Customer Service

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by 67 Convertible

You know what? If they hate their job or the people they're dealing with THAT much, they should consider a carreer change. And if no information is available, or they can't give it to you, why the heck are they there answering the phone anyways?? I understand your point, and they should not be verbally abused, but if they really dislike the job that much, they should get training and work in some other field.

Now is the perfect time for career change. No one is hiring and the markets are bad. I wonder if people who hate their jobs had ever thought about getting a new one.

Not everyone loves their job. Just ask your garbage man.

If someone is hiring, then someone will take the job. Someone needs the job to pay for that mortgage rate that just went up or the ever-increasing property tax in their area. Maybe they need it because their kids need food, their spouse can't work, their insurance company won't cover their medical expenses, or they don't like soap operas enough to stay home all day watching them. There are lots of reasons why people go to work, including to places they hate.

Moreover, most people in telemarketing and customer service industries don't intend to make a career of it. They do it because that's all they can find. How do I know? I graduated from a top 100 university and can't find employment in my field. I'm stuck with telemarketing, sales, or customer service positions, working for bosses without any education and at a pay rate that is insufficient for my basic needs.

Ultimately, they took the job of customer service agent, and now people yell at them while they live paycheck to paycheck and work miserable hours in some cases just to make their bills. It's a crappy job to say the least. Their job is to smile in the face of bitching. When that last outrageous customer finally cusses a final word and hangs up, they get only moments of relief before you call to say that your life sucks and they are accountable. This happens between 80 and 800 times a day depending on the company for which they work.

Lastly, I want to address why GM even has it if they can't really help you. In the long run, the complaints filed do end up resulting in changes to corporate policy to make you happier. Enough calls saying that something is wrong may result in a fix, but it takes time. Many of us are barely patient enough to wait an extra month for our cars, so I would be surprised to find anyone patient enough to notice these changes in the long haul, but they are happening. GM is a great company, and it is doing the best it can. Don't take out your frustration with your dealer on someone who has no control. Yell at your dealer. They may deserve it. They can make quick, abrupt changes. Big multinational corporations cannot, and neither can the poor agent that picked up your call.

Originally Posted by MrIcky

OK, through this point 100% agree. However I would add that any organization that would fire you for not finishing the script when a customer is making that difficult or impossible is clearly more concerned with things other than customer service. It is never ok to berate or belittle a person in this position.





This part is where I have issues. Of course, you need to be prepared to give things like your vin so they can research issues. However in an age of rfid and upc codes, there is no reason that GM cannot provide an answer to any question within 24 hours. The script needs to be shorter if getting through it is a problem. And no, a customer's issue isn't the only thing in the service rep's life, but a good service rep knows how to pretend like it is for the next 10 minutes. If the rep can't find out, they need a CLEAR hierarchy and timeline to answer issues in a reasonable time frame. They then need support personnel who can pick up a phone and call the right person and find out what an issue is and call you back.

999 times out of 1000, Fed Ex can tell me where a $25 lightbulb is within seconds. GM has had issues lately finding out where $33,000 cars are.

In summary, no you can't yell or bully some poor rep- but you can sure as hell yell about GM not providing those reps good tools. And yes, I've worked customer service before. My experience is you can tell a customer just about anything except 'I don't know and I don't know how to find out' .

In order to respond to the first part of your post, I have to point out that every company that has a script requires you to follow it in order to make sure that people are doing their jobs. If there is no measure of quality control that can be quickly put on paper, then there is no way to effectively make sure that the pawns at the bottom are doing their jobs well. Without a script, there is no way to rate agents. Without rating agents, you end up with really bad customer disservice. You might think that customer service sucks now. Imagine customer service agents who cuss back. There are some very angry people doing that job, and you really don't what to hear their opinion of their callers after 8 hours of abuse.

The second part of your post makes perfect sense. I wasn't trying to say how it should be in my first post. That's how it is. Someday, it might change based on the company and their clientele, but customer service is a messy chain of command. Allow me to attempt to draw it in the forum.

On top, there is the upper hierarchy of management of any given company. They set priorities, design products, and make things happen.

Beneath that, there are division heads. These are all parallel, so they don't interact much. Here is where the problem lies. Customer service is separate from any particular portion of the company. Even if Chevrolet had its own customer service line, the guy who oversaw your car being built does not work for customer service. He works for the plant. The agent that takes your call can't transfer you to talk to this guy because the agent doesn't have your number and the guy at the plant is paid to oversee the plant, not talk to you. Different responsibilities are organized into these divisions, so the guy at the plant and the agent receiving your call will never be working together.

At the bottom are the workers. These guys work in teams and cooperate among one division. They don't communicate with other divisions at all.

As you can see, there is no way to organize the structure in order to make the process more efficient. The best way for efficient business is for everyone to do the job they were hired to do. If they talk to you when they should be making cars, the process goes slower. Instead of waiting 3 months for you Camaro, you'd wait a year. It would suck, you'd buy Japanese, and all we'd have for manufacturing in American is Boeing. We don't want that.

[MrIcky]

Originally Posted by The_Blur

In order to respond to the first part of your post, I have to point out that every company that has a script requires you to follow it in order to make sure that people are doing their jobs. If there is no measure of quality control that can be quickly put on paper, then there is no way to effectively make sure that the pawns at the bottom are doing their jobs well. Without a script, there is no way to rate agents. Without rating agents, you end up with really bad customer disservice. You might think that customer service sucks now. Imagine customer service agents who cuss back. There are some very angry people doing that job, and you really don't what to hear their opinion of their callers after 8 hours of abuse.

The second part of your post makes perfect sense. I wasn't trying to say how it should be in my first post. That's how it is. Someday, it might change based on the company and their clientele, but customer service is a messy chain of command. Allow me to attempt to draw it in the forum.

On top, there is the upper hierarchy of management of any given company. They set priorities, design products, and make things happen.

Beneath that, there are division heads. These are all parallel, so they don't interact much. Here is where the problem lies. Customer service is separate from any particular portion of the company. Even if Chevrolet had its own customer service line, the guy who oversaw your car being built does not work for customer service. He works for the plant. The agent that takes your call can't transfer you to talk to this guy because the agent doesn't have your number and the guy at the plant is paid to oversee the plant, not talk to you. Different responsibilities are organized into these divisions, so the guy at the plant and the agent receiving your call will never be working together.

At the bottom are the workers. These guys work in teams and cooperate among one division. They don't communicate with other divisions at all.

As you can see, there is no way to organize the structure in order to make the process more efficient. The best way for efficient business is for everyone to do the job they were hired to do. If they talk to you when they should be making cars, the process goes slower. Instead of waiting 3 months for you Camaro, you'd wait a year. It would suck, you'd buy Japanese, and all we'd have for manufacturing in American is Boeing. We don't want that.

Well again, let me say that I've worked customer service. I actually got promoted through the ranks of customer service a long time ago up to management. I know all about how you evaluate customer service, and on call time, and scripts, etc. All calls are recorded and timed. You start your script but if the customer shuts you down, then so be it.

I STRONGLY disagree with your last paragraph. There are lots of ways to organize for better information to customers, including realtime.

A possible scenario: every vehicle gets an RFID tag at the moment the vin is assigned. Every step in the process has an automated RFID reader that records it. If a vehicle is pulled off the line for QC, it's RFID is tagged QC and what the issue is and where it's located. The RFID tag can be monitored anywhere on premises so if it's moved it can be located again. It also logs when it's put on a truck and which truck it's on. Similar to the information available now but more detailed and real-time.

With today's technology you can enhance that so the computer system takes a snapshot at each RFID station. People get to watch their car in process.

When you have a preorder vin, you can track it anywhere in this process. This isn't even new technology or horribly expensive. This would mean that you'd have fewer calls to customer service because it's more detailed then the current system and available online. Calls that get through to customer service can point people to the tracking site. It would basically leave you with only cars that get pulled for QC as being difficult to handle. If you put in QC codes for cars that get pulled, customers would even know why-eliminating that first worried call.

You then hire a couple people at the plant to take these higher level questions. They know right where a car is so they can go to that car and ask the tech working on it what's wrong. They then respond to the customer service call with minimal interruption.

But once a car gets pulled now, it seems to sit there for months with no positive interaction with the customer. The car gets "black holed". That's not acceptable anywhere.


edit:
"Beneath that, there are division heads. These are all parallel, so they don't interact much. Here is where the problem lies. Customer service is separate from any particular portion of the company. Even if Chevrolet had its own customer service line, the guy who oversaw your car being built does not work for customer service. He works for the plant. The agent that takes your call can't transfer you to talk to this guy because the agent doesn't have your number and the guy at the plant is paid to oversee the plant, not talk to you. Different responsibilities are organized into these divisions, so the guy at the plant and the agent receiving your call will never be working together".

and

"As you can see, there is no way to organize the structure in order to make the process more efficient."

Are mutually exclusive. You are saying things are poorly organized and the vertical organizations can't work together. Yet they can't be organized better. Companies are developing better ways of organizing every single day and I guarantee there are systems out there that can make GM better at CS without hurting manufacturing. And EVERYONE works in customer service, nothing will make the fragile rebirth of GM fall apart faster then some wanker thinking customer service is someone else's job.

[PQ]

CSR is something that I would NEVER do. Holy crap. Do you know the kinds of people there are out there that think they are somehow entitled to more than they really are? (Not talking about any group in particular)

Give them an inch and they take a mile. I have no patience for some people. So you see, I would be worse than ANYONE you guys have talked to at GM.

[geraldbutler]

Originally Posted by Ranger 75

I called the customer service line to ask a question about a techinical issue yesterday. The guys answer to my question was I don't know I have never seen a SS Camaro. I have called several time and everytime I get a person with a Indian accent. Is this operation located in India or Pakistan?

Most of the company have outsourced their customer support in SE Asia. India is the biggest hub for the call centers. Sometime the executives are not updated on the service they are to give advice on, as a reason they blunder. Sometimes they fail to understand the accent and they just shoot a rubbish reply.

[Brokinarrow]

How on Earth did you even find this thread to necro it?!??