Improving customer service

[will13am]

In the roughly one and a half years that I have been with the service, today is at least the second time I recall where a software glitch coming out of a maintenance outage has led to fairly widespread impact to customers.  Following these incidents, I have never seen any official announcements from company representatives to tell affected customers the nature of the problem, the corrective actions being taken, time to resolution, recurrence control, anything customers can do to avoid the incident situation, any special compensations and considerations, etc.  As part of customer service excellence, such announcements are absolutely essential.  Pretending nothing happened and hoping that it will all be forgotten after a good night's sleep just doesn't cut it.  Citing a popular quote from George Bernard Shaw, "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.".  The loyal customer base deserve a lot better.  I would not be writing this if I was not loyal.

I am challenging the establishment and old way of doing business.  Let's take customer service to the next level by putting processes in place to post timely announcements when problems crop up that have potential widespread impact to the customer base.  Somebody with a PM designation, please accept my challenge.  @Dave_M, @Brooke_C, @Alan_K, the floor is yours.

Respectfully,
William

[Good1]

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@will13am wrote:

In the roughly one and a half years that I have been with the service, today is at least the second time I recall where a software glitch coming out of a maintenance outage has led to fairly widespread impact to customers.  Following these incidents, I have never seen any official announcements from company representatives to tell affected customers the nature of the problem, the corrective actions being taken, time to resolution, recurrence control, anything customers can do to avoid the incident situation, any special compensations and considerations, etc.  As part of customer service excellence, such announcements are absolutely essential.  Pretending nothing happened and hoping that it will all be forgotten after a good night's sleep just doesn't cut it.  Citing a popular quote from George Bernard Shaw, "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.".  The loyal customer base deserve a lot better.  I would not be writing this if I was not loyal.

I am challenging the establishment and old way of doing business.  Let's take customer service to the next level by putting processes in place to post timely announcements when problems crop up that have potential widespread impact to the customer base.  Somebody with a PM designation, please accept my challenge.  @Dave_M, @Brooke_C, @Alan_K, the floor is yours.

Respectfully,
William

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Well said.

[will13am]

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@Alan_K wrote:

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@will13am wrote:

In the roughly one and a half years that I have been with the service, today is at least the second time I recall where a software glitch coming out of a maintenance outage has led to fairly widespread impact to customers.  Following these incidents, I have never seen any official announcements from company representatives to tell affected customers the nature of the problem, the corrective actions being taken, time to resolution, recurrence control, anything customers can do to avoid the incident situation, any special compensations and considerations, etc.  As part of customer service excellence, such announcements are absolutely essential.  Pretending nothing happened and hoping that it will all be forgotten after a good night's sleep just doesn't cut it.  Citing a popular quote from George Bernard Shaw, "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.".  The loyal customer base deserve a lot better.  I would not be writing this if I was not loyal.

I am challenging the establishment and old way of doing business.  Let's take customer service to the next level by putting processes in place to post timely announcements when problems crop up that have potential widespread impact to the customer base.  Somebody with a PM designation, please accept my challenge.  @Dave_M, @Brooke_C, @Alan_K, the floor is yours.

Respectfully,
William

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Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We understand the frustration of customers who have had their service disrupted by the maintenance at having been left in the dark and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Looking ahead, we will establish clearer lines of communication in a situation where something unexpected like this happens again in a timely manner. We appreciate your patience with us!

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Why wait for tomorrow when you have an ongoing fiasco with which to practice the new communications protocol.  Action speaks louder than words! 

[srlawren]

@Alan_K wrote:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We understand the frustration of customers who have had their service disrupted by the maintenance at having been left in the dark and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Looking ahead, we will establish clearer lines of communication in a situation where something unexpected like this happens again in a timely manner. We appreciate your patience with us!

@Alan_K thank you for this reply.  Please understand that after the utter chaos of the 2016 Fall Promo plan issues, we were given similar assurances by Jeremy, and sadly approaching 2 years later, very very little has changed--specifically zero has changed in terms of announcements of issues, visibility into the support queue, a proper ticketting process, etc. etc I could go on but I think you get the idea.  It's 2018 and this is completely unacceptable for an online-only company.  Please, please get this resolved.

[Alan_K]

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@will13am wrote:

In the roughly one and a half years that I have been with the service, today is at least the second time I recall where a software glitch coming out of a maintenance outage has led to fairly widespread impact to customers.  Following these incidents, I have never seen any official announcements from company representatives to tell affected customers the nature of the problem, the corrective actions being taken, time to resolution, recurrence control, anything customers can do to avoid the incident situation, any special compensations and considerations, etc.  As part of customer service excellence, such announcements are absolutely essential.  Pretending nothing happened and hoping that it will all be forgotten after a good night's sleep just doesn't cut it.  Citing a popular quote from George Bernard Shaw, "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.".  The loyal customer base deserve a lot better.  I would not be writing this if I was not loyal.

I am challenging the establishment and old way of doing business.  Let's take customer service to the next level by putting processes in place to post timely announcements when problems crop up that have potential widespread impact to the customer base.  Somebody with a PM designation, please accept my challenge.  @Dave_M, @Brooke_C, @Alan_K, the floor is yours.

Respectfully,
William

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Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We understand the frustration of customers who have had their service disrupted by the maintenance at having been left in the dark and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Looking ahead, we will establish clearer lines of communication in a situation where something unexpected like this happens again in a timely manner. We appreciate your patience with us!

[will13am]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

I agree that there should be some better communication when issues arise to let people know what to expect.  This has been asked for many times by many different people.  The call centre example knowing your wait time up front, that isn't always true especially when they aren't accurate and you are expecting a 2 hour wait and it is more like 4 (yes it has happened to me and it was a Telus help line).  Not sure what is worse being kept in the dark or lied to.

We must remember that we must assume some risk for the benefit of the low cost service we have agreed to do business with and have backup plans for when things go wrong.  I still stand by my statement that if your income depends on you having your phone working all the time then PM might not be for you.

Brings up a quote that I think is perfect for PM and was first said by @will13am,

              Take the service for what it is and not what you want it to be.

I know things can be better, and not saying I don't want to see things improve.  I am just saying that I am willing to take the risks associated with being on a third teir provider for what I pay for the service.  Now if I was paying $120 this wouldn't be tolerated or acceptable because I would expect better service.

Might not be a popular statement but it is something everyone should look at and consider before signing on with PM

ETA: Crazy but just over a year ago I posted this thread, https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Public-Service-Announcement/m-p/167693  and my thoughts are still same

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@ShawnC13, you bring up some excellent points here.  Taking the glass is half full viewpoint, I would assume that any attempts to inform is geniune and based on best available information even if the outcome may differ.  I must admit that I have said it many times over that we should buy the service for what it is.  I am not trying to be hypocritical here, but to all things there are reasonable exceptions.  What I mean by that is it would be absolutely outside of reasonable to ask for the addition of call center support.  To expect no/low effort changes in process that improve the customer experience is by no means inconsistent with my recommendation of not expecting fundamental changes when buying this service.  Yes, the sweetness of low price is what brings many of us here.  However, I am sure that Public Mobile does not want to be remembered for its bitterness of low quality.  What I am bringing up here is not new and my apologies for not recognizing others who have tried bringing up customer service issues in the past without success.  Each time a major event takes place, it is an opportunity to bring up the topic again. 

[ShawnC13]

I agree that there should be some better communication when issues arise to let people know what to expect.  This has been asked for many times by many different people.  The call centre example knowing your wait time up front, that isn't always true especially when they aren't accurate and you are expecting a 2 hour wait and it is more like 4 (yes it has happened to me and it was a Telus help line).  Not sure what is worse being kept in the dark or lied to.

We must remember that we must assume some risk for the benefit of the low cost service we have agreed to do business with and have backup plans for when things go wrong.  I still stand by my statement that if your income depends on you having your phone working all the time then PM might not be for you.

Brings up a quote that I think is perfect for PM and was first said by @will13am,

              Take the service for what it is and not what you want it to be.

I know things can be better, and not saying I don't want to see things improve.  I am just saying that I am willing to take the risks associated with being on a third teir provider for what I pay for the service.  Now if I was paying $120 this wouldn't be tolerated or acceptable because I would expect better service.

Might not be a popular statement but it is something everyone should look at and consider before signing on with PM

ETA: Crazy but just over a year ago I posted this thread, https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Public-Service-Announcement/m-p/167693  and my thoughts are still same

[will13am]

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@mimmo wrote:

@will13am  well said, and i couldn't agree more.  I know similar things have been suggested in the past (in the old public lab) but as per normal nothing was done.  I do fear the same will happen this time again as people will forget and things will go on until it happens again to a new group.

I also recall that mods can't even post anything official unless it goes through/get approval from the marketing department (or something similar) wonder if it is the same for all official announcements?

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The more customers weigh in on the matter, the more pressure it puts on those who have the powers to make this happen.  Those who have been impacted and feel that there have been too much inaction should take up the matter with the CCTS.  I am willing to wager a donut and coffee that somebody in the food chain has their performance bonus tied to CCTS complaint metrics. 

[will13am]

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@dna2016 wrote:

Well said @will13am, and love the adding of the quotation.  Definitely gives them more to think about.  I agree, I currently work with a company that prior to last year always functioned with an old school mindset.  New CEO came in and changed all this to a more current and futuristic mindset.  Prior ways are no longer efficient, and don't meet the demands of today's customer.  I agree, the level and style of customer service needs to evolve.  Suggest they put their heads together and also get feedback from Oracles and MODS.  Once a few ideas are made, then reach out to the customers to choose based on the ideas on the table.

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What I am asking for doesn't have to be anything elaborate.  When a customer calls a call center, one of the first things they are told is the queue time.  That sets expectations.  The customer is likely to respond positively in the end even if the queue time is long simply because they were notified of that up front and they have the information with which to make an informed decision on whether to continue in the queue.  Imagine having to endure a bad music selection for two hours on the phone not knowing how many more hours you still need to wait. 

[mimmo]

@will13am  well said, and i couldn't agree more.  I know similar things have been suggested in the past (in the old public lab) but as per normal nothing was done.  I do fear the same will happen this time again as people will forget and things will go on until it happens again to a new group.

I also recall that mods can't even post anything official unless it goes through/get approval from the marketing department (or something similar) wonder if it is the same for all official announcements?

[dna2016]

Well said @will13am, and love the adding of the quotation.  Definitely gives them more to think about.  I agree, I currently work with a company that prior to last year always functioned with an old school mindset.  New CEO came in and changed all this to a more current and futuristic mindset.  Prior ways are no longer efficient, and don't meet the demands of today's customer.  I agree, the level and style of customer service needs to evolve.  Suggest they put their heads together and also get feedback from Oracles and MODS.  Once a few ideas are made, then reach out to the customers to choose based on the ideas on the table.

[will13am]

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@will13am wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

@will13amWorded even better. If I could double Bravo, I would.

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I have no explanation for what happened to the other post.  It just decided to disappear. 

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As one of the top contributors who represents such a large part and takes as much time as you do in our community I feel your words should be taken even just a *smidgen* more seriously for something like this by the higher ups.

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@will13am wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

@will13amWorded even better. If I could double Bravo, I would.

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I have no explanation for what happened to the other post.  It just decided to disappear. 

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As one of the top contributors who represents such a large part and takes as much time as you do in our community I feel your words should be taken even just a *smidgen* more seriously for something like this by the higher ups.

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I am not seeking some kind of special favor here.  Even if this was a first post from a customer it should have no less meaning.  Ignore completely who it's from, just focus on what it says.  I see this as like a petition.  If others believe in this strongly, it's time to make it known.  I would invite @sskuser as well to join in to help in a positive way.

[SD08]

Indeed. Communication and transparency go a long way to establishing and maintaining customer trust.  Even if PM can't solve the problem immediately, small gestures, like keeping customers informed, don't require a lot of effort and should be the minimum action that PM takes when these incidents occur.  It's basic PR 101.

[Dunkman]

Agree with everybody's comments so far.  In these modern times, it is amazing how much we are dependent on mobile communication for business, family and friend matters.  It can be a signficant disruption when services are suspended (due to autopay issues), porting issues (that take over 24 hours), etc.  

Communication is the key.  Just a quick announcement on the forum would be very helpful and help alleviate the anxiety that occurs when something like this happens.  No system is perfect and things fail, but communication to the paying customer on what happening, what to expect, etc.  is essential.  

[RobertQc]

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@will13am wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

@will13amWorded even better. If I could double Bravo, I would.

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I have no explanation for what happened to the other post.  It just decided to disappear. 

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As one of the top contributors who represents such a large part and takes as much time as you do in our community I feel your words should be taken even just a *smidgen* more seriously for something like this by the higher ups.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. That was the second time in very recent history (that I noticed) that a thread just kinda locked up. Not viewable or clickable.

Indeed. Communication. Here we are in this incredible, massive, medium of communication and the simple things don't get communicated to affected people.

[will13am]

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@RobertQc wrote:

@will13amWorded even better. If I could double Bravo, I would.

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I have no explanation for what happened to the other post.  It just decided to disappear. 

[RobertQc]

@will13amWorded even better. If I could double Bravo, I would.