Targets have become a burden in most large companies, ntl have proved themselves to be a prime example. I know many people here will not be pleased with my opinion, but ntl increased callcentre staff and telephone support staff in an effort to clear faults on the cheap.
It is far cheaper to employ someone on £14K in technical support than sending an engineer out to fix a fault, as the average ntl network technician earns £20K+ plus the cost of all his equipment, vehicle and running costs.
It is far more productive in the short term for a company like ntl to run a callcentre and technical support centre that gets customers off the line as quick as possible, then when the customer has called the 2nd or 3rd time about the same fault that has been fobbed off, they will get an engineer call.
This has been taken too far in ntl as the regional engineers are now controlled by the callcentres, in an effort to cut costs and keep their head above water the short term "fob the customer off" solution is the one they are taking. This attitude ives the impression that they can safely get rid of more technical people who are actually out in the field carrying out a task.
Managers are going back to the guys at the top saying faults are being cleared by technical support, and they are also saying we need less engineers in the field because we are working smarter!
The battery back-up (UPS) project for Cable Modems and Digital TV on the HFC network was cancelled due to the cash shortage, this also meant the status monitoring for nodal cabinets has fallen by the wayside as well.
How can they say they are working smarter and need less people in the field when they have not implemented the tools that would enable them to do this in the real world. The managers can only make this claim if A: They dont know what they are talking about. or B: They are lying to keep the pressure off themselves in the short term.
Many of the problems encountered with helping the customer never get back to the senior management because the managers in between lie to make themselves look good and save their own skins.
