State of Customer Services

[PaladinGuy]

Just curious how many others feel like customer service has really nose dived over the past few years. It seems like Apple is one of the few companies where you can actually reach someone quickly via phone, internet or in-person. For all the things I’m not crazy about with Apple lately, this is still somewhere they really shine.

I’ve had to contact customer service for 4 different companies this month, and it takes days for someone to answer me. Even when they do, the response is rarely consistent.

I miss the days where you actually could talk to a person. I guess nobody wants to pay people anymore…

 

[eyoungren]

Business discovered at a certain point that they could push off accountability and still make money. Customers keep coming back because there is often no alternative. So, customer service got sent outside the US. They made it difficult to speak to someone, difficult to cancel service, difficult to get just about anything done really.

Turnover is bad for customer support agents. They only get basic training and are taught to stick to a script. Most do not speak English very well because, overseas. If your problem is outside of their script/training, then you've got problems.

All of this is explicitly designed for one thing and that is to get rid of YOU. Your problem(s) cost the company money to deal with. Resolution of your problem(s) may cost the company even more. That's money out of the pockets of the shareholders, whom realistically, the company serves - not you.

Loyalty to a company also means nothing. Lots of people get hung up on this. They think that because they's given money to a company each month or consistently, for 'X' number of years that they are owed something. But business has no loyalty to you, no matter how long you've been there or been loyal to them.

So, the lesson here is this - be loyal to yourself. Get educated, take care of your own problems - protect yourself. And for all the stuff that you absolutely have to contact support for, learn to find the people that can actually help you. The people you call, chat online with or visit in store? Those are gatekeepers, the first line of defense against the customer. They are really only empowered to help you if your problem(s) fit in to a nice, neat little box that gets quick resolution and saves the company money. Outside of that, they are there to make you go away.

But just about any company has a team somewhere that can actually do things. Find them. For my cellular carrier (T-Mobile), that's a group called T-Force. I deal with them exclusively because they have the authority to actually DO something.

One final thing…metrics. Almost every company has sales metrics that the customer reps have to meet monthly. If your problem won't help the rep make their sales goals (so they can remain employed), you're unlikely to get much help.

As to Apple…my experience with them the last several times has NOT been yours.

 

[russell_314]

Business discovered at a certain point that they could push off accountability and still make money. Customers keep coming back because there is often no alternative.

I disagree with this. I’m not saying it’s not partially true but customers keep coming back because they want the product. Customers will say one thing, but want another. It’s like the joke where a woman says she doesn’t want something. That could mean so many things. It’s the same thing with customers. Customers say they don’t want cheap imported junk from China, but Walmart is doing extremely well.

I really hope Apple doesn’t go down the road of terrible customer service but who knows

 

[PaladinGuy]

I think it is the incessant drive to cut expenses and raise profit margins. It’s a constant attempt to do as much as possible with as little as possible.

That means the smallest number of customer service representatives (and less quality and training for the few).

I hear people say often that workers are just lazy now and don’t want to work. There’s always some truth to this because there has always been and will always be lazy people. What does change is that when you ask fewer and fewer people to do more and more, quality on something suffers.

AI has a LONG way to go before it can handle customer service for anything but the most simple things, at least in my experience. Chatting with an AI bot tends to just waste my time. At least with Apple, you can talk to a person or text or chat with someone.

 

[eyoungren]

I disagree with this. I’m not saying it’s not partially true but customers keep coming back because they want the product. Customers will say one thing, but want another. It’s like the joke where a woman says she doesn’t want something. That could mean so many things. It’s the same thing with customers. Customers say they don’t want cheap imported junk from China, but Walmart is doing extremely well.

I really hope Apple doesn’t go down the road of terrible customer service but who knows

You're right, but I think that has to do with type of industry and location. My electric service is due to raise prices in September. There are two electric companies out here and you are stuck with one or the other depending on where you live. I'm sure I could get solar or move heaven and earth to find some third option electrical supplier, but this is not Texas. If you want electricity, SRP (Salt River Project) is basically your only option (where I live).

Now that's a utility and if they had poor customer service and poor reliability, I'd be very frustrated. As it is, I've generally ended up with the better company between the two providers here. But that is simply because I live on the west side of town. If I lived on the east side of town I'm sure I would have complaints. APS (Arizona Public Service) has no qualms in raising rates whenever they feel like it and they have shut off electricity to people who owe them when temps have been 100º plus.

Comcast/XFinity is another example. I admit, most of these are utility monopolies, but what about companies that own certain brands where the customer support has gone downhill? I can't cite an example right now, but I'm sure if I think hard enough I will.

 

[eyoungren]

AI has a LONG way to go before it can handle customer service for anything but the most simple things, at least in my experience. Chatting with an AI bot tends to just waste my time. At least with Apple, you can talk to a person or text or chat with someone.

I read a story the other day about a startup company that was offering a certain AI product that allowed customers to build apps in a natural manner (no coding) in a minimal amount of time. The reason it was a story is because one of this company's customers experienced a runaway AI. This AI ignored all instructions from the customer, told the customer it was purposely ignoring them, told the customer that it would delete the customer's entire database and then did so. It then told the customer that it could not restore the database.

Some of that was a lie. The company was able to restore a backup, but it shows that yes, AI has a long way to go.

EDIT: Link.

 

[Madonepro]

but it shows that yes, AI has a long way to go.

and we should be very scared of how we develop this...