topic Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours) in Plusnet Feedback

Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

jelv — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:40:51 GMT

On 17th January the target time to respond to tickets was 8 hours (see http://web.archive.org/web/20130127020124/http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helpheader=rhmcallstats for proof).
Today I've raised a ticket and was shocked to see that the response target is now 24 hours (see http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212).
I was aware that Plusnet's support was increasingly struggling, but trebling the target response time as really not good - especially when they are failing dismally to meet the new target.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets

shutter — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:05:35 GMT

This seems to be quite extraordinary, considering my campaign of a couple of years ago...
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,80676.0.html
and as pointed out in my initial post... this present situation is actually better than my 48 hours.... UNTIL... you continue reading and my ticket was posted on a Saturday... so 48 hours was "sort of" acceptable....
However. after NINE pages from 2009 to 2012... where is the improvements promised so many times?
Yeah... I know... the customer base has increased and we are training up more people every week..... blah blah blah.....
heard it all before....... been there... done that..... never bothered with the tee shirt, cos it was still in the design stage.........
Come on now.... get it together... and do something about it... .... .... .....
Or maybe you will not, and just hope it goes away again, like it did last February with a comment by .........

Quote

James
Plusnet Staff
*
Posts: 19874

« Reply #131 on 14/02/2012, 08:36 »

I last replied to this thread a year ago?

James Bailey
Plusnet Complaints Manager

Maybe you did.... are you going to do the same with this one....?
or are you actually going to justify your title and pay? "Plusnet Complaints Manager".... and take action to do something about it ?

Re: Changes to ticket response targets

Mav — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:17:40 GMT

I raised a ticket this morning at 10:12 and the response time was quoted at over 35 hours!
Thankfully it's not something that is urgent.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets

shutter — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:22:18 GMT

And another customer is complaining too............... 35 hours....
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,112003.0.html
Perhaps I should start another campaign?
35 hours.... Is it raining up there again? floods/ snowstorms/ fire/ brimstone/ ear of newt/ leg of frog/ sack of coal dust/ mist of the moors/
anything else needed to get the witches cauldron to work a magic spell on CSC and get a result ?

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

tijara33 — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:32:07 GMT

Unfortunately PN seem to be suffering from their popularity & haven't yet recruited & trained the additional staff to cope with the rapidly increasing number of customers. There are also snow issues in the Sheffield area. I don't know if that's part of the problem.
Either way, I'm sure that things will be rapidly resolved in the next few weeks.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:50:41 GMT

Yeah right !, did you read shutters campaign ? - the ticketing system has been a problem for at least ten years and just never gets any better
Frankly I don't understand why such a definable and manageable process can't be fixed ?.
How is it that it is usually quicker, and more likely to receive an effective response, by posting issues in this forum, than it is to use the official ticketing system ?. The staff responding on this forum tend to give accurate information often within minutes, whereas the ticketing system rarely results in a satisfactory answer within a reasonable period of time.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:57:46 GMT

You say the response target is currently 35 hours, but what is the worst reply time anyone has actually seen in recent weeks ?
I think there are two targets worth measuring -
1) The time from a new ticket being raised, until the first response in acknowledging the question.
2) The time between the ticket being raised, and the issue being fully resolved.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

shutter — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:19:35 GMT

Despite my campaign.... EMPLOY MORE STAFF to answer tickets... etc etc etc. etc etc etc etc
for all that time, we have had the same response.... give us time and we will get there....
HA HA HA HA... larf ?.... I`m still crying...
Since my original post.... and the protracted discussions and excuses.... yes.... I did say excuses.... it would seem that nothing has changed.... except the number of customers....
Of course, every business needs to get new customers, because new customers pay the wages of the staff employed to service that company... unfortunately the increase in the number of customers also causes a backlog in the service requirements, and also the number of complaints.... I have not had a looka at "Feedback" for a long time, but am apalled to see the number of complaints from new customers about the level of, or lack of, customer service, on the first page.... I really am apalled... there is no other word for it... Plusnet is not living up to its advertising slogan of "We`ll do you proud"... from the number of complaints on the first page I think the Plusnet logo is two words too long.... .... I am sure you can work out which two they are... and you can leave dots for the missing words... .... ... ... ...
Now I am sure that someone in the hierachy at Plusnet towers, is going to come back on this, and say much the same as has been said before... we are recruiting more staff... and it takes time to train them up to the required standard....
unfortunatley,... it also appears that those that were trained up during my previous campaign, have done one of two things.... 1... they have got fed up and left.... or 2.... they have let their standards fall below what should be expected of them... and ... it follows that the newer "trainees" over the past 12 months have been trained up to the lower standard.
I know that Plusnet CSC management will vehemently deny this.... however, they obviously do not read the Feedback forum board... or they would have done something about it by now, and the overall staff management levels would have been increased to cope with the increase in customer numbers...
It would be interesting to be told......
1..... how many customers Plusnet had, way back in 2009 when I started my campaign.... and how many CSC staff they had at the same time....
2....how many customers Plusnet had 1 year later in 2010..... and again how many CSC staff they had then
3....how many customers Plusnet had 1 year later in 2011 .... and again how many CSC staff they had then
4....how many customers Plusnet had 1 year later in 2012.... and again how many CSC staff they had then
5...how many customers Plustnet had 1 year later in 2013...i.e. NOW.... and again...... how many CSC staff they have NOW...
If Plusnet had enough CSC staff to deal with the number of complaints/problems on a daily basis, then there would not be a backlog, and there would be good reason for seeing the following on Martin Lewis`s email today..

Quote

Plusnet - part of BT - broadband & line rent equiv £12.65/mth (BT line only £15). MSE Blagged. Plusnet's Essentials* (b'band, eve & wknd calls) is half price at £3/mth for 9mths of the 12mth contract. Pay a year's line rent upfront (£126) and it totals £171/yr. This link gives £25 cashback, factored in it's equiv £12.65/mth. See Home Phones.

What are Plusnet thinking of...... EMPLOY MORE STAFF to cope with the increased number of customers....BEFORE you advertise for more customers.... BASIC.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Chris — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:01:22 GMT

Yes we know that the ticket turnaround times and call waits are higher than we'd like them to be. However you're making it sound like they've been consistently high since you first posted about this, which simply isn't the case.
We're working very very hard to bring the response times down, and as we've said before the way to do this isn't just to throw more people at it as that can cause problems. We need to fix the problems that are meaning customers need to contact us, that includes some remaining bugs from the new product launch and some issues we've got with the network.
To sum up, we know it's taking too long to get answers and we're working to bring it down.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

shutter — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:38:53 GMT

Chris.... again... you have come up with the classic... " we know there is a problem...... we are working to fix it " answer.....
Regardless of whether the response times have or have not been high or higher since I started my campaign these "problems" (aka customers) are increasing and you are still trotting out the same response....
Purleigh summed up what should have been done in reply number 12 of the original post... WAY BACK IN NOVEMBER 2009.... and you still say, we know about it and we are working on it...

Quote

Reply #12 on 11/11/2009, 10:32 »
This discussion is missing the point !
This thread is titled " Suggestion..... employ more staff to answer tickets and phones".
The underlying problem is that both tickets and phone enquiries are taking far to long to answered, and the above discussion is trying to find a technical solution to make a fairer queuing system.
Better queuing does not improve the volume of questions answered, and therefore overall response times will not come down.
There are several solutions -
1) Improve reliability - and therefore reduce support requests in the first place.
2) Respond to problems more quickly - to reduce number of subsequent people complaining about same problem.
3) Test all system changes before implementation - to reduce incidents of falling back to last known working states.
4) Have support staff answering tickets over the weekends.
5) Increase support staff so all tickets get answered within 24 hours, and phones answered within 3 minutes.
6) Improve support staff training so they solve the problem FIRST time.
Improve the queuing system if you like, but customers want answers in a timely manner.

If you had taken actions on the above quote, then you would not be in the situation you are now in, of trying to fob us off, with platitudes.....
and can I have some answers to questions 1 to 5 in my previous post? or did you think I would forget about that, because your "are working on it ".. answer covered all points raised so far.
You might also like to read what James Bailey.... (then Complaints Manager) had to say in his detailed response Reply 13

Quote
« Reply #13 on 11/11/2009, 10:40 »
Hi Purleigh,
Good to see you raising the more important issue.
1) Improve reliability - and therefore reduce support requests in the first place. -> Being worked on.
2) Respond to problems more quickly - to reduce number of subsequent people complaining about same problem. -> Being worked on within reason.
3) Test all system changes before implementation - to reduce incidents of falling back to last known working states. -> This is already being done and always has been. However, testing in a live environment before rollout is not possible, so we do the best we can with our Gamma platform.
4) Have support staff answering tickets over the weekends. -> This already happens. The callcentre is 24/7.
5) Increase support staff so all tickets get answered within 24 hours, and phones answered within 3 minutes. -> Not a realistic possibility. We aim to have all calls answered in under 10 minutes (bear in mind that we have busier and quieter times of the day and we do have "bursts" of calls. We are increasing the number of staff that we have here.
6) Improve support staff training so they solve the problem FIRST time. -> Absolutely agree. We've a lot of focus on this currently, but obviously it's not an overnight fix.

Remember this is what he said in 2009... yet here is Chris saying "it is being worked on"... OH DEARY ME...
I thought James` response to point number six was a classic.... "..... Obviously it`s not an overnight fix"....
NOPE... take a few more than one overnight session to fix that lot ... even after 3 years it is not fixed
Part of my orginal posting was because of the waiting time for ticket response.. Back in 2009, it was....

Quote

it was to do with the ticket system... where 2 days 1 minute and 23 seconds, is really not good enough, and in this department, more staff would improve the turnaround.... even 24 hours is a long time to wait for a response to a "simple query"...

now .,Chris... answer this.... IF.. all the above promises to "fix" the problems then, and the future was supposed to be looking brighter, because you said you were training more staff, etc etc etc... WHY is it still the same 3 years later... ?
And don`t forget to answer the questions 1 to 5 this time....

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:10:26 GMT

Hey shutter, why don't you raise a ticket for your questions and record how long it takes to get a sensible answer
If you get a reply, post it in this thread so we can bring this topic up in another three and a half years time !
Keep up the good work

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Chris — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:35:30 GMT

My point was that we haven't been in a bad place for the whole period since you started the initial campaign, if we had been then we wouldn't have won so many awards
We've hit a patch of problems which have impacted response times, whilst it might seem easy to throw more advisors at it, there's much more to it.
We know response times are high, there isn't a magic fix, there's a combination of things that need to happen (including our *continued* recruitment).

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

shutter — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:56:00 GMT

Which means ?
and just like any politician, has failed twice to answer the five questions put to you.....

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Chris — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:58:51 GMT

I'm not going to be able to give you customer numbers and CSC staffing numbers, that's commercially sensitive.
But we *are* continuing to recruit and have been continuing to grow the support centre, along with other areas of the business. http://careers.plus.net/opportunities/

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

jelv — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:33:30 GMT

Let's clear up one fact - the target is 24 hours not 35 hours - see the attached screen shot. If you look at the link in the first post it used to be 8 hours.
The important thing here is that the response time was hovering around the 8 hour average and when it crept above efforts were made to get back to the target.
Now the target is 24 hours it means that we will NEVER see the response times back to where they were. Once they get the average back below 24 hours Plusnet will say they are hitting their targets. What worries me is that if in three months time the response time is still stuck around 36 hours they will just change the target again and then say there is no problem - we are hitting the target.
Given that Plusnet makes a great play of their service in the advertising, if someone had looked at the publicly viewable Customer Support Statistics and seen the 8 hour target and that had been a factor in their signing up to Plusnet the change in the target constitutes an adverse material change in the service which would allow them out of their contract for free.
What really stinks about this is that it has been slipped out with no announcement - hoping it would be some time before anyone noticed? I would like to see a proper announcement about this from the MD or another person at the top of the management structure explaining the reason why this change has been made.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

shutter — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:38:08 GMT

You betcha... it is commercially sensitive.... in other words... you have far too many customers in the ratio compared to the number of support staff, and it has not bee a priority action to increase the number comparitively over the years, therefore you are finding yourselves in the hole you are in now,... also the problems that the customers have, have not been properly addressed by the appropriate management decisions and actions, therefore the number of complaints has risen to the current level,....
The sides of the hole are made of sand.... and the more you try to dig your way out with the same old promises of,....." we`re working on it.... we`ll get there..... give us time...." the deeper the hole becomes....
You have had well over 3.5 years since I started to get CSC into some kind of acceptable situation vis-a-vis the turnover time and response time for calls and tickets.... and yet you "suddenly" find you need to "work on it " again.... WHY ?
The problems that the customers are reporting, and requesting assistance are still the same as they were 3, 2, 1 year ago... so it seems that.....
a) nothing has been done.......(to fix the problems)
b) If anything has been done... (capital letters IF) , it was not good enough
Purleigh`s "guidelines" quoted above, seem to have fallen on blind eyes and deaf ears..... despite your acknowledgement that

Quote

there's a combination of things that need to happen

that combination of "things" should have happened by now.... why haven`t they.... and.... how much more time do you need?
You,Chris, were very adamant in your responses during my last postings, that you WILL get it sorted, and all you needed was time.....
Well, you have had time... Why is the situation still the same?
Because the problems are still the same....... When are you going to fix the problems, so that there number of complaints drops dramatically, then you won`t need so many CSC staff to cope with a backlog.
Please, Chris... give us some "proper answers" to the questions, and do try to be honest about it.....
Nobody beleives the politicians anymore, because they always sidestep difficult questions by re-quoting the party line over and over again.... don`t go down that road.. ....................

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Chris — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:41:24 GMT

Quote
You,Chris, were very adamant in your responses during my last postings, that you WILL get it sorted, and all you needed was time.....
Well, you have had time... Why is the situation still the same?

A question for you Gerry. Has the response time been unacceptable for the whole period since you first posted about this 3.5 years ago or is it small chunks of time within there where the responses have been longer than they should?
Look, I'm not trying to downplay the fact that support times are too long at the moment. We know they are. What I'm trying to do is be realistic about how long this has been going on for.
Jelv, to cover the point that you started this thread with, I'll try and find out when/why we changed that time.

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

Mav — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:01:52 GMT

I'm just wondering how many customers know about the Customer Support Stats page and, therefore, check them out before raising a ticket.
Would it not be possible to display the Question Handling Stats just before a question is actually raised so that if the current average closure time is high the customer can try another method of contact? Displaying the stats after the question is posted seems then a bit late

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

jelv — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:14:56 GMT

I think posts I have made going back over a couple of years are relevant to what's happening today:

Quote from: jelv
Several times I have suggested backing off the advertising campaigns to allow support to get to a better place.
That that hasn't happened has me utterly convinced that there is one or more sales/marketing managers who's bonuses relies on the number of new sign ups they manage to get. They will not be at all concerned as to whether these people have a happy experience. It's highly likely they will have been parachuted in to Plusnet by BT - and we all know where BT stands on the make a profit/do what's right for the customer balance. They probably knows that if things continue the way they are Plusnet will get a bad reputation and that getting new users will be more difficult, but that won't bother them, like all these bods totally focused on their bonuses they'll just move on. I've seen this sort of thing so many times over my working life, as far as sales/marketing are concerned if they get paid a bonus it's the right thing to do.
I'll bet there are some very interesting discussions go on between the sales/marketing and the support management teams!

Quote from: jelv
No the unacceptable delays at the moment are because PN embarked on a number of advertising campaigns along with very aggressive pricing in the Market 3 exchanges. This has obviously brought in significant numbers of new users, many of whom will have trouble getting connected. PN are recruiting/training agents faster than ever, but not fast enough to keep up.

Quote from: jelv
So why haven't they had a response for a week?
[quote=http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212]Average closure time: 6 hours, 51 minutes and 56 seconds
Target closure time: 4 hours

That tells a story: you are not hitting the target. When you start hitting the target is the time to start advertising.

Interesting one that one - I'd completely forgotten that the target used to be four hours - just shows how far things have slipped.

Quote from: jelv
I'm suggesting that when it was apparent that the support teams were not coping there should have been a reining back on the advertising until such time as support improved.
We're seeing far too many interventions from Digital Care where people are not getting timely responses to faults and far too many apologies where agents have got things wrong.

Quote from: jelv
It's due to a massive increase in user numbers as a result of the advertising campaigns and support resources lagging behind. It takes time for a new support person to get fully up to speed and the new support staff are making a lot of mistakes.

Quote from: jelv
Another user has raised the issue of the alleged £7.2M spend on the recent advertising campaigns and trying to make a totally spurious link to the charge being imposed for payment by cards.
Firstly I don't see why how much they have spent should be an issue for us. The campaigns have been ramping up over the last couple of years; they must be being successful in bringing in more users and be giving a net profit or Plusnet wouldn't be continuing with them. I've noted that the number of users online at any one time as shown by the performance graphs has doubled in the last couple of years or so - the campaigns must be working.
I think there is a valid debate to be had as to the timing of the campaigns - I've posted previously that I thought they should be scaled back until the support resources were ready to cope with the extra workload the new users bring. But I see no relevance in discussing the amount of the spend - that is a commercial matter just for Plusnet and their owners.

Quote from: jelv
Quote from: _Adam_Walker_
Support are going through a very busy time at the moment but we are continuing to train and recruit to meet demand.

... and because of that Plusnet have put all the advertising on hold until CSC and other departments are up to strength and sufficiently experienced to answer queries/faults promptly and accurately.
Oh, look there's some bacon flying past the window!

Quote from: jelv
I presume that as CSC are struggling at the moment you are easing up on the advertising?

Re: Changes to ticket response targets (increased from 8 to 24 hours)

shutter — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:17:28 GMT

Chris,
You know better than me the answer to your question.... I accept that response times do go up and down.... however, that is not what this is about... it is the underlying problems that are causing the response times. and these problems are still being complained about, and more often, by more customers...
Logically, you have had 3 years to address these problems, ( perhaps even longer , before I started to campaign )... and yet they are still there.... WHY ?
You keep on saying... We are aware of it.... we are working on it... give us time... yet 3 years later, you are still swimming along in a sea of treacle and not getting the problems solved. WHY?
Jelv` s point about the increase in "target" times just brings it all up again... by increasing the "target" time, you are, in effect, lowering the standards, and therefore it does not improve the situation, any more than your "we are working on it ... "..

My own "observations" are on the current "front page" of the Feedback board on the forum.... May I suggest you have a read of them all.... note what the problems are, and then go backyearly, for 3 years ago, and do the same exercise... You will see what I mean....
This line ...... " What I'm trying to do is be realistic about how long this has been going on for. ".... is typical "politician speak"..... We , the customers, are not interested in "how long it has been going on for" as a ratio of time over the past years...
what we, the customers, are interested in, is "How long must we endure the current situation, that was brought to notice 3 years ago?" and need a realistic answer.
Realistically, we do not expect you to come back and say.... OK... everything will be fixed by June 30th at 0900.... Realistically, we expect Customer Service to be the best there is. Realistically, it should be happening NOW... as you have had 3 years to "work on it"..
By Customer Service... we don`t just mean "ticket times or phone call answer times"... but the Whole Package of Customer Service... from the moment of Sign up, to the "occasional" fault/probem report and service of that request for help.
Put yourself in the customers position, and ask yourself the question...... Why am I putting up with this level of service? and ask yourself Should I be putting up with this level of service.... then go back to your desk, and be the CSC manager , and take action accordingly.