topic Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times in Plusnet Feedback

Suggestion given long phone wait times

tonycollinet — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 06:41:25 GMT

Direct line have an excellent system when you call them. Calling gets you a place in the Q. Then you are given the option of getting a call back by entering a call back number using phone pad.
You can then get on with your life, while you wait to get to the top of the Q, at which point they call you.
How about it?

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Jaggies — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 10:02:38 GMT

Certainly worth considering, and BT already do exactly that with their "Queue Buster".
I don't know how effective it is, though.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

HPsauce — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 10:05:25 GMT

Quote from: tonyAtplus
Direct line have an excellent system when you call them.

And First Direct have an even better system, which is just having enough people to answer the phones. And even more significant, who have the information on hand, skills and authority to deal with almost anything there and then

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

MauriceC — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 17:10:28 GMT

I've used the BT system to report phone faults on a few occasions last Winter. Most effective IMHO, I got called back in about 40 mins or so. Fault reported, checked and engineer booked in a <10 minute call.
M

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

tonycollinet — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 08:19:09 GMT

Quote from: HPsauce
Quote from: tonyAtplus
Direct line have an excellent system when you call them.
And First Direct have an even better system, which is just having enough people to answer the phones. And even more significant, who have the information on hand, skills and authority to deal with almost anything there and then

That is very true - excellent service

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

TORPC — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:41:05 GMT

My housing authority also has this great feature
As a relation to BT, PN should be able to implement this in quite a reasonable time frame

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

tonycollinet — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:56:35 GMT

This is such a good suggestion that (even though it is mine) I'm going to bump it.

Any comment, plusnet?

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

shutter — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:24:31 GMT

If you have the time......... and you probably have..... if you are currently "on hold"....... then you can read through this thread......

http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,80676.0.html

started in 2009...... Yup ...! 5 years ago.... and they still haven`t cottoned on to getting a proper Customer Friendly queuing system .......
Just checked the stats.... and there are 30.22 calls waiting.... Whot ? 30 POINT 22.... who is the point 22 of a call that is waiting ????? ( like having 2.2 kids...... ).. !

Quote

Residential call stats
Current calls waiting Longest call waiting now Average answer time today
30.22 Currently unavailable 13 minutes and 53 seconds

One of the main arguments against a Queueing system at PlusNet is that calls have to be "prioritised"..... which implies that "some" calls are "more important" than others.....
From a customer point of view, that is an absolute scandal....... from PlusNets point of view, that is treating customers with contempt.... especially when the pre-recorded message goes on and on and on and on....... "your call is important to us.......".... ( what that recording fails to say, is ....... but someone elses call is probably more important than yours, so we`ll deal with them first and eventually get around to you........ "
Proof of my last statement.....
a quote from my original thread..... by Mark.... ( who, I think, at that time was on the PlusNet staff )......

Quote

We did look at this a couple of years ago and Carol and I looked at options with a number of suppliers, however for good reason we ruled it out as a solution.
A number of reasons for this existed. In a multi skilled support team where agents can and do handle multiple workflows, some of those workflows receive a higher priority than others, such as an ADSL fault or a phone fault. Lets say your calling to report a problem with email, no other higher priority calls in the queues and your number 3 in line to be answered, suddenly 2 adsl faults hit the queue and a home phone fault. Next thing you know you've gone from 3 to six with no understanding why.
The numerous implimentations of this model we looked at simply didnt fit how we and many other tech environments operate. Ideal world scenario would be that we have agents sitting twiddling their thumbs in between calls for each different workflow to ensure that a call queuing system like that would work, but thats not sound operational practice and certainly would not be efficient or indeed cost effective.
We spent a lot of time looking at the options, but the downside way way outstripped the benefit and in fact there was no benefit, for us or our customers, from this solution.

So.... dear friends..... PlusNet don`t really want you to know that you are being shuffled further down the queue..... unlike in a supermarket, where multi skilled, multi tasking staff can open up new checkouts to ease the queue,,,, plusnet... well..... draw your own conclusions..... after 5 years... still ...... NO CHANGE....
Even though they have opened up a second Call Centre......

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

TORPC — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:34:59 GMT

Quote from: shutter
<snip>
One of the main arguments against a Queueing system at PlusNet is that calls have to be "prioritised"..... which implies that "some" calls are "more important" than others.....
<snip>

When one is stuck in a queue awaiting to be answered, how can ones call be Prioritised, when PN does not know what the call is about ?

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

jelv — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:41:07 GMT

It's based on the "press 1 for ..., 2 for ..." that you go through when you ring the support number.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Anotherone — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:00:42 GMT

And to be fair, a call about ones broadband service having stopped working is probably a bit more important than a bit of technical support on how to do something.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Townman — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:27:15 GMT

To every waiting caller, their call is important to them; at that time it is THE most important thing on their mind. They too might be getting charged an arm and a leg for waiting if they are unable to phone from a PN telephone line. The fact that some other caller thinks their problem is more important, is no justification for the already waiting caller to slip further down the answer queue. All calls should be answered in calling sequence in a timely manner.
To think that some other person already in the queue should have to wait longer for your problem to be dealt with is sheer arrogance however you try to justify it.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Anotherone — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:02:12 GMT

Sorry, your response suggests that you've misconstrued what I've said, I totally agree with you that to a waiting caller, their call is the most important and they don't want to be hanging on any longer than necessary if being charged for the call.
My remark was in the context of Jelv's reply to the previous question. Having chosen a queue by pressing 1 or 2 or whatever, Plusnet will treat such queues with a different priority - faults queues will generally be manned to a different level.
Once in a queue, there is no question of "dropping down" a queue. Each queue will be answered in a timely manner. I didn't say Plusnet's system was the correct one, but whilst it's as it is, if for example I phoned in on a PAYG mobile because my phone line had gone dead, I would hope that that queue would be dealt with quicker. There's no arrogance involved.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

anthgood — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:12:32 GMT

The way to fix the call wait times is for plusnet to better train their call handlers.
The person I spoke to clearly didn't have a clue and put me on hold for a total of 20 mins just to answer two very simple questions.
My call was one hour long where if the person knew what they were doing it should have been at the absolute maximum 20 mins to deal with and 10 mins for someone who knew what they were doing.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

shutter — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:12:53 GMT

Yeah... I get the bit about Prioritising calls.... by "press one for a short wait, and two for a bit longer wait..."....i.e. the term "prioritising" is WRONG... it should be "Call Sorting"... where you choose which part of Plusnet service you want to be waiting in a queue for.... i.e 1 for broadband, 2 for home phone 3.for everything else.... etc.... BUT... the problem is... once you have done that,... the customer STILL does not know where in the queue for that particular service is..... THIS is the point, where the queueing system should be activated.... and once in the queue, then you gradually move up that queue, IN TURN, the same "priority" as everyone else in that queue....
Having to wait to get past the first hurdle is still the biggest problem, and the longest wait... and that is where the recorded message "your call is important to us..... ~~and we`ll keep you waiting until someone else has more important call~~ and we`ll get to you as soon as possible.... ".. is the biggest insult that PlusNet can give to their customers, if they insist on taking so long to answer the phone in the first place... despite the new call centre,..... and... all the newly trained staff that has happened over the past 5 years.... oh... what was I told .... way back then......?

Quote
Give us a little time..... we`re getting there.....

NOT......

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Strat — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:38:46 GMT

Quote from: shutter
"press one for a short wait, and two for a bit longer wait..."

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

tonycollinet — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:55:31 GMT

Which should of course read:
Press 1 for a horribly long wait. Press 2 to be reduced to bones and cobwebs.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Strat — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:57:43 GMT

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

Anotherone — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:58:11 GMT

@anthgood
That is diabolical. The whole point of having different queues for different issues is so that you (eventually) get through to someone who knows what they are talking about.
shutter is right, prioritising isn't really the right word but it also seems shutter's last remark is unfortunately still true.
Not forgetting tonyAtplus's original suggestion - to keep on topic there's no reason why such a system can't work with the different queues for different issues.
I also wonder that whilst we are stuck with the current system (or even if tonyAtplus's system was implemented on each queue), why/if the Customer Support Stats can't show the wait times on each of the queues?
And who altered the programming on that recently? As shutter has already mentioned, how can you have decimal xy of a call waiting? No QA it would seem. And why is the "Longest call waiting now" not being shown? Too embarrassed to show it no doubt
Right now

Quote from: Plusnet
Current calls waiting Longest call waiting now Average answer time today
24.24 Currently unavailable 40 minutes and 50 seconds

Come on Plusnet, this HAS to be a joke.

Re: Suggestion given long phone wait times

tonycollinet — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 21:03:39 GMT

I just came here to ask about the longest call waiting now unavailable crap.
I'm currently on hold. It seems that 30 plusnet minutes are more than 40 real minutes.