Customer support stats

[#1]

The manual element is the ticket response times & was a reply referencing the 'last updated on 9th December point' originally.

And you're right @alanf, it is commercially sensitive & always has been but we've always been committed to being a little different & being as open as we can be with our customers. That won't change & I want to make sure that if this is of value we get you the information you need.

This capability is, as you can see, quite old hence the review - there's absolutely no secrecy involved & I can assure you that any stats not being available isn't manipulation by us, it's purely that something is broken & we need to fix it.

[#2]

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@PlusnetLiam wrote:
This capability is, as you can see, quite old hence the review - there's absolutely no secrecy involved & I can assure you that any stats not being available isn't manipulation by us, it's purely that something is broken & we need to fix it.

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The problem is that the above statement is true, and has been for a very long time, with quite a number of the Plusnet back office systems.  Seven+ years in the case of the finance system with no progress, so there is limited confidence that this issue will rise to the top of the 'To Do' pile.  

M

[#3]

MauriceC Yes soo true   and i have lost count of time PN has said give us time we will get there

[#4]

Does this mean that Plusnet aren't actually keeping any useful customer support performance stats at present?

The website should display some of the stats Plusnet already have, I wouldn't have expected Plusnet to need to ask the wider world what stats they need.

[#5]

Understand the lack of trust, however, all I can say is we're working incredibly hard in the background to rectify that & give you all the service you need. That includes platform reviews to enable that.

And no, we've absolutely got the data we require - the issue here is what is then being represented on the site. The question what should we have, it was more what would you think useful to see?

[#6]

Commercially sensitive?  You mean they don't want us to know that at times there is one lone CS person taking all the calls by himself?

Yes, dividing the number of calls waiting by the number of staff available to handle them would provide a more useful statistic, although PN can't possibly know how long each call is going to be so, to use my previous example, 50 short calls waiting for one CS person might mean a shorter wait than 50 long calls waiting for 10 CS staff.

[#7]

Maybe the 23.8 calls waiting I mentioned earlier is actually number of calls waiting per CSA?

Nearest figure being 119 calls waiting for 5 staff

[#8]

@PlusnetLiam,

if you want to be open and honest (heard that one before) then just be open and honest and publish the following information which should be directly available from the call management system in real time.

1. The number of agents available to exclusively service PlusNET calls - that is exclude those servicing the other brands more quickly.

2. The number of calls on hold awaiting a free agent.

3. The current wait time of the call at the front of the hold queue.

4. The number of calls dropped whilst awaiting answer in the last 15 minutes.

5. The average time with agent for all calls in the last hour.

If these figures look too painful, may be you could go and look at the causes to call in the first place ... May be you might introduce a ticket system for less urgent issues (oh I forgot did not you demise the ticket system?). How about making the chat system you introduced support all support request types?  Or how about putting more staff resources on the forums ... Surely by now this new forum you implemented on the premise that it would generate the stats required to support a bid for additional staf must by now be clearly illuminating the need for more staff?

Do you recall our conversation 12 months back about getting more resources here ... You said nothing doing until you get stats ... And I said that something was need before the middle of 2016 which was the earliest meaningful stats might be available from this system?

The dire lack of staff in here is a key reason I stopped contributing here.  A dire lack of staff on the phones the answer in a timely fashion is a key reason people are leaving ... Is anyone at PlusNET looking at causes, or is everyone just measuring the size of the symptoms?  Does PlusNET believe that a 30+ minute wait is actually an acceptable level of service?

Please do not say "we are working on it" or "we are getting there" - please just go fix the causes - first fix your supplier, then fix your staff capacity and training, sort your IT systems out (new billing system been talked about for 5+ years now) ... and only then think about expanding the customer base.

[#9]

Hi Kevin - good to hear from you & hope you had a lovely Christmas.

We have to be very clear on what the purpose of this page is - in my mind, it's to give customers who need to contact us the information they need to decide when they should speak to us. 

The information you're referencing is absolutely available, however, why would options 1, 4 & 5 be useful to customers? I understand wanting to know what the wait time is to get through & also how many calls are currently queuing but a little confused about the other 3.

It's nothing to do with figures being painful - if we didn't want to share this information we'd be well within our rights to pull the page - considering all other major ISPs don't share that for what I imagine is commercial reasons.

RE Chat - which contacts aren't supported by the channel? The obvious major one is payments but that's down to PCI/security reasons. No other brand accepts payments via the channel for that reason, however, we're reviewing options currently.

For resource on here, you're right - it is doing exactly that & (despite you wanting me not to say it) - we're working on it. As you'll know being a very successful man with vast experience in business that whilst you want to do everything at once, unfortunately some things have to take priority. We've had 8 months of this new platform now & can clearly articulate requirements to the business.

And you know the answer to your other points Kevin - of course we are. I'd be really keen to get you into Sheffield to meet the guys & see just how hard the teams are working. Let me know if you'd like to take us up on the offer.

[#10]

Hi Liam,

I did have a great, relaxing Christmas thank you.

First I have to say that I'm encouraged by your response, it seems quite reflective on the points raised.  In answer to your question 1, 4 & 5 help to inform the continued wait time for getting through to an agent and having the issue addressed.

1. Advises how many people are available to service the wait queue - a wait queue of 30 calls serviced by 5 agents is quite a different matter to one being serviced by 15 agents.

4. Indicates how many calls queued might terminate before being answered.

5. Indicates how long an agent is not available to answer a call.

So if there are 40 queued calls, with 10 agents available servicing only this queue, average time of a call with an agent is 10 minutes and 5 calls went unanswered in the last 15 minutes, then one might confidently hope that if a call is placed at that time, it will be answered within 30 minutes.

Math: assuming a flat average profile - each agent has to get through 4 calls before the 41st which is 40 minutes.  During that time one could expect 10 to ring off unanswered, bringing the projected wait time down to 30 minutes.

Without the other information, the time on wait of the call at the front of the queue could be an aberration - a reason for a spike in call volume could report a short on hold time, which has no bearing on how soon a call is likely to be answered.

Chat service - OK I might be a little out of touch of improvements over the last 4 months - but I recall more than just payments which (understandably) cannot be addressed by the chat service - users being advised to call.  The focus does though need to remain on eliminating the cause for contact and making contact easier.  If reference to your hint at my experience, that was focussed at "fire prevention" to negate the necessity to "fire fight" - that is the elimination of the causes of "fires".  There are a host of issues which we all know about - back when the present CEO joined, the community was asked about immediate priorities - I suggest that those priorities have remained unchanged ... how long has he been in post 3 or is it 4 years?

A visit to Sheffield - by all means, please PM me.  Would be good to meet up with Kev Scott & his other half again as well as to put faces to names of so many other helpful people I've encountered around the place.