it's not for everyone. This is a wireless experiment, only time will tell. Of course the PM sites need a lot of work if we're going to be a web only service.

[Michael77]

I totally understand what you are saying but I would still prefer to chat with someone live. I guess my main point is that it is going to be a tough sell to most Canadians. It's a big step forward. It takes a lot of time to get your head around the idea. Most people are more comfortable/use to call centres. PM is the only carrier that I am aware of that does not have a phone number to call. I do hope I am wrong but can't help but feel this is a major issue to growth.

[will13am]

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@Michael77 wrote:
I think there are probably more people out there who prefer talking to a live agent. That may be the stumbling block to increasing the number of users PM wants to reach. Unless someone is getting more, I don't think PM will get the numbers they are looking for. But who knows, let's wait and see. I could be wrong. 🙂

I would never have switched from FM to PM if it wasn't for the great promotion. I was worried about not having phone support. I think I am okay now but try convincing non-PM users that. It won't be easy.

I just hope nothing goes wrong with my phone service because my a first thought is to call someone, not type an email. I'd rather speak to someone. I prefer a live agent. It's quicker and easier for me. In fact, I actually hate typing. 🙂

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Seriously though, how often do you interact with customer service?  If you had to do it on a daily basis, I am sure you would hate the service even if you had a live person to yell at every day.  As long as Public Mobile shares the savings by not having physical stores and running large call centers with the customers, we should be happy. 

BTW, in all the times that you have had to interact with Freedom customer service, how helpful were they in resolving your issue?  In my own personal experience, they were not that useful because my gripes were about coverage issues that were never really resolved to the day I left the service.  Has they been, I might still be with them. 

[Michael77]

I think there are probably more people out there who prefer talking to a live agent. That may be the stumbling block to increasing the number of users PM wants to reach. Unless someone is getting more, I don't think PM will get the numbers they are looking for. But who knows, let's wait and see. I could be wrong. 🙂

I would never have switched from FM to PM if it wasn't for the great promotion. I was worried about not having phone support. I think I am okay now but try convincing non-PM users that. It won't be easy.

I just hope nothing goes wrong with my phone service because my a first thought is to call someone, not type an email. I'd rather speak to someone. I prefer a live agent. It's quicker and easier for me. In fact, I actually hate typing. 🙂

[Chadlindstrom]

Agree with this response/feedback.

HOWEVER. The process of using the community forums and PM to moderators is much less intuitive and I fear it my drive some subscribers away if they can't figure out the rather convoluted interface in the forums.

This community forum and PM system is much less intuitive than simply requesting support through social media direct messages.

I suggest you find a convenient way for users to request DM support to __avoid private information being shared publicly__.

[vinions]

Now this doesn't really affect me because once everything is working I rarely ever need to contact support.  But when I have, it has always been through the Community.  

However, with that said, I had no idea of this change until I randomly visited this just now.  With something as big as support, couldn't this be communicated in other ways as well to ensure everyone gets it? 

[kav2001c]

@srlawren I actually posted to @Crackmacs in the other thread he would make more money collecting shopping carts at his local grocery store than wasting time posting fake positive things on the forums (although Debbie Downers could certainly bravo each others negative posts as well this fact seems to have been overlooked)

I can't even begin to imagine the conspiracy theories some people come up with

[srlawren]

@Rockdaddy22 I'd hate to figure out the equivalent salary rate for what we can earn in community rewards!  I think for myself at least it would probably come in somewhere near a quarter an hour, based on the amount of time I end up here in a typical week.  Definitely no more than $0.50 an hour.  I could make more collecting pop bottles or asking people if they want fries with thier Big Mac.

[Rockdaddy22]

Do you really think most people come here for the few dollars lol You obviously haven't been reading much around here lately, %90 has been negative on the new plans and price changes.

The changes to the support structure are a different story, most see it as a positive change. Of course a bunch disagree and that's ok. We don't have to defend PM to up are post count or whatever.

I've been with PM since Beta, Jeremy was personally a big help when I signed up. Ever since then I've supported the company big time, it's my choice to be a fanboy. It's definitely not for the money 💰 lol

[Crackmacs]

@kav2001c never said anything about praising the moderators? Just noticed a big uptick in people praising PM (the company, not the moderators) rather than being critical of poor decisions. Then there's people like yourself that will come to their defense seemingly no matter what they do. Offering an incentive to pad your post count seems to be directly related to it. Have you ever used forums for a service provider before? Check out Shaw's community forums for example - they have no incentive to post, and no sucking up, and no fanboys, other than the employees. 

I haven't posted the exact same post multiple times. I guess it doesn't matter though even if I had, the more the merrier right? Let's get those community rewards rather than sharing opinions.

Whatever bizarre excuses you can come up to blindly praise Public Mobile with doesn't really matter, killing off social media support in 2017 (while increasing prices at the same time) is not courageous, it's foolish.  

[Rockdaddy22]

That's the point, the customer wouldn't of had to wait 36 hours to here back. These new changes should prevent that kind of stuff from happening.

[kav2001c]

@Crackmacs not sure why you keep re-posting this obviously incorrect idea (you have exact same post multiple times over last 2 weeks)

Praising the Mods does not give any additional rewards

The link you post below is exactly the reason why the change was made

Many people were trying all kinds of stuff, tagging every mod in sight, pm whoever was online, filing out an email a fb message a tweet and whatever else

The confusion to the customers especially when a person did get service is why this was killed

Since each support channel appeared to have its own queue filling out multiple channels clogged up system far worse which delayed others and prompted even more multiple complaints

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@Crackmacs wrote:

Not sure why everyone is so excited about this change. Sucking up for forum points? 😛

Here's a pretty good example https://twitter.com/AQYoung/status/886580167505739778 - a customer tried to use the forums and 36 hours without a response, sends a couple tweets, staff member gets back to him and fills him in on things. Killing this kind of thing isn't going to instill confidence in any one. 

Re-think this.

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[srlawren]

@CalvinW price hike is definite, yes.  (Though of course, not for existing, grandfathered customers that wish to stay on their previous plans.)  I suppose you could argue that the accessibility of support has been decreased but I think this particular "con" is actually a "pro" in the long run.  We're seeing way more moderators online and I think the support efforts are more focused and targetted now.  They now have one channel to intake and track, and more people supporting that channel than the previous multiple channels each had.  I'm hopful this change is for the positive.  Though yes, I hate the price hikes as much as everyone else!

[CalvinW]

Increase the cost of plans and decrease accessibility of customer support.

[Bubba]

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@Jeremy_M wrote:

Hey Community,

In order to best assist you, we are making some customer support changes in the coming days.

Great question! A couple of reasons why we decided to make the change:

• Very few customers were using web forms
• Most of the web form questions we received were general inquiries; with answers that can be found in our Community.

sorry but the reson no one used the wen form was because most othe time the answeres/solutions were usless and incomplete. it was mostly used for issues dealing with payment, money and severe system problems. Everthing else was done on here

I always thought it was people in the call centre at Telus doing tthem thats why no real effort was put into it. Well that was my experience at the beginning when I had problems. Sorry to hurt any of the offical PM moderators (Jermey etc.) feelings if they were the ones actually handling them....which I doubt

[jt17g]

thanks for the update!

[Luddite]

Big increase in moderators on line and Jeremy says it will be perrmanent. 👍 👍

Also, I see the Contact Us still functions by linking to the moderators' info page.