6319 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Usually I’m pretty smart. But I did not follow.

Did I already say this? But some companies would be better off spending more time making information easy to find on their websites, rather than running expensive call centres.

[VicHockeyFan]

They should also get with the times and institute "live chat" for support.  It's smarter and cheaper than phone chats for a variety of reasons.  The biggest two being the fact that the operator can handle multiple enquiries at the same time, and copy in long pre-written responses that would take much longer to say by voice, and place links for people to follow.   

 

Heck, the small commercial print shop I use (funny enough, one location in the BC Ferries building) uses live chat, I'd never dream of phoning them.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 15 November 2017 - 07:07 PM.

[AllseeingEye]

They should also get with the times and institute "live chat" for support.  It's smarter and cheaper than phone chats for a variety of reasons.  The biggest two being the fact that the operator can handle multiple enquiries at the same time, and copy in long pre-written responses that would take much longer to say by voice, and place links for people to follow.   

 

Heck, the small commercial print shop I use (funny enough, one location in the BC Ferries building) uses live chat, I'd never dream of phoning them.

Nope - and we've had this conversation before too (dude were you at the Taphouse *again* today??): in every industry I've worked and that includes tech, financial services and a host of outsourced environments any and every time I participated in a customer survey - and I've architected more than one - 'live, on the phone support was always the preferred option. Every time.

 

I'll grant you that will almost certainly evolve as the millennials begin to replace boomers in management and decision-making positions and as they become the dominant consumers. Guarantee you in the meantime however that someone calling in with serious questions about MSP or Pharmacare billing - or wondering why their financial portfolio just took a dumper - isn't interested in 24-hour turnaround time email responses, or even live chat. They want to talk to someone and someone better have the answers. Now. The only exception in my experience was in tech where, unless the system issue was enterprise critical then email or even chat was fine. And yes we are all well aware that phone support is the most expensive channel to provision, bar none. That is no revelation nor is it a surprise to anyone. However until consumer attitudes and preferences shift rather dramatically its here to stay.

[VicHockeyFan]

I'm at the Taphouse 3 or 4 days a week, so now you are just playing the odds.

 

Oh ya, many customers want live, on the phone support.  But you will find that in business, those are often your worst customers.  They buy little, and they use to often or even abuse the "free" support, to the point your dealing with them is no longer profitable.  Sometimes those customers are best cut loose.

[Redd42]

I'm at the Taphouse 3 or 4 days a week, so now you are just playing the odds.

 

Did you happen to be at the bar on Tuesday evening?

[VicHockeyFan]

Did you happen to be at the bar on Tuesday evening?

 

I was.  I was watching the Music Bingo final.  Stuffed at the north end of the bar, against a support pillar.  White laptop.

[Bingo]

I was.  I was watching the Music Bingo final.  Stuffed at the north end of the bar, against a support pillar.  White laptop.

Bingo???   What about seeing the Canucks beat LA?

[VicHockeyFan]

Ya I watched.

[tjv]

I'm fairly certain the kid taking calls at the pizza shop, and his employer, aren't contractually bound to adhere to rigid service levels that if not met can cost his firm multiple thousands or millions of dollars in penalties, and in a worse case scenario lose his job altogether under said circumstances once the contract isn't renewed.

 

And although I don't work for BCF I suspect rather than targeting a few dozen CSR's making $23/hr you might start with the gold plated benefits and retirements packages of some 4000+ union members and perks like "free" ferry rides. Or the prohibitively expensive advertising campaigns mounted by what is after all a virtual monopoly. Those BC Ferries ads that adorned the side boards of Rogers Place for years for instance cost one hell of a lot more than a few call center reps.....

Rigid service levels?  For what?  Answer the phone and say "yes Maam, the next ferry leaving Tswwassen to Swartz Bay is at 3pm, have a good day"  or "yes Sir, we can book your package to Ucluelet for 3 days in a 4 star hotel..."

 

Explain these penalties? I am sure the kid at the pizza shop will be fired for being rude to a customer or being slow for delivering pizzas, etc.  The BCF worker will simply respond "union grievance! talk to my union head, this conversation is over"

 

 

They should also get with the times and institute "live chat" for support.  It's smarter and cheaper than phone chats for a variety of reasons.  The biggest two being the fact that the operator can handle multiple enquiries at the same time, and copy in long pre-written responses that would take much longer to say by voice, and place links for people to follow.   

 

Heck, the small commercial print shop I use (funny enough, one location in the BC Ferries building) uses live chat, I'd never dream of phoning them.

They should get with the times and outsource the call centre, I am sure "Bob" in India will be glad to help you

 

I can't think of a reason why I would ever call BCF, all the schedules, fares, current conditions, etc are all on their website

[Mike K.]

Until their website crashes during an adverse weather event. Then it's 1-800 time, baby!

[PraiseKek]

Yeah that's really stupid. They don't even need to move the entire site into the cloud to fix that problem. Just setup AWS Cloudfront and serve their site through it. It's like a caching proxy basically so most requests would be just served from the cache. 

[Mike K.]

Yes! That's how Citified is setup. It's all cached.

[grantpalin]

Yes! That's how Citified is setup. It's all cached.

Out of curiosity does Citified run on a CMS, off the shelf or custom, or is it all static?

[Mike K.]

Custom CMS.

[grantpalin]

Cool. Took a peek at the page source to see if there was anything I would recognize, but nope. Suspect you had very specific needs so custom was the way to go.

[FirstTimeHomeCrier]

 

And although I don't work for BCF I suspect rather than targeting a few dozen CSR's making $23/hr you might start with the gold plated benefits and retirements packages of some 4000+ union members and perks like "free" ferry rides. Or the prohibitively expensive advertising campaigns mounted by what is after all a virtual monopoly. Those BC Ferries ads that adorned the side boards of Rogers Place for years for instance cost one hell of a lot more than a few call center reps.....

 

Just FYI, pensions for BCF workers are paid 25% out of member and employer contributions and 75% out of investment returns on those contributions. Most people collecting these pensions will make high enough income in retirement that they will not be eligible to collect GIS payments, so the so-called "gold-plated" retirement packages are actually saving taxpayers money.

[Mike K.]

Cool. Took a peek at the page source to see if there was anything I would recognize, but nope. Suspect you had very specific needs so custom was the way to go.

 

Yes, that's exactly right. To reverse engineer components of off-the-shelf systems like Wordpress would have been very costly and the outcome potentially lacking in function or note quite right. It's much, much more efficient to go custom in the long run.

[grantpalin]

Yes, that's exactly right. To reverse engineer components of off-the-shelf systems like Wordpress would have been very costly and the outcome potentially lacking in function or note quite right. It's much, much more efficient to go custom in the long run.

As it goes with software in general. If you can get away with off-the-shelf (stock or with some work) then great. But at other times there is a chasm between what is needed and what is already available. Having done WordPress work, I know it can be made to work in a lot of cases (easily or not) but there comes a point where it's just the wrong tool for the job.

[AllseeingEye]

Rigid service levels?  For what?  Answer the phone and say "yes Maam, the next ferry leaving Tswwassen to Swartz Bay is at 3pm, have a good day"  or "yes Sir, we can book your package to Ucluelet for 3 days in a 4 star hotel..."

 

Explain these penalties? I am sure the kid at the pizza shop will be fired for being rude to a customer or being slow for delivering pizzas, etc.  The BCF worker will simply respond "union grievance! talk to my union head, this conversation is over"

 

 

They should get with the times and outsource the call centre, I am sure "Bob" in India will be glad to help you

 

I can't think of a reason why I would ever call BCF, all the schedules, fares, current conditions, etc are all on their website

Seriously? I'll presume you don't work in a business or in any medium to large scale enterprise customer support function if I really and truly have to explain what contractual service levels - known variously as SLA's or SLO's - are, or indeed the potential financial penalties that can and do result when said SLA's are not met. 

 

You used the example of the pizza kid in response to my comments regarding why call centers in general exist and to the point why many of them, usually the larger environments especially, pay the staff "x" dollars.

 

I responded to the effect that in typical environments like ours - I never said anything about BCF being subject to SLA's or financial penalties, as I made quite clear I don't work for them - that contracted SLA's are a fact of life particularly in outsourced scenarios - like ours, or the old West Corp call center, with which I was also affiliated in its early days. That facility was contracted and under specific language and terms to provide customer support on behalf of their client - which happened to be ATT originally, all the while adhering to rigid SLA's or pay the the financial penalties that would ensue. That "pizza kid" example is not particularly relevant since to my knowledge no pizza outfit signs multi-million dollar third party outsource agreements to take orders on behalf of a client. Like we do.

Edited by AllseeingEye, 16 November 2017 - 05:04 PM.

[tjv]

^Thanks, but I own several medium sized corporations and I have never guaranteed in anyway shape or form "service levels" to my clients.  You were the one who explained that call centres must meet "rigid service levels that if not met can cost his firm multiple thousands of dollars in penalties, and in a worse case scenario lose his job all together" and I don't have a clue what that means specifically for a call centre rep at BCF.  That is what I am asking

 

I see no difference between a pizza kid answering the phone and taking an order than a BCF call centre agent answering the phone, with the exception of the wage.  Same level of education, same skills, etc.  I am all ears if you can tell me the difference.