Superhub : I'm confused.

[PaulW2V]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

This just about sums up the contempt shown for Customer Service by many companies now - It's a numbers game. As long as you can show you've repied to X 100's of emails then you're doing your job. Where's the metrics that show whether the answer was helpful? Where's the metric that shows how many customers had to reply with a further message as their query wasn't answered first time round?

If Virgin Media is anything like the company I work for then email replies will be copied to customer records which are then automatically selected at random for checking by a dedicated team. I doubt a company the size of Virgin Media doesn't have some system in place to monitor the quality of replies to customer queries regardless of how they are received. Feedback will almost certainly be given to the member of staff even if the customer doesn't get to see the direct result of that feedback. In order for him/her to be doing his/her job to the required level there will have to be an acceptable balance between quality and quantity.

Originally Posted by ferretuk

Sending a template reply is not "Customer Service"!!!

Agreed, templates should be adapted to suit the tone and content of the incoming query or complaint.

[th'engineer]

with all large companies they have to follow processes that's how they all operate so you get a consistent approach . Each part of the business has specialist in each area no good asking billing about a cable modem problem. They probably will not have the answer for you.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

Unfortunately not the case with the OP however as he just got an email back saying that he shouldn't have contacted Sales - No info to say the his request had been passed to an appropriate team or that he should contact Team XYZ...

They obviously did not reroute his request otherwise he would have received a reply from the correct department.

Originally Posted by ferretuk

Not sure what you're getting at here but the gist of it is "Customer requests get in the way of real work" but surely, for a Customer Service department, the 'real work' is answering queries in an efficient and accurate manner rather than fobbing off with a standard respose that not only doesn't answer the point raised, but actually suggests that the valuable time the customer put in writing down their query was wasted as the CS staff have just ignored it!

No I said that no one is going to supply a customer with an actual corporate address which may then get posted online causing said persons inbox to be inundated with spurious request that probably have nothing to do with their job and would just be deleted in the same way you delete spam at home.

Originally Posted by ferretuk

This just about sums up the contempt shown for Customer Service by many companies now - It's a numbers game. As long as you can show you've repied to X 100's of emails then you're doing your job. Where's the metrics that show whether the answer was helpful? Where's the metric that shows how many customers had to reply with a further message as their query wasn't answered first time round?

Sending a template reply is not "Customer Service"!!!

All companies follow this route and if it is quicker to send a standard reply rather than correctly route how many will choose the quicker route, you already know that answer.

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Peter_

They obviously did not reroute his request otherwise he would have received a reply from the correct department.

You said that the correct response would have been to re-route or reply with suitable guidance - I was pointing out that this did not happen,,,

Originally Posted by Peter_

No I said that no one is going to supply a customer with an actual corporate address

No you didn't, you said "You very rarely get a personal email back" not "You very rarely get a personal email address back" The missing word changes the meaning considerably!

Originally Posted by Peter_

All companies follow this route and if it is quicker to send a standard reply rather than correctly route how many will choose the quicker route, you already know that answer.

What's the point of sending a standard reply that doesn't actually answer the question or is helpful in any way?

If you genuinely believe that Customer Service has reached a high point by replying with meaningless responses and, in the case of VM, taking several days to do so, then no wonder there's such a gulf between a customer's perception of "Good service" and that of Corporate Land...

---------- Post added at 18:54 ---------- Previous post was at 18:46 ----------

Originally Posted by th'engineer

with all large companies they have to follow processes that's how they all operate so you get a consistent approach . Each part of the business has specialist in each area no good asking billing about a cable modem problem. They probably will not have the answer for you.

Asolutley agree but the onus should not be on the customer to get it right or "we're not talking to you".

Generally speaking, there will be two type of customer contact:

a) A current customer with a grievance or complaint
b) A current or new customer wanting to change their service

In both cases if a customer takes the trouble to put pen to paper (in a virtual sense) they both deserve and expect an appropriate response. If a company makes it difficult to determine which department should be contacted then it's the company's responsibility to either make it clearer or deal with the enquiry accordingly.

The eventual outcome of both type of query, if handled well, results in either increased or continued income. If handled badly may well result in lost income...

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

You said that the correct response would have been to re-route or reply with suitable guidance - I was pointing out that this did not happen,,,

Of course it did not happen as the person checking the emails that day just did the minimum required to answer that email and shock horror it happens in virtually every company as the quick route improves the agent stats every time and that is what management want to see results on a graph not smiling faces, might sound harsh but in this climate it should be expected.

Originally Posted by ferretuk

No you didn't, you said "You very rarely get a personal email back" not "You very rarely get a personal email address back" The missing word changes the meaning considerably!

If you had read my response with regards to a p[personal email response it in reality is never ever going to happen as no one knows where that email address may end up so do not expect a personal email from anyone ever.

Originally Posted by ferretuk

What's the point of sending a standard reply that doesn't actually answer the question or is helpful in any way?

If you genuinely believe that Customer Service has reached a high point by replying with meaningless responses and, in the case of VM, taking several days to do so, then no wonder there's such a gulf between a customer's perception of "Good service" and that of Corporate Land...

This is what happens with most companies nowadays but Virgin Media haters will not admit to that little fact.

I do not believe this has reached a highpoint as I always found KANA emails to be to impersonal and in most cases a pointless, fruitless exercise that just wasted agents and customers time and energy usually going around in circles.

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Peter_

If you had read my response with regards to a p[personal email response it in reality is never ever going to happen as no one knows where that email address may end up so do not expect a personal email from anyone ever.

You've continued to miss my point - Personal content in an email, that actually addresses the point raised in a query, is exactly what is required. It can come from any email address a company likes!

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

You've continued to miss my point - Personal content in an email, that actually addresses the point raised in a query, is exactly what is required. It can come from any email address a company likes!

Wow you just fail to understand and go off on some kind of tangent, the mind boggles but yours.......................

Little point in any further comment as it goes right over your head, I take it you think this is the only company to deal with email in this way so maybe a removal of the blinkers is in order.

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Peter_

Wow you just fail to understand and go off on some kind of tangent, the mind boggles but yours.......................

Little point in any further comment as it goes right over your head, I take it you think this is the only company to deal with email in this way so maybe a removal of the blinkers is in order.

So you miss out the word 'address' then expect the reader to compensate and comprehend? I actually agree with a some of what you think you've written but not what you've actually written

I suggest you re-read everything I've written, in context, before accusing anyone of going off at a tangent.

I have strong, reasonable, opinions as a customer of what I expect from customer service departments and nothing I've written (apart from a dig about response times) has specifically targetted your ex-colleagues at VM.

You have equally strong opinions it would seem about justifying why companies behave as they do even though you tacitly agree that they're in the wrong - A strange position to take?

Still, we won't agree and the lack of other posters to this thread suggests that the arguments presented aren't worth further discussion so I too am out...

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

I have strong, reasonable, opinions as a customer of what I expect from customer service departments and nothing I've written (apart from a dig about response times) has specifically targetted your ex-colleagues at VM.

I have no ex colleagues working for VM unless they are quite stupid and prefer to work for a company that will drop them on a whim, I am just waiting for November when they face the tribunal which is something to look forward to I must say.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by ferretuk

.....

Still, we won't agree and the lack of other posters to this thread suggests that the arguments presented aren't worth further discussion so I too am out...

I suppose being in the singular sort of validates your remark above.

It seems to me that those who have been through VM's hands, including Stephen, place their topic remarks in contrast to a high standard of customer service. I'm particularly surprised at peter, whose reputation as a provider of service to others is extremely high. Maybe he is just describing what VM do rather than defending it - but that wasn't what I sensed.

Suffice it tro say (again) that those companies with a customer and service oriented culture do not behave as illustrated by VM in this case.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I'm particularly surprised at peter, whose reputation as a provider of service to others is extremely high. Maybe he is just describing what VM do rather than defending it - but that wasn't what I sensed.

.

It is an accurate description of what happens at Virgin Media or most other companies who have emails sent to them in the way most companies allow so called email contact nowadays with no actual address just a complaint form.

Virgin Media as with many companies disbanded their dedicated email team about 5 years ago and surprisingly made them redundant.

Emails still continued to arrive so tghey gave some basic training to 1st line agents in how to answer these emails and very many request had stock answers within the software.

I as with many others made our own stock lists with more information and found out from other agents how to reroute emails sent to us in error, specifically Virgin National ones but the same rerouting could be applied to other misrouted emails as well.

Not every agent bothered with this as the was no requirement to reroute incorrect emails but the was a stock answer option which was quicker to do.

Remember this type of work is based on statistics and with management that is king so if you did not process enough emails per hour you went back on the phones and someone replaced you on email work.

Now our friend Ferretuk seems not to understand the difference between stock emails such as KANA and someone using their corporate email address in a reply, to personalise an email can open a can of worms as that person can look on you as their own personal helpdesk or even post the email address online which can cause issues for the agent.

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Peter_

Now our friend Ferretuk seems not to understand the difference between stock emails such as KANA and someone using their corporate email address in a reply, to personalise an email can open a can of worms as that person can look on you as their own personal helpdesk or even post the email address online which can cause issues for the agent.

Same advice - read what I've written again. At no point have I ever asked for a personal email address. I have, however, said that customers deserve personal emails...

For the sake of clarification:

Personal email address - The address by which one receives emails
Personal email - Email message containing information relevant to the recipient

While we're at it, KANA is the name of a commercial CRM system I believe, not an email 'type'...

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I drew no distinction, Peter. The culture was to take ownership. Customers should be revered. That culture seems to be missing at VM.

You can find examples in every company of the company failing in customer service.

For instance, I am a happy customer of BT. When the phone service is working, it's excellent.

However, every time I have dealt with BT to order something or get the phone fixed, I've had horrendous experiences. When I ordered Be, and BT cancelled the order, I even had to get Be to tell me what to ask them to get the order re-instated. Took five phonecalls to BT (some nearly 20 minutes long) to find that when they installed my socket (and everytime they fixed the socket), they had failed to log on the database that the line had sockets.

[Peter_]

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Originally Posted by ferretuk

Same advice - read what I've written again. At no point have I ever asked for a personal email address. I have, however, said that customers deserve personal emails...

For the sake of clarification:

Personal email address - The address by which one receives emails
Personal email - Email message containing information relevant to the recipient

While we're at it, KANA is the name of a commercial CRM system I believe, not an email 'type'...

For the sake clarification no one is ever going to get a personal email reply unless they contact the CEO's office otherwise it goes through th KANA system and apart from being addressed to you and having your name in the header it remains impersonal so if you want personal ring up it works.

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Peter_

[/COLOR]

For the sake clarification no one is ever going to get a personal email.

I know - That's precisely what I think is wrong and the point I've been trying to make!

By way of illustration (and now completely OT):

Originally Posted by Contact Us text to VM

I am considering taking your TV & Tivo service and wish to discuss this *in writing*. As I am seemingly unable to use email I've used this response form.

Your website makes it impossible to upgrade my package as there is no method to add both a TV package and a Telephone package in one go (more of this in a moment) - *Please feed this back to your web team*

I have no need for a VM telephone line but it would appear that I must have one to get best pricing - This is nonsense and will needlessly tie up a port on your exchange. *Please feed this back to your marketing team*

Back to my request: Please quote your best prices *in writing* for adding a 1TB Tivo with either TV M or TV L. If a phone line is need for the best price then please add it also.

Reply, complete with irritating bonhomie...

Originally Posted by Reply from VM

Hi there,

It's great to hear you're thinking of signing up to Virgin Media! There's no better time to join us than now - we've got some fantastic deals we know you'll want to get your hands on.

All the info's up on our website at www.virginmedia.co.uk. You'll find all our offers, bundles, prices and some great exclusive online deals as well.

If you like, you can talk through all the options with one of our team by calling 0800 052 7588 - we'll be happy to help!

Result - Points not answered and one lost sale to VM...

Anyway - The OP has their answer (Ring and ask because email will get you nowhere) and Peter has given us an insight into the inner workings of VM CS, warts and all...