How about a discussion of both working in and experience with customer service?

[KageSong]

So, the most satisfying job I ever had was in customer service. With the new series of Secret Shopper, I thought it would be kinda neat to have an open forum about personal experiences. The goal is twofold, 1. in just the joy of sharing experiences, and 2. maybe showing patterns in what creates positive or negative customer experiences.

 

So, I'm no longer under NDA from a lawsuit, so I can very open. My experience as a support rep was oddly very positive and very negative at the same time. I'll start with the good.

I worked for a company called Sutherland Global Services, doing outsourced billing and tech support for Xbox at the beginning of the XBone era. Not Microsoft, just Xbox.

Overall, this was a great experience. I worked from home, with a small client PC provided by the company, so I didn't have to compromise my own system.

In contrast, another company, who I quit after only an hour, wanted me to use my personal rig, and install software that would allow them to control my PC 24/7 at will, with power on LAN capabilities. ZERO PRIVACY CARED FOR.

Beyond that, and importantly as hell, Sutherland (and probably Xbox as a whole at the time) DID NOT HAVE ANY SCRIPT. This is a HUGE point for service. Scripts cause you to ignore the problem to try to steer toward expectations.

Because we were unscripted, we were able to learn by experience and grow as a team by sharing that experience.

This allowed one of my most memorable calls. An older gentleman called first thing in the morning. He had been charged for several subscription services, because his grandson's system had been stolen.

We had a "policy" that prevented us from being able to do much about amounts over $250, and if that much was refunded, it became damaging to the customer, in that the basically could never ask for any refund again (BOO).

But, being unscripted, I was able to just have a conversation with the guy all morning, while I made the decision to fight with management on his behalf, because I knew he should be refunded from fraud without being punished.

I was able to find proof of police reports, etc. to show the machine was indeed stolen to the best anyone could tell, by the time of the charges.

In the long run, the guy took lunch and I called him back later, and he was my only customer for the day. 7 and a half hours on the phone in all.

At the end of the day, I'd been able to convince management and T2 that it was a bad idea to follow the "no more refunds" policy in this case.

The gentleman, rather than being angry about the time spent on the phone, thanked me at the end of the day for the time I took to solve the problem. You can't do that when you're on a script.

 

Sadly, I did say there was a lawsuit, right? Well, this company was based in a state that allows unpaid training. I live in a state where that is very illegal. So, the company in their not so infinite wisdom told us all to train off the clock.

Because you have to follow the laws of the state in which the employee works, this lead to a 1.7 million dollar lawsuit across 14 states, and I believe the company ultimately losing their contract, because this was the second time this had happened.

 

All told the company's problem was WAY higher up than what matters for customer service, and at the middle-management level down, we were able to provide amazing customer support just by not being pushed to upsell (we could do sales as well, if the customer wanted) and not being held to "this is the only way to solve a problem" by a script.

 

Moral of my share, script's are not good, allowing reps to work with customers and have decision making power in solving a customer's problem in the way they see first as the first line and most connected is the RIGHT CHOICE.