“What good is a phone call if you are unable to speak?”
Today’s email is part 4 of the 80/20 Service series Things Problem Customers Say. Find the whole series here.
Some companies seem to take a perverse pleasure in making people call them on the phone.
Why else would the phone ring half a time and then play a loud beeping noise right in someone’s ear? Why else would the record voice include the sound of typing while it “pretends” to “look that up”?
Even worse, some customers seem to take an even more perverse pleasure in CALLING businesses on the phone.
They ask the NPC how it’s day is going. Chat about the weather. And eventually get to the (usually VERY simple) thing they called about.
Others take the opposite approach. They love to call, get angry, and scream and yell until they get their way.
This usually comes in the form of a steep discount, or something for free.
Then, for good measure, they demand the script reading NPC be fired anyways.
This is why smart businesses (like the ones I work with) are moving away from phone support as fast as humanly possible.
If you’re just starting out, I don’t recommend ever even setting it up unless you deal with a lot of elderly people.
Email, and if necessary, live chat, are much better and more respectful options.
But some customers will still DEMAND to talk to someone on the phone.
Just to chat, to scream and yell and take out rage, or sometimes, to demand someone walk them through something simple, step by step (see email 3 in this series.)
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, phone support was a necessity.
Not anymore. Times have changed, and a few problem customers are still stuck in the past.
Is that who you want to spend your time talking to on the phone?
— Mark
