Instagram ???!!! Forget it!!!

[#1]

Hi @Townman,

I wasn't aware of any changes to our contact channel strategy so I've passed the feedback from this thread on to contact centre and social media management.

James

[#2]

@James_B 

Ooops James, did someone forget to copy you on the memo!

See Plusnet Contact | Plusnet

FWIW I am delighted to see that this forum is cited as the preferential channel for help rather than historically twitface.  This in itself is positive progress.

Who looks after the social media channels, the same team which looks after this community or some other?  If the same team, given that THIS channel is deemed the preferred contact route by the business, is this the priority space for their time?

Again if the same team, is there a (positive) practice of directing social media contacts to this community?

Social Media might be trendy, however the issue with being trendy is that trends change in a space where consistency and openness to all in facilitating contact is essential.  Reinstating the ticket system has the merit of allowing users to raise issues in the context of their account ... and have those issues routed direct to those who can best address them.  That could remove a significant volume of triage activity and take a lot of work off front line staff where back room effort is required.

[#3]

@Townman 

Yes, it's great to see the community as a preferential channel - it's testament to the great work of the membership.

There is already an open ticket to remove the Instagram mention and it should be updated before the end of the month. Thanks to @Linzi_H for flagging it a few week's back

In regards to Social Media staffing, it's the same team but different people. The Community Support Team work solely in the forums.

James

[#4]

@paul1958 

So Instagram is NOT an intended contact channel.  This place and the telephone remain.  Ask a question in the right place here and there is a fair chance that a member of the community might be able to give you the help you need before the staff get a chance to touch it!!

[#5]

@James_B 

So, Instagram is not the intended channel for contacting plusnet for questions.

This is all very well,  considering the community is an open public forum, there should be a secure and private method for contacting plusnet for questions, not everyone has time to phone in or even want to post on a forum.

[#6]

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@jab1 wrote:

As far as I know, the complaints link is still functional, but IMO, should be reserved for genuine complaints. 

---

I can only reference the first sentence of post #1 of this topic.

[#7]

@Dan_the_Van 

What channel(s) would you suggest?

The ideal is restitution of the ticketing system, but somehow I think that elephant is too big to swallow, eating umble pie and cold mash would be more palatable.

Social Media is certainly not secure and private, some would argue that neither is email.

Whatever is offered, someone is going to complain that its not good enough / suitable for them...

• I do not have time wait on the phone (aka I have a problem, I need help, but my time is more valuable to 'me' than the value of the resolution to 'me')
• I cannot hear
• I do not like using the phone
• I am not very good at typing
• I get confused by technology
• ...

There is a balance and trade off between wanting real time responses and waiting for them verses being happy with asynchronous responses ... whenever they arrive (if at all).

Generally this space works well for synchronous responses - what needs to be done privately gets moved to PMs.  Though I think far too much gets moved to PMs with no explanations or resolutions being shared and thereby the community does not acquire re-usable knowledge on the characteristic of issues.

What I think is well agreed is that SOCIAL media is not the place to conduct BUSINESS matters.

[#8]

@Townman 

A Direct or Private Message (DM / PM) on social media platform is private, anyone who asks a question otherwise is asking for trouble.

I have used WhatsApp based chat in the past to contact a business, I found the process very useable.

It could be said that the plusnet community forum itself is a form of social media.

[#9]

... I guess it is given that one does not now have to be a customer to access it.  But an account here is usually connected to a user account by inference - the same cannot be said of big public media.

You cannot please all of the people all of the time comes to mind here.  For me the only right solution is to use a CRM linked ticket system that address all of the privacy and security issues, negating the PM / DM inter change of "tell me who you are...".

[#10]

Excuse me me for butting in, but the only time I see the need for a ticket/private message need is where the query relates to an account-specific (financial) query, which is already covered? As you say, @Townman , unfortunately, the way the customer support system is currently configured, with the support team not having direct access to customers details, means that as soon as they say 'please PM me your details', the discussion online is lost, so those of us who could help are immediately  out of the loop, and we never learn of the outcome and potentially learn anything, or even know if the query is resolved.

[#11]

@jab1  You've hit the nail on the head there. I agree that as soon as support issue the 'please PM me your details'  the entire flow of the thread is lost, probably never to be recovered and the outcome unknown. 

Bring back the ticketing system, it won't happen but pigs might fly! 😀

[#12]

@RealAleMadrid I suspect a part of the management thinking that led to the 'reorganisation' was based on the 'lets hide the issues' idea - I could be wrong but it follows from the 'procedures' on the BT Broadband support forums, which is what these boards are being pushed towards. 

[#13]

We are wandering off topic.

The ticketing system was abandoned when the SLA could not be met.

Oh dear we’ve a measurable backlog of issues, the size of which impacts my performance bonuses.  If the backlog were not so easy to see, I’d not be at risk of losing my bonus.  Hmmm a quick route to that is to close the ticket system - problem solved.

However the new problem is you’ve no meaningful measures on what breaks frequently and gives rise to the need to contact support.  Consequently you’ve no pointers to what to do to reduce the demands on support … and you end up with the equivalent of a thermonuclear melt down.

If one wants a high quality service which does not cost the earth you need to classify and count failure and focus on the hot spots.  That needs a proper incident management system.  If you don’t do that you end up delivering mediocre service at a high cost…