The Numbers Game

Most people would rather be pretending to be Scott Hamilton on the ice skating rink or getting that second nap in instead of working on Christmas or around the holidays, but the wheels must keep turning. Having enough technical support team members staffed to handle the calls will keep your customers happy and will make time fly by for the troopers that are braving out the holiday [phone] crowds. Adequate staffing will also lessen your customers’ hold time and ensure that any issues that are being encountered are promptly answered. Now, if your hold music isn’t great, there isn’t much help I can offer you except to check out iTunes for the latest and greatest.

Anticipate

For those that made it out of the Black Friday haze, you know that tablets and other Internet-ready devices are the heavy hitters this holiday season. Knowing what your customers may be calling in with and anticipating their needs is a great way to again add to the happy equation and keep the satisfaction chain going. If you have a support website available, you can direct your customers to FAQs or hot topics that may be on trend. Sites such as www.24HourSupport.com contain useful information about various topics including tablets and smartphones that can jump start the answers to common questions.

Provide Clear Direction

A caller is anxious to set up Wi-Fi on his iPad and feverishly dig into Angry Birds to laugh at the grunting pigs but somehow ends up speaking with someone in billing who cannot assist with the set up. Nothing is worse than to be excited about getting a device going to only find out that the person that you’re speaking with has to transfer you to the right department or you have to hang up and call another number. If customers need to press option 1 to speak with technical support, ensure that this is clear and there is no room for error because although Suzy in billing may be friendly, she may not have the slightest clue about connecting an iPad into an existing network. Press 2 for a happy customer.

Refreshments

Okay, this was just a freebie that I threw in, but holidays = eating! In America and at ZCorum, for every holiday, we seem to celebrate with some type of feast, and nothing says “I’m at work on Christmas” than being able to eat up an entire box of snickerdoodles with no regrets!  Eggnog optional!

Don’t let your technical support crash for the Christmas rush.  Be prepared!

I’ve been a member of the Account Management team for over nine years now, but when I first became an employee of ZCorum, I was a level one technician. I can vaguely remember the troubleshooting calls that I took way back then, but I do remember that almost all of my calls were dial-up Internet connection issues and how long it sometimes took to come to a complete resolution with a customer. However, what I remember most are the customers who made it a point to let me know that they were pleased with the service that they had received or those customers who were not pleased with the service that they received.

Recently, I had the pleasure of putting on my technical support hat and talking with an older gentleman that was having some problems understanding spam filtering. He was frustrated with the situation, but he was never rude or pushy. We spent some time going through all the various features of his webmail client and spam filtering. Even though he still wasn’t 100% sure he understood it all completely or agreed with it, he left the call with a sense of understanding that he could call back and receive the same level of customer service if he had further questions. I was in no hurry to rush him off the phone as he had already told me that he was busy taking notes. While we were on the call, he thanked me for my patience and my knowledge, and with each compliment, my head swelled just a little more! At the end of the call, we said our good-byes, and I moved on with my day feeling much more equipped for completing the tasks in front of me.

After the call, I joked with my colleagues about how I missed being in support and having that feeling of accomplishment in knowing that someone’s day was now better because he was able to do whatever it was that he had set out to do before calling. And, with all the love and support they could muster, my colleagues quickly reminded me that not all calls ended as well as this one had and that not all customers were as thankful for the help that they received. Strangely enough, I headed off to lunch that same day only to experience some of the worst service I had received in quite some time resulting in my walking out of the establishment without purchasing anything at all. There were definitely no “thank yous” exchanged. I wonder how many times in a day we as individuals stop to think how our attitude or the level of service that we provide affects those with whom we come into contact? Who knew a simple “thank you” could change the whole outcome of my day?

Tablets

What’s 10 inches or less, riddled with fingerprints, and going to be one of the biggest causes of the tug-of-war match on Friday? If you guessed tablets, then you’re in the winner’s seat! With the inception of the tablet whose name rhymes with “Snapple fRydad,” now everyone wants to have a tablet. There’s an assortment of devices that are Wi-Fi ready and can be easily connected to an existing broadband connection with relatively easy setup steps. Tablets are going to be hot ticket items, so I’d pay to have ring-side seats to see who walks out with the discounts on these devices!

 eReaders

Maybe the traditional connotation of the ereader was thrown out the window with the Kindle Fire and latest Nook tablets (hybrids as I like to call them), but there are some true winners emerging with the newest releases of the bookworm loving devices. Bathrooms everywhere will be overtaken and the Wi-Fi wheels will be turning after Black Friday purchases are made. Why bathrooms you say? I think the bathroom is the only place in the entire house where a person can go for an extended period of time and read without interruption! It’s a reader’s haven!

Internet and Wi-Fi-ready TVs

While not everyone is “cutting the cord,” many, including myself, are taking the preliminary steps to venture out and eventually join the whole “TV everywhere” crowd. Internet and Wi-Fi-ready TVs are taking a slashing in price for Friday’s extravaganza. It’s no secret that TV can be the secret weapon on a boring day, so if we can somehow save money in the long run, get the latest content, and have a a gadget in our homes that gets us “cool points,” we’re all for it. Web TV who?

Be Ready

It goes without saying that Internet-ready devices are here to stay primarily because of the convenience that they provide in our lives. Broadband providers can be prepared with their “hot lists” to keep their technical support teams ready to help out.  There are those shoppers out there who need just a little push to get their taste of technology because technology never tasted so good!

Oh, and if you’re unlike me and enjoy the excitement of making an appearance at the Black Friday chaos, then by all means, head out to your nearest retailer and tell them Large Marge sent ya!

As she reports for her shift, the call center supervisor is greeted by the 15 to 20 employees she is responsible for and who undoubtedly will contribute to the melee that is about to ensue.  Throughout her shift, the 15 to 20 employees and their “fearless leader” are presented with hundreds of customer problems.   Not one of these customers will be calling to ask about the weather or to tell the agent to have a good day.  All of them want nothing but their problem fixed yesterday and possibly a free “I Survived Tech Support” car magnet.  Through the day a number of the customers on the phone will insist they know more about how to fix their problem than the agent does.   Several will want to speak with “the person in charge” and won’t hang up until that demand is met.   Then, they’ll tell the support manager they held 45 minutes before anyone answered, and they’ve learned all of the words to the hold music for Yankee Doodle Dandy (when the actual hold time was less than 2 minutes).

Any time the call center is expecting more than average call volume, the supervisor has to “rally the troops” to make sure hold time is minimized.   She has to manage the breaks the agents take, account for the three agents that called in sick, and still make sure the customers are treated with uncompromising customer service.  In the supervisor’s day, she truly has no friends.  She must deny vacation time around holidays, force extra weekend help, and make sure there are enough agents to answer phones at the peak time of 9pm Eastern time.  She accomplishes all of this while completing the 50+ projects her manager has assigned.

When she’s being evaluated, customer complaints are looked at under a microscope.  How her staff could have handled an issue better is the only thing that matters, yet, no one seems to understand that 10,000 problems have been fixed that week!  The call center supervisor and her troops are expected to continue to push forward providing the service all of us expect as customers, and to constantly strive to do even better next time.

Customer service can be a very difficult career to pursue, but the call center supervisor takes the [red velvet] cake.  There is no other profession in the world that deals with the numerous problems that the call center supervisor encounters, yet all she does seems to go unrecognized by so many.  I for one, want to say how thankful I am for my supervisors, who use their time and talent to make sure the customers entrusted to us are handled efficiently and with the utmost of care.

Check Your Password’s Strength

Long gone are the days where you could feel confident that your password was safe if it was created with one of your kids in mind, and the kid’s name is “oompaloompa.” That password may sound unique, but with persistence, several cold sweats, maybe a couple of glasses of cherry Fanta (with the fizz of course), and a heavy duty password cracker, an ambitious cyber predator can begin to dismantle all things personal. As a guideline, Microsoft’s password checker offers solace in the form of at least giving you a starting point in identifying your password’s strength.

Has Your Account Been Compromised?

Many of us have several email accounts that we use regularly and often make the mistake of having the password “abc123” thus making it a no brainer for cyber thieves to hack into these accounts. Compromised accounts are the yellow brick road into your personal information and data being stolen. Should I Change My Password is an online resource that can be used to determine the probability of whether or not your email account is safe. Of course, no online utility is 100%, so in conjunction with the tool, try calling Uncle Joe to see if he’s received any “You’ve Won the Lottery” emails from you!

Change Your Password

If all else fails, at least change your password to something not easily guessed. If blue is your favorite color because you developed an affliction for the Smurfs at a young age, don’t change your password to blue. According to Microsoft, the strength of a password depends on the different types of characters that you use, the overall length of the password, and whether the password can be found in a dictionary. It should be at least 14 characters long. Keeping these guidelines in mind should make it easier to create a password, but by all means, please don’t do what my grandmother does regularly and set it to something that can’t be remembered! I can’t count how many times I’ve reset her password to her “Yaa-Hoo” account!

No one is fully safe from cyber thieves. Continuously changing passwords and not using the same password across different accounts are additional measures that can be taken, so hopefully, you’ll understand that secure passwords are not a thing of the past! Make it your present.

What are your tips for secure passwords?

And, for those of you, who like me, break into night terrors when the landline phone in the house rings, here are my sure bet tech support rules to live by.

Never tell your family what you can do.

The first thing that my mom spews out of her mouth is “My daughter works on computers.” Um, no Mom, I don’t. Just because I am employed by a technology company, who I happen to love working for (ting!), that does not mean that I “work” on computers. Can anyone please provide the definition of what it means to “work on computers” because she obviously missed that memo? I do have the capacity to fix many ailments on computers and other gadgets, but these are skills that I’ve learned to confine to my thoughts, and I’ll never tell.

Learn to muffle laughter or at least use the mute button.

“Sheenika, I can’t cut this thing on.” I never quite mastered the art of “cutting” on a computer, but perhaps if I continue to “mash” my families’ buttons, they’ll teach me! Laughing is a bit rude especially in cases where they just don’t know, but who says that you can’t excuse yourself to the restroom or press the mute button on your phone to LOL at all of the ridiculousness that comes your way?!?! I have this visual in my head of a favorite family member of mine showing me her “new” flip phone on which she couldn’t get the touch screen to work. She touched and touched, said a few expletives about her mobile provider, and touched again. I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that her flip phone having a touch screen was about the equivalent of me running with the bulls in Pamplona – never going to happen.

Institute a barter system.

If you’re like me, you feel really badly for taking money from family members for “computer favors” when they actually offer to pay. I silently weep when I browse to the Christian Louboutin website wondering what may have been had I only mustered the courage to say “Yes, yes, I’ll take your money!” My barter system does, however, somewhat work to my advantage because we are all exchanging “goods” for the betterment of our situations. Who would have thought that I could actually get my cabinets stained, have a bicycle re-chained that’s been sitting on my deck for months, AND a partridge in a pear tree (well, maybe it’s a bit early for that)? I actually enjoy riding down the road in a clean car courtesy of my brother although his trashed computer often gives me severe indigestion.

Pretend that Skype does not exist.

Skype, oh Skype.  How can something so convenient and marvelous leave me wishing that it had never crept into the imaginations of its creators? Skype contributed to what I call the “home-grown-tech-support-trickle-effect” in my family. Once one person actually learned about the functionality of the application, couriers may as well have announced it because everyone gathered in a football huddle to strategize the days that each would bombard me with requests. I’ve lost count of how many days I’ve set in front of my computer while laptops with broken hinges were shown to me over web cam not to mention cracked iPod screens and visuals of the Tivo programming guide that somehow “got out of wack.” I’m eternally grateful that they have yet to realize that I can actually remotely connect to their computers. Keeping my fingers crossed, tied with string, and duct taped together in hopes that no one will find out!

Google to the rescue.

I would graciously like to thank the wonderful guys and gals over at Google for making my life somewhat easier. Take a peek at their Teach Parents Tech site that allows you to customize a personal care package for the folks! If all else fails, just teach them “How to Dougie” to at least keep them off your back for a little while!

 Are you the chosen one for your family? Share your pain with me!

More often than not, the complaints that come across your desk will have nothing whatsoever to do with you.  It may not be your job to handle customer complaints.  The temptation is to deny any wrongdoing and push it aside.  But, if you’re company places a premium on providing extra-mile, professional service to your customers, you can’t pass the buck.  You need to deal with the problem.

Of course, there’s that old saying “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”, but the following five steps can help you turn a customer with a legitimate complaint into a RAVING FAN.

1. Let your customer blow off steam – while you show that your are actively LISTENING. If you talk first before listening, your customer will likely get madder.
2. No matter how unreasonable the complaint seems, the customer has a right to express it. Don’t find fault with the person and never use “you should have” language to a complaining customer.
3. See the complaint for what it is. Don’t exaggerate it, but don’t minimize it either. By helping your customer define the problem you are setting the stage for a solution that can likely bring him or her back again.
4. Rephrase the complaint to the customer. This not only helps you understand the complaint but let’s the customer know that you were listening. Once you know the real problem, devoid of emotion, then you can explain the steps you will take to alleviate the situation.
5. Finally, thank your customer for informing you of the situation including his or her feelings on the matter. Let the customer know that you appreciate the opportunity to be of extra service.  Try to win a friend, not an argument.

Let’s apply another adage: “It’s not the problem – but how you handle the problem”.  By taking these few steps when confronted with a service issue, you’ll increase your likelihood of not only turning a complaint around but you just might create a RAVING FAN.

Airlines didn’t do well, either, taking four out of the top ten spots.  Right behind Pepco in second place was Delta Airlines. They’ve been dealing with a difficult merger and some bad publicity over extra fees, especially when they decided to charge 34 soldiers coming back from Afghanistan $200 each to check a fourth bag.

Rounding out the top five most hated companies were Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Charter.  In a way, this was a victory for Comcast and Charter, who usually take turns grabbing the number one spot in these things.  Cox Communication was # 17, and satellite provider Dish came in at 18.

Don’t act like a monopoly, especially if you’re not one

What is it about these companies and industries that cause consumers to hate them? It’s not size. There are some huge companies that are loved by their customers. One common trait I see among some is the monopoly factor. In addition to Pepco holding the top spot, there are three other public utilities on the list. A monopoly doesn’t have to provide good customer service or good service at all. You can’t call up a competing electric or water company if you’re unhappy, and unless you want the experience of camping in your house, you can’t cancel the service. You have to take what you get. The most you can do is complain to the public service commission.

Cable companies for all practical purposes were monopolies at one time.  They had a lock on the pay TV market, and more recently were the only choice for high-speed Internet in many areas.  That’s still the case in some areas today, and some providers still act like a monopoly, thinking that customers by default won’t cancel their service. But, in most places now there’s more than one choice for broadband, and there’s always satellite for TV if you can get to the right slice of sky.  The bottom line… if you’re not a monopoly, but act like one, not only will customers hate you, they’ll fire you and tell all their friends about it.

WOW! A real cable success story

I was reading the other day about WOW! (formerly Wide Open West), a cable provider serving IL, MI, OH and IN. They are a success story for any company, not just a cable provider.  WOW! was  ranked # 1 this year by Consumer Reports as the top provider for Internet and television, and named by JD Powers as a Customer Service Champion. Obviously, they’re doing something right.

It’s all about attitude

A quick visit to the WOW! Website and it’s clear how they’re different.  There is an obvious emphasis on the customer and the local community at WOW!, and that emanates from the top down.  In her bio, Colleen Abdoulah, in addition to holding the title of CEO, is called “Hugger, Mother, Keeper of the Culture”. Other WOW! employees have three word descriptions that tell you a little bit about them and often what they do for their company and their customers.  Why do customers hate some companies they do business with?  Because those companies are not taking care of them.  It takes extra effort to go out of your way to please a customer, but it’s evident from how WOW!’s subscribers feel about them that their emphasis on customer service is bearing fruit.

WOW! Moments

I recently wrote a post about the power of Creating Fans with Responsive Customer Service. It looks to me like WOW! embodies that concept and cultural attitude.  For example, they have an internal emphasis on creating WOW! Moments, and then provide a way for customers to brag about the company and employees on-line. You don’t see that every day.

It wouldn’t take a lot for those other cable companies that customers love-to-hate to turn around their reputation.  It might take a few years, but an about-face in attitude, and a new focus on WOWing their subscribers instead of alienating them would probably go a long way.

Create a Secure Password

As I’m writing this article, although not a comical issue, I’m internally laughing thinking of how many of my Facebook friends inadvertently emerged in the shoe retail business! Their pages are engulfed by shoe advertisements for Christian Louboutin and Nike’s Air Jordan line to name a few. Although I’ve warned them several times, spam posts of this nature result when accounts are compromised because of weak passwords. Creating a secure password that is not easily guessed and a combination of letters, numbers, and/or symbols is a solid measure to ensure that posts on any social networking website are actually from the account holder.

 Make Use of Privacy Features

 Because the Internet can be a vast display of information, social networking websites often employ privacy settings that further prevent a user’s information from getting into the hands of the wrong person. Given, it may take a Catepillar bulldozer to actually “dig” into the website and find the privacy settings, they are there for a reason. Privacy settings should be adjusted so that the least amount of information is exposed on the web. One question you can ask yourself: “Do I want my boss or potential employers to see me singing karaoke after that third round of drinks?” Of course not! Then, your image as a diligent, Type A personality employee will forever be tarnished and equated with the “Whassup” commercials that were popular back in the early 2000s!

 Avoid Posting Personal Information

 As a reality check, I was on one particular social networking site (I won’t name names), and I randomly chose family members that had tons of personal information posted on their profiles. From the personal information posted, I was able to come up with home addresses aided by Google Maps, where they worked, phone numbers, where their children went to school, and the list goes on and on. If I can “Google” this information and add more pieces to the puzzle, imagine what someone who has malicious intentions can do? Personal information is exactly that….personal information, and while you’re overcome with joy in letting everyone know that you graduated Magna Cum Laude from College XYZ and that your BBM pin is 555777, limiting personal information can be the key ingredient in protecting your identify. Pictures included.

 Getting Rid of “Happy Click Syndrome”

 “Happy Click Syndrome” is synonymous with the old adage “curiosity killed the cat” because so many social networking website users are curious to know what’s lurking behind those links promising to track users viewing their profiles or being the latest winner of an iPad. If something is too good to be true, then it probably is. These types of malicious activities are intended to lure the “happy clickers” into clicking them so that their account information can be overtaken in some form. Always use caution when accessing information that is not familiar. If you’re not sure, there’s always a designated “tech support” person in every family, or the social networking sites Help options as well as their FAQs may provide information on what is legitimate and what is not.

 Social networking sites and interaction can become downright scary to those who are unsuspecting or are not particularly keen on the scams and activities that may result.

 Following are sites that provide information on social networking safety:

• US – C.E.R.T. – Staying Safe on Social Networking Sites

• Federal Trade Commission – Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens

• Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center: Social Networking Sites: How to Stay Safe

What are some of your best tactics on staying safe?

Compatible Web Browsers

For whatever reasons, some educational online content providers have a preference for one browser over another, and there may be times that a website may be optimized for a specific browser. If Little Charlie has a math quiz on a website that requires Internet Explorer and he’s using Safari, it can be difficult for him to compute his answers when what should be numbers closely resemble the Chinese alphabet. With the variety of web browsers that are available, technical support can provide an easy fix in assisting with the download of a compatible web browser. In step the little Mozilla Monsters!

Pop-up Blockers

I think at some point we’ve all endlessly clicked and said a few choice words in our head when trying to access content on a website not knowing that a pop-up blocker is lurking in the shadows. The Homer Simpson “D’oh” becomes the next choice word when we finally realize that there is a pop-up blocker enabled in the web browser or on the computer. While I’m sure kids like The Simpsons, they should be at ease knowing that mom has already spoken with technical support and disabled the pop-up blocker that is keeping them from learning all about what an entomologist does and why the formal term is not “bug man” as once thought.

 Plug-Ins and External Downloads

 iPads are all the rage right now in education but unfortunately, it’s back to the desktop or laptop when there’s an assignment that needs Adobe Flash or a similar plug-in. Many educational websites require plug-ins and external downloads because these are elements that can make an otherwise boring website more appealing to its intended audience. If there is a plug-in or download needed to view content on a website, the website generally provides a prompt that informs the user of the plug-in or download that is needed and where to get it. Parents need not fret since your technical support team can assist them in obtaining the plug-ins and downloads that are necessary. The homework websites will having flashing banners and lights in no time!

Have you experienced a problem with accessing website content? Tell me about your experiences.