{"id":49,"date":"2012-11-24T05:43:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-24T13:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/?p=49"},"modified":"2021-05-30T03:49:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T03:49:37","slug":"by-the-book-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/2012\/11\/24\/by-the-book-2\/","title":{"rendered":"By the Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The other day I called Asus for authorization to return my husband\u2019s laptop for repairs. Hoping not to have to speak to support, I\u2019d filled out the online request form, but I ended up having to call them anyway.<\/p>\n

The support rep asked me to confirm my name, phone number, address, and e-mail address. Each piece of data elicited the response: \u201cThank you for that information.\u201d Not \u201cThank you,\u201d or \u201cThanks.\u201d \u201cThank you for that information.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is going to be a long call, I thought.<\/p>\n

The previous warranty issue with the laptop had drawn out over months and many phone calls, so I was familiar with the protocol. Each time, no matter how many times I had already called, the support rep asked me to confirm all of my personal information and thanked me for providing each piece. When we were done, each rep gave a summary of the call and the actions taken.<\/p>\n

I understood some of this. It made sense to confirm my details the first couple times to ensure they\u2019d been entered correctly. But by about the fifth call, I couldn\u2019t take it anymore. \u201cCan we skip this?\u201d I pleaded.<\/p>\n

It also made sense to summarize the call, in case there was a misunderstanding. But the language throughout the call was so stilted and so unvarying from rep to rep that it was clear each rep adhered faithfully to his script.<\/p>\n

It seemed to me, after this latest call, that instead of reciting a script, the support rep could have easily been replaced by one.<\/p>\n

An online troubleshooter could have walked me through the steps I had to take to confirm to their satisfaction that the laptop was indeed faulty and needed repair. Even with a name and address as tricky as mine, it could have solicited and confirmed that information with nary a fumble.<\/p>\n

I would trade those Asus reps for a computer quicker than you could say \u201cThank you for that information.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not really what I want, at least not much of the time.<\/p>\n

What I really want is this: a human being with enough autonomy to go off-script.<\/p>\n

A script, whether programmed into a computer or read by a support rep, cannot care for a customer. It cannot soothe anger, crack a joke, engage in smalltalk, or skip parts of the algorithm based on what you\u2019ve already told them. Even its expressions of empathy sound insincere. The phrase \u201cI apologize for your frustration\u201d makes me more frustrated as a customer, not less.<\/p>\n

Scripts can be useful to teach new reps. But if you\u2019re not weaning reps off them and giving them the freedom to speak to customers in their own language and using their own problemsolving skills, you ought to call it customer dispatching. You\u2019ve no right to call it customer service.<\/p>\n

\n

Image used under Creative Commons license from dalbera’s Flickr feed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter: @nocontestca<\/a>
\nFollow me on Twitter: @bfwriter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I called Asus for authorization to return my husband\u2019s laptop for repairs. Hoping not to have to speak to support, I\u2019d filled out the online request form, but I ended up having to call them anyway. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[15,29],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tierneys-posts","tag-authenticity","tag-customer-service"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2098,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/2098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}