CableForum & NTL to meet - Page 3

Raistlin · 12-04-2005, 00:17

Thanks for that Matt D, I'm off to work on the script for the movie now

MovedGoalPosts · 12-04-2005, 07:53

Will be interesting to see if ntl really are serious about moving things forward. The cynic in me suggests that they just want to play more lip service and fob you off. At least that's what happened when anticap met Bill Goodland and his team. ntl have and always will have an agenda. Sites like cable forum are little pin ***** in their sides to be brushed aside whenever they look like getting too big for their boots.

If there is one key issue for the wellbeing of the site it must be that employees are free to come to the site, and not be persecuted by ntl if they do so. Yes ntl will be concious that staff wont give away confidential information, sing from the wrong hymn sheet, etc, and wont want staff to be distracted from their primary job function. But forums can serve a major customer service function. To get staff officially able to post would get much closer to the ideals of Frank when he originally established the nthellworld operations.

I suppose the other critical area is the lack of customer support services at times when users can expect to experience problems. That is evenings and weekends. I continue to be amazed that there is no means of contacting ntl on a Sunday. They operate in a 24/7 environment. I know cost may be an issue, but at what stage does lack of proper support loose ntl customers?

It will be interesting to see how the meeting goes. I hope it is fruitful, and if some progress on customer service can be made, it will open up a means for future dialogue on other concerns of customers.

ntl don't have any means, that I can see, of assessing customer satisfaction and happiness levels. (Many of us will pay, and keep paying, just 'cos we don't want the hassle of upping sticks - just like very few move bank accounts despite knowing we could save money). Yes they know how many calls they get, and a big rise in numbers will suggest something went wrong, but how do they get opinions of the silent majority. Forums can serve as a barometer.

ian@huth · 12-04-2005, 10:01

24/7 customer service should be an essential for a company operating in the fields that NTL do. There are small ISPs that give this level of cover so why can't NTL, the biggest broadband ISP in the country. I don't for one minute believe that there is insufficient work for this to be viable. Even if there is a quiet night on the phones there is an opportunity to deal with customers letters and emails. I received an automated response to an email I sent last week but no further contact or resolution to the problem (one email account will not authenticate). Having 24/7 customer service support will lighten the load during the times when they currently operate which would be a good thing for both customers and NTL associates who are having to deal with the customers.

Derek · 12-04-2005, 10:33

Maybe not 24 hours a day but 7 days is IMO essential. Especially for faults.

Frank · 12-04-2005, 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

If they offer you jobs, just say no

Good idea

scrotnig · 12-04-2005, 14:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by ian@huth

24/7 customer service should be an essential for a company operating in the fields that NTL do. There are small ISPs that give this level of cover so why can't NTL, the biggest broadband ISP in the country. I don't for one minute believe that there is insufficient work for this to be viable. Even if there is a quiet night on the phones there is an opportunity to deal with customers letters and emails. I received an automated response to an email I sent last week but no further contact or resolution to the problem (one email account will not authenticate). Having 24/7 customer service support will lighten the load during the times when they currently operate which would be a good thing for both customers and NTL associates who are having to deal with the customers.

Who pays for it though?

There isn't enough money to pay for it at the moment, so which services do you suggest should increase in price to pay the vastly increased wage costs?

Frank · 12-04-2005, 15:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

Will be interesting to see if ntl really are serious about moving things forward. The cynic in me suggests that they just want to play more lip service and fob you off. At least that's what happened when anticap met Bill Goodland and his team. ntl have and always will have an agenda. Sites like cable forum are little pin ***** in their sides to be brushed aside whenever they look like getting too big for their boots.

Perhaps they are doing lip service... However, everyone deserves a chance, so this is Duffy's chance to prove himself, and I wholeheartedly welcome that. Wilcock was around (in a very similar role) when I worked there and showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in nthellworld.com as it was then, or the work I was doing. I won't bother talking about Goodland as I have better things to do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

To get staff officially able to post would get much closer to the ideals of Frank when he originally established the nthellworld operations.

Hmm good luck with that buddy... For this to happen would require a massive shift in thinking and culture at ntl. ntl don't have the balls to do this, plus the fact that this method would not give ntl enough control. Control is the key word here. Hell, they couldn't even organise support on ntl community, a site that they owned and had branded. ntl are scared of web forums full stop, because they cannot control them and people can post in real-time, nor do they trust their staff enough to post custom-written replies on a forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

I know cost may be an issue, but at what stage does lack of proper support loose ntl customers?

It's a numbers game dude, ntl don't do qualitative analysis, which is one of the problems. They only care about quantative analysis. This is a long established fact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

It will be interesting to see how the meeting goes. I hope it is fruitful, and if some progress on customer service can be made, it will open up a means for future dialogue on other concerns of customers.

I too hope that Duffy, someone who I haven't seen "in action" much, can think outside the ntl box.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

ntl don't have any means, that I can see, of assessing customer satisfaction and happiness levels. (Many of us will pay, and keep paying, just 'cos we don't want the hassle of upping sticks - just like very few move bank accounts despite knowing we could save money). Yes they know how many calls they get, and a big rise in numbers will suggest something went wrong, but how do they get opinions of the silent majority. Forums can serve as a barometer.

Hehe. Well they did have a nice Responsetek flash feedback application on their website for a while some time ago. I'm sure that collected much quantative feedback and cost ntl a fair bit. Or perhaps nobody bothered to read the results, much like the thousands of unread emails that were sent to the Power Users mailbox when Goodland came up with the idea of a Power Users consultation group to pacify customers. And yes, I looked, and lo-and-behold, I'd guessed right.

Anyway, I wish my colleagues here at CF a productive meeting (I guess they are in there right now), and I hope that many good things come out of it. We shall see though, ntl screwed us last time, now they have everything to prove.

Pierre · 12-04-2005, 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank

Perhaps they are doing lip service... However, everyone deserves a chance, so this is Duffy's chance to prove himself, and I wholeheartedly welcome that. Wilcock was around (in a very similar role) when I worked there and showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in nthellworld.com as it was then, or the work I was doing. I won't bother talking about Goodland as I have better things to do.

You can guarantee that this is just an excercise in the service of lips.

Quote:

Hmm good luck with that buddy... For this to happen would require a massive shift in thinking and culture at ntl. ntl don't have the balls to do this, plus the fact that this method would not give ntl enough control. Control is the key word here. Hell, they couldn't even organise support on ntl community, a site that they owned and had branded. ntl are scared of web forums full stop, because they cannot control them and people can post in real-time, nor do they trust their staff enough to post custom-written replies on a forum.

There is absolutely no way ntl would risk having one of their employees have free reign to post an un-sanitised response.

I agree they do not like forums. Hell, they even scrapped the internal employee forum and replaced it with one where you can only post about specific subjects approved by the management.

No free speech in ntl, not even internally

Quote:

It's a numbers game dude, ntl don't do qualitative analysis, which is one of the problems. They only care about quantative analysis. This is a long established fact.

Agreed, they are obsessed with number and targets, even more so than the Labour party.

It's always been quantity not quality.

Quote:

I too hope that Duffy, someone who I haven't seen "in action" much, can think outside the ntl box.

Be under no illusions that Duffy is only there to line his pockets. No I don't mind someone enjoying the benefits of their success. But it sticks in the throat when people are on 90 days and being made redundant that he strolls into the car park in his Bentley, or Ferrari, and then parks it right outside the main entrance, not even in a parking bay but right outside the main entrance. As if to say "ooh look at me and how great I am"

This really piisses people off.

Quote:

Anyway, I wish my colleagues here at CF a productive meeting (I guess they are in there right now), and I hope that many good things come out of it. We shall see though, ntl screwed us last time, now they have everything to prove.

ntl have no interest in this or other forums.

Chrysalis · 12-04-2005, 17:12

on the 24/7 support thing, if ntl have no money to pay for it then why are high level management recieving bonuses that would be a good question to ask.

Nemesis · 12-04-2005, 18:06

Well, the meeting went ahead as planned. Simon Duffy initially wanted to know more about Cable Forum, it's history and who was running it, and what position the sites played in the grand scheme of things.

Points covered

Customer Information

This was covered with several sub points. i.e Customer Information Packs, a Customer Web portal, better information on Upgrades, etc, better clarity in the Terms and Conditions, returns policies, and general customer feedback. Examples of problems were handed to them by Mick. Details about the upgrades and information conveyed to customers was mentioned separately. Simon Duffy, clearly recognised that problems customers were experiencing were unacceptable and they need to establish why this is happening. Mick brought about the fact that some problems customers were experiencing keep on happening.

The response was encouraging, they were aware of some of the problems, unaware of others. Installs is being looked at in depth, with a lot of work going on.

Customer Service

Again we covered many points including Telephone ping pong, same complaints time an time again, Fault Tracking, Call Logging, etc.

The response was again encouraging. They want to provide a Cable Forum Liaison person who will assist us with issues and also want to provide us with an escalation route into ntl so that problems that cannot be easily be dealt with can be tracked. Call Logging was re-introduced last Monday.

Merger

No Comment

June Price Rise

No Comment, but this has been released on their site.
http://www.home.ntl.com/page/customerupdate

NTL Staff on Cable Forum

This was discussed at length, and it would seem that ntl want to talk about it more internally, but Simon Duffy stated that if they want to do this in their own time, then there is not a problem. The only problem is that there is no real way of tracking this activity, hence the possible introduction of an escalation route direct into ntl.

Press Releases and General Information

We pointed out the fact that we get rumours from internal sources, and that we get updates from Telewest, and that they are not so good at communicating information. It has been suggested that Cable Forum become an "Official" portal with which ntl can communicate plans, and information to the customers.

Question and Answer

There are many questions that get asked regularly (TV channel renumber), etc, so it was asked that if we came up with a list of questions that people would like answers to, would they be willing to answer.

Answer was Yes, within reason, anything commercially sensitive or confidential would not be answered.

************************************************** *****

Overall the meeting was positive, and Simon and Peter are taking many of the points we raised away with them for more consideration.

The idea of an ntl Cable Forum Liaison person who we can channel information to and get information from is very encouraging.
Also opening the lines of communication between the two parties was applauded by all.

Cable Forum will need to supply some statistics to ntl, in regard to common customer problems, and monthly statistics, which ntl will respond to.
This was the initial meeting, with lots of good ideas, and thoughts, and it would seem that there will be further discussions by email to firm some of these things up. It will probably mean a bit more work for a while, but in the long run, we hope it will make Cable Forum a much better site for customers and staff.

Bob · 12-04-2005, 18:19

Sounding promising - fingers crossed

**Paul** · 12-04-2005, 18:24

On the face of it - it is very promising - now it's upto ntl to follow up the promise with action - we will do our bit, lets hope they do theirs.

kronas · 12-04-2005, 19:25

well im pleased that something will hopefully be achieved by the idea of the liason officer its something which i applaud them of bringing up and hope they act upon so we can get the 'official line' on the future of products or services.

im a bit disappointed about the lack of movement on a team on CF to deal with customer issues ongoing with service.

maybe having a regular Q&A section actually happen is also useful for frequently asked questions.

well lets just hope its not hot air from NTL and they engage in being useful.

im interested in how cableforum could be used as a 'portal' would it just be a matter of being linked to the ntlworld.com homepage or given a section with an explination of what the site is about ?

Nemesis · 12-04-2005, 19:32

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