Feedback on Telephone Support - 1 hour wait

[#1]

Quote from: MisterW

Quote We have a number of people (30-60 I think) ready to commence their training once the building is fully open who will be ready to take calls about 3-4 weeks later. Surely it's going to take a LOT more than that to get the ticket response times back to 4hrs ?

Not necessarily, the mathematics of queues are really very interesting and a small change in the number of "servers" (either way) can make a massive difference in wait times.

[#2]

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We have a number of people (30-60 I think) ready to commence their training once the building is fully open who will be ready to take calls about 3-4 weeks later.

why do you have to wait until the new building is open?  surely training can be done anywhere.....
When I joined the post office as a sub-post master, I was not allowed into the "office" until I had completed my training, which was done in two weeks.... I was then allowed to serve customers under supervision for the next 2 weeks and then I was on my own, with telephone backup/assistance if needed.  (whilst I was training, a stand-by person was running my sub-post office to ensure that customers were not kept waiting for me to finish my training ).....
surely, the 30-60 ( very precise numbers) should have already received training, in readiness for the new building to be opened.... which in retrospect, is actually going to be open for three to four weeks .... (or more)..... doing nothing to help bring down the waiting times in that period.... due to lack of trained staff...
Umm... management will of course say, we are doing everything we can to get it working "as soon as possible", ... ignoring the fact that the building is .... doing nothing ..... to qualify that " as soon as possible"... during the "three to four weeks" these new staff are under training...
at the end of the "three to four weeks" there will still be a period when these new staff will take longer than experienced staff to deal with each phone call, thus , making the queue longer.... ...of course those customers will be quite happy(?) to wait on a phone, with no idea how many people are in the queue before them, because they have nothing better to do all day, than phone up plusnet ... being in fear of putting the phone down..... just in case... they might have been answered as soon as they did that... so they will "hang on".. more in fear, than in hope.....

[#3]

Congratulations to all at Plusnet for getting to grips with your shortage of staff. I'm like the vast majority of PN customers who never have any need to call customer support because our telephone & internet work perfectly 24/7. 

[#4]

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Not necessarily, the mathematics of queues are really very interesting

Yes, I guessed the math wasn't quite that simple :).

[#5]

Are all these new staff going to be employed to resolve problems AFTER customers discover they have an issue ?
Would it not be better to employ more engineers and development staff to eliminate problems BEFORE they happen, and to automate more processes so that customers can interact with Plusnet through the members portal so that customers DON'T have to phone in for trivial issues.
Employing more call centre staff is like admitting defeat, and is simply using more people to bail out water from a sinking ship.
Why not employ a few more experts to patch up the hole in the ship, rather then just allowing the underlying problems persist.
Do Plusnet ever analyze what issues repeatedly need resolving, and actually do anything about fixing the root causes of complaints ?.
If you must take on more people, then in the short term, why not change from the current situation of not being able to get anything technical done outside office hours, to having weekend working and night shift staff, to extend the number of hours that staff are available to answer tickets and respond to phone calls, and get the current backlog down to zero ?.

[#6]

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Would it not be better to employ more engineers and development staff to eliminate problems BEFORE they happen, and to automate more processes so that customers can interact with Plusnet through the members portal so that customers DON'T have to phone in for trivial issues.

We're doing this too. http://careers.plus.net/opportunities/
We (and my team do this) do do RCA on Complaints and identify a number of repeated drivers.  A number of these will be included in the Provisioning and Billing systems project I mentioned earlier.

[#7]

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Do Plusnet ever analyze what issues repeatedly need resolving, and actually do anything about fixing the root causes of complaints ?

Yep, and one of the projects ongoing at the moment is to improve the initial provisioning and order process. We're also looking at the complete end-to-end communications we send to customers to improve that too, along with changes on how we handle faults on the first and subsequent contacts.

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Are all these new staff going to be employed to resolve problems AFTER customers discover they have an issue ?

As you can imagine quite a large amount of the workload is faults, be that on the main network or more localised. We can try to monitor where we believe a customer has a fault, but it makes more sense for customers to contact us rather than us trying to figure out whether someone is just turning their router on and off.

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If you must take on more people, then in the short term, why not change from the current situation of not being able to get anything technical done outside office hours, to having weekend working and night shift staff, to extend the number of hours that staff are available to answer tickets and respond to phone calls, and get the current backlog down to zero ?.

We have staff working 24/7 and answering the phones/replying to tickets during this time too. The majority of tickets can be worked during this period, so it's only those where it needs more specialised people that have to wait.

[#8]

You guys need to bear in mind we've been recruiting heavily for our support teams since.. well.. 2-3 years, probably longer?  We have to do this constantly to cover normal attrition (a lot of support staff tend to use it as stepping stone positions to other jobs, or are students).  Staffing levels which can be fine for normal levels can become overwhelmed by MBORC situations (where our suppliers don't have enough resources themselves to handle demand because of major events) which then leave large backlogs.  I'm not excusing the performance though.  Long waits != good service.
Re training, most of the training is actually done on the calls/phones/tickets, so there is very little we can do without actually having the space and connectivity to our systems and phone system.

[#9]

@ Kelly...
1... You guys.... are customers...... customers demand service .... which you guys (PlusNet) seem to fudge away with trite responses such as yours... Customers are not interested in how many people you have been recruiting heavily for 2-3 years... they don`t want to wait for them to be trained, and they don`t want to wait on the phones.  they want service NOW... saying you are still recruiting indicates that your estimates for numbers of staff/customer calls ratio is just not up to standard.... neither is your working conditions, which is the main reason people move on to other jobs.... so , staffing levels needs a brand new pair of eyes, and a brain that can see into the future (?) (sic) with enough vision to design a phone system that can cope with "unusual levels" as well as the "normal day to day" levels of phone calls. ...
The original OP stated he waited for 1 hour to speak to someone..... would you wait that long? only because of the "fear factor" of missing your chance to get heard because, it can be guaranteed, that the second you put the phone down, it was your turn next.... call that customer service? come on..... get real.
2.  training.... as mentioned in my recent post.... ( and I am sure this goes for many businesses).. it IS possible to do training ... in the classroom... even if it is a "simulation"... ( imagine you going to the airport and being told .... you are  on a training flight today, so things might not go as well as expected )... to simulate phone calls, it would only need a "patch" to a desk from the LIVE calls, and the trainee can be supervised and instructed accordingly... ( you say there is very little you can do without  actually having the space and connectivity....... as though it is impossible to do that... and tuff luck, but that`s my answer .... my response to that is.... here is a basic requirement in need, and you are not going to do anything about it.... )  shame on you... 
@ Chris... your response has the ring of the old proverbial ..... give them some hint that something is "ongoing"....  and that will keep them happy.... well, again... this story has been "ongoing" since 2009 and probably before that.... and you still come out with the same stuff ( albeit in different formats)....
One question Chris..... WHY?  Why isn`t  PlusNet customer service 2nd to none?  Answer.... because we still "trying to get there".... "give us time" .... it is an "ongoing" project.... .... by now, the project should be finished, and you should be proud to proclaim that it is "Second to None"... instead, you should hang your heads, while you consider the PlusNet motto...... "We`ll Do You Proud"..
Purleigh has the right idea too.... solve the problems, and the customer service/experience will improve by itself.... which, I believe, was another point I made in my post... " employ more staff........"

[#10]

Quote from: Chris

As you can imagine quite a large amount of the workload is faults, be that on the main network or more localised. We can try to monitor where we believe a customer has a fault, but it makes more sense for customers to contact us rather than us trying to figure out whether someone is just turning their router on and off.

Quote from: Chris

We have staff working 24/7 and answering the phones/replying to tickets during this time too. The majority of tickets can be worked during this period, so it's only those where it needs more specialised people that have to wait.

Isn't this contradiction highlighting the real problem ?
Customer faults is "a large amount of the workload"  and requires "specialised people" to resolve the technical problems, yet those staff only work office hours, and therefore fault resolution is being delayed due to working practices.
It also raises the question of why does it often take SO MANY days (or sometimes more than a week) to get a reply to even the simplest non-fault tickets, if there are staff working 24/7 and the majority of tickets can be addressed outside office hours.
Just how many staff work overnight ?, there has been several occasions when I have needed to phone in (for example to make a card payment, or to point out that something is not right).  I will have checked the Customer Support Stats to see that there is one person waiting in the queue and call answer times are less than three minutes - therefore theoretically I should only need to be on hold for about three minutes (on average), but no it still takes 30 to 60 minutes before the calls are answered.  Is there only one member of staff answering the phone, and I always manage to call when they are on a tea break, or are the call centre stats wrong ?

[#11]

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I will have checked the Customer Support Stats to see that there is one person waiting in the queue and call answer times are less than three minutes - therefore theoretically I should only need to be on hold for about three minutes (on average), but no it still takes 30 to 60 minutes before the calls are answered.  Is there only one member of staff answering the phone, and I always manage to call when they are on a tea break, or are the call centre stats wrong ?

No,... the reason you are being kept on hold, is because of "the system"... of "hunt groups"... i.e... you are not in a queue.. ( as you are led to believe )... but you are in "group" of similar calls, and there is NO WAY that plusnet is going to let you know that you are being shuffled about, and end up at the back of the queue.... hence their "Customer Support Stats"... showing 3 minutes, ... to lull you, and mislead you into thinking you will only have to wait 3 minutes.....
Again... this was one of my points in the original post  " Employ more staff........"... where I had been watching the stats whilst I was hanging on the phone listening to stupid adverts to go on line when I couldn`t get on line, ... which showed a similar pattern....  ( 4 years on , and it is still the same story ).... ( but never mind... we`ll get there..... just give us time ".).
In my original post  " Employ more staff.........."  I repeatedly suggested to get a proper queuing system installed, and the stock response from Chris and others was that it just could not be done... well, so far.... they haven`t lied about that.... it hasn`t been done...  however... it does not mean, that with a bit more conviction, and responsibility for their job title....PlusNet Digital Care Lead....  . perhaps they will eventually live up to the description...  the only truth in that title is "Plusnet Digital"... certainly does not seem to Care.. or Lead.... ....

[#12]

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In my original post  " Employ more staff.........."  I repeatedly suggested to get a proper queuing system installed, and the stock response from Chris and others was that it just could not be done... well, so far.... they haven`t lied about that.... it hasn`t been done...  however... it does not mean, that with a bit more conviction, and responsibility for their job title....PlusNet Digital Care Lead....  . perhaps they will eventually live up to the description...  the only truth in that title is "Plusnet Digital"... certainly does not seem to Care.. or Lead.... ....

Really? I *do* care, if I didn't then I wouldn't be replying and certainly wouldn't have continued to *want* to work in a customer facing role. I am passionate about getting Plusnet where we and you want us to be, but I'm also realistic about it. From the sound of it the phone system you want is a free-for-all, where anyone who dials will just reach the next available person, regardless of whether they are the right person to answer the query, that's just going to hugely increase call handling time and therefore call wait time whilst calls are transferred around the business. I'm not saying the current system is perfect, far from it, I'm just trying to get you to understand why it is how it is. Unfortunately after 3/4 years of talking to you about this it's obvious to me that's not going to happen.
I'm sorry if you feel that I've let you down, or I don't care, but I don't install phone systems, I don't recruit staff for the support centre. What I do is make sure that the people that do those things are aware of these conversations and try to include as much customer feedback as we can in decisions we make.

[#13]

At least Plusnet have realised that they don't have the resources to support the number of customers at the moment and that the biggest issue is provisioning new accounts. That's why they've stopped offering headline grabbing £2.99 deals and cut back on the TV advertising. After all they wouldn't want to risk getting a bad reputation so that it's harder to gain new customers when Leeds is up and running and the system issues such as provisioning and accounts are fixed!

[#14]

Quote from: Chris

We can try to monitor where we believe a customer has a fault, but it makes more sense for customers to contact us rather than us trying to figure out whether someone is just turning their router on and off.

So does PN actually monitor and take any proactive action in respect of loss of session?  There is a marked difference between someone turning their router on and off a few times and sustained clusters of connection drops as seen on faulty lines.
Why cannot PN support staff initiate line fault tests rather than passing the problem back to the user who has the problematic line?  With a bit of smart engineering, automatic analysis of session disconnect counts within a 24 hour period above a threshold could automatically initiate line fault tests.
Has the profile update issue been resolved?  If not how about introducing an automated audit process which checks for mismatches between the PN and BT profiles?  This could be restricted to profiles which have not changed for say 21 days.

None of this is rocket science - problems need to be carefully classified on closure.  Tell tail markers need to be identified and then the means of looking for those markers needs to be automated and action taken where found.  That way PN might detect issues before the customer thereby reduce the volume of reactive support calls and deliver preemptive customer care.
Been there, got the Tee shirt, contributed to saving £ms in IT support costs - it can be done, it must be done to survive!  It requires investment in more organ grinders rather than in monkeys.
Given that BTOR engineer no show is such a frequently occurring issue in the forum, why not explore setting up a dedicated team to deal with this and have a separate choice for this on the phone line / support ticket journey?
PN needs more Chris's, Kelly's, Matt's, Kevin's Bob's and Jojo's - I note that the latter two have not been seen around here that much of recent times.

Cheers,
Kevin

[#15]

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. From the sound of it the phone system you want is a free-for-all, where anyone who dials will just reach the next available person, regardless of whether they are the right person to answer the query

NO!... that is not what I have been advocating.... your response shows you have not been reading my postings properly... I am advocating a "queueing system"... which is not a "free-for-all" to the next available person... You insist that you must have "hunt groups"  i.e press 1 for a long wait, 2 for "i want my mac" 3 for I really like listening to silly adverts .... ( just my sense of humour - but you get the idea )... and then you are put in the queue for that particular problem.  
We all accept that we have to " go through the hoops" pressing 1 5 then 9 ... but that is where the problems of waiting start,...( and the "fear factor" comes in)....  and that is where you could do something about it... Smaller companies than PlusNet with just as many departments can do it.... why can`t PlusNet?  
If you go to an airport... you will be presented with several customer service desks under the airline banners... as you approach, you are in a "hunt group" situation... so you pick your airline,... then you look for the shortest queue... Or... if only one queue is available,.you then look ahead and ( probably ) count how many people are in front of you.... and you find out " Your Turn Is Number 28 " or whatever... at that point. you relax, somewhat, knowing that eventually your number will reduce as the queue is reducing.and your turn becomes more apparent...
THAT is the type of system that SHOULD NOW BE IN PLACE on the PlusNet phones.... In the description above, and in all my previous postings, I have never, ever, suggested or intimated a "Free-for-all" phone system... I have always advocated the queuing system...  Even after quoting my post, I cannot understand how, you could even suggest I wanted a "Free-for-all" system...
You may not install phone systems... but with your passion to improve PlusNet I am surprised that you have not been passionate enough to advise those in "the right place",... that queuing system is a way forward, instead of giving up and saying... " Unfortunately after 3/4 years of talking to you about this it's obvious to me that's not going to happen."...... that is a "let down"... not only for me, but for yourself, and the rest of the PlusNet "customer SERVICE staff"... not to mention the customers, who pay your wages....