Customer SERVICE Consultants - OMG !!!!

[legroom]

Friends

I had the occasion to call up Citibank today to make some enquiries about my CC.

As part of the ID process, DoB was requested which I replied in the format of dd/mm/yy (e.g. 12 Aug 55*).

I was then asked to repeat this as it is not clear and as such would not pass their security screening requirements.

Flabbergasted, I then asked if it were possible for someone born in 1855 to have a current CC to which they replied "we need your date of birth with the full year, please".

Just musing here on the competency of some of the CSAs we have to put up with from banks, telcos and (God forbid) someone like QFF's Erica.

Why is it that people could not have a modicum of common sense working in positions of public contact ?

CSAs who insisted that JASA could only be booked online !

CSAs who asked for the restaurant name when you nominated the last spending item (in $$ terms) on your CC to verify your ID !

Rant over ....... :evil:



*: not my real DoB

 

[TonyHancock]

The problem these days is that customer service, via telephone, resides in The Philippines in so many cases. Citibank, Telstra and American Express Plat Charge Card are three that I come across regularly.

Nothing wrong with that, in fact I feel genuinely sorry for some of the reps I speak to. They appear to be given absolutely no freedom outside of written rules that they have to follow. The lack of empowerment leads to a frustrating experiences for both parties in less simple cases.

Interestingly I feared for the worse when my Amex Plat Charge enquiries finished up outside of Australia, but have been very pleasantly surprised.

As an aside I try to spare a thought for the operators based overseas who in many cases are significantly smarter than me and do a job with both hands tied behind their backs. :-|

 

[defurax]

Friends

I had the occasion to call up Citibank today to make some enquiries about my CC.

As part of the ID process, DoB was requested which I replied in the format of dd/mm/yy (e.g. 12 Aug 55*).

I was then asked to repeat this as it is not clear and as such would not pass their security screening requirements.

Flabbergasted, I then asked if it were possible for someone born in 1855 to have a current CC to which they replied "we need your date of birth with the full year, please".

Just musing here on the competency of some of the CSAs we have to put up with from banks, telcos and (God forbid) someone like QFF's Erica.

Why is it that people could not have a modicum of common sense working in positions of public contact ?

CSAs who insisted that JASA could only be booked online !

CSAs who asked for the restaurant name when you nominated the last spending item (in $$ terms) on your CC to verify your ID !

Rant over ....... :evil:



*: not my real DoB

When stating by DoB I also mention A.D to avoid any confusion :mrgreen:

 

[TomVexille]

Also in many cases I think they are just following a script and aren't empowered/motivated to actually provide "service"

 

[Himeno]

I think most of the problem is that customer service reps often don't read/listen to the problem. They only hear/see what they think the problem is and act on that - normally answering a question that wasn't asked.

The amount of times I see something from customer service along the lines of "please look at x" when they were asked something like "x is confusing" is insane. Why do they keep directing people back to the thing that is creating the problem? >_<

 

[Sprucegoose]

Friends





*: not my real DoB

Ok so how many years did you take off it???

 

[Sprucegoose]

.

As an aside I try to spare a thought for the operators based overseas who in many cases are significantly smarter than me and do a job with both hands tied behind their backs. :-|

Tony you have ambushed me with your modesty. An Easter special

We all know the difference between ourselves and many others is opportunity. It certainly is in my case

 

[Quickstatus]

Thats why Qantas 131313 is really good. Aussie staff who are in in the main knowledgeable about the qantas product and not just following a script.

Its interesting how overseas call centre staff give a passable Aussie accent and within one sentence it deteriorates back to their own accent.

 

[legroom]

We all know the difference between ourselves and many others is opportunity.

I understand what you and Hancock were saying ... restrictive work practices etc....

I'm sure the script would have called for DoB in the format of DD / MM / YYYY.

Even so, there is nothing to stop the operator to enter YYYY after I advised him of 'YY'.

Or is there ???

I agree that the QF call centre is, on the whole, staffed with a far better qualified CSAs than these outsourced ones.

 

[kyle]

I've never had any major issues with Citibank. Touch wood.

And with most call centres, I've always stated my DOB as ordinal number/month/full year.

 

[Melburnian1]

Some of the worst call centre experiences I have had involve Australian staff in Australian based call centres.

In contrast, when allowed to sensibly deviate from a prepared script, Filipino call centre staff can be terrific. On two occasions recently, I used VA points for SQ flights, and was ably assisted by two Filipino call centre staff on seperate calls. Their English comprehension and vocabulary was terrific: better than many 'bogans' in Oz.

Unfortunately Indian-based call centres are way behind. The staff do not listen well to the customer's needs.

Many of these Filipino staff would be able to get jobs elsewhere, but they haven't always had the opportunity in life to do that (although their economy is very fast growing, but this needs to continue for many more years.)

Those of us in Australia who have had opportunity (or who in the case of TonyHancock have had their natural intelligence further boosted by generous spreading of Lurpak butter on their toast and sandwiches) are truly blessed, something we should all at least briefly thnk about on this very special day, Easter Sunday.

 

[drron]

Another who has been happy with Filipino staff.Once when booking the dear departed OW Explorer Aaward with AA I got the Phillipines call centre.The woman told me it was her first day on the job.This meant she hadn't learnt all the tricks that some other Aagents use to block you.It was because of her that we got to fly via AMM on RJ as I had wanted to go via HEL.It turned out to be a triple blessing as we enjoyed Jordan and Malev had gone belly up by the time we flew-you had to go HEL-BUD-IST with the last leg on MA.The real benefit was that going via AMM actually used less miles.
We both learnt a lot that day.

 

[JohnK]

Most consultants follow a script and some scripts have to be read word for word. Some think they know the script backwards and have gone ahead a few screens before finishing reading the script.

SQA reviews can identify potential issues.

It is a shame wages are so high in Australia because Indian and Philippines call centres dont even come close. They have hung up on me on more than occasion when the issue looks too complex for them.

 

[Sprucegoose]

They have hung up on me on more than occasion when the issue looks too complex for them.

are you sure John it wasn't just a problem with the line?

 

[Tortuga]

Please don't get me started on customer service reps... To be fair Citibank seem to have improved a bit since last year when I was close to smashing my head through a wall. The latest great idea is HSBC sending me the new security token only 1 week before my old one expired. Didn't take into account the fact I live overseas, now I can't access my bank account because the old token has expired and have to wait until I receive their new token before getting access again. When asked why they didn't send out the token earlier he had no answer but promised to pass on my valuable feedback to their team.

 

[JohnK]

are you sure John it wasn't just a problem with the line?

I get the feeling with some consultants they are not interested in dealing with complexity.

Vodafone was hopeless. Amex was ordinary and I have been transferred back to Australian call centre for resolution. Citibank was not much better although they are improving.

I could be wrong.

 

[Quickstatus]

I get the feeling with some consultants they are not interested in dealing with complexity.

Vodafone was hopeless. Amex was ordinary and I have been transferred back to Australian call centre for resolution. Citibank was not much better although they are improving.

I could be wrong.

I would call them Vodafail.

Citibank is good, I actually appreciate their fraud prevention strategies

Amex is similar to citibank.

Telstra is particularly bad , but I find the Telstra livechat helpful. Telstra's problem is that their business is so complex. I have a business account, however try ringing them up and they invariably cannot find my account because its a 'legacy business account". Unless you use the word "legacy" they cant find it. The worst thing about telstra is that they cannot deliver. I ordered a mobile wifi broadband device - I got delivered a usb broadband device - not once but twice. I order a simple phone line installed they cant do it without me ringing up to see why its late. Telstra also transfers you from person to person which i hate as you have to repeat your query. So now I dont talk to telstra, I only do the live chat because I can keep a record of chat.

The best is still Qantas. VA is a close second in terms of phone service

Westpac is excellent.


I give a thumbs up if:

I can understand the person on the other end
They speak up - some are very quietly spoken
I dont get shuffled from person to person
I get efficient resolution

 

[OzEire]

I loathe poor customer service, I believe that quality CS is part of what you ought to purchase with any product, but alas it is often lacking as many here have experienced.

Not to offend the OP, but much of the world operates on a different date system to us... its not always 2014. In Dubai, Shanghai and Bombay its possible you will be in the minority date wise.

Now the CSR should adjust to the date system of their employer, or perhaps the region they are servicing, but it could be different from what they use at home and perhaps change from call to call, so I'd cut the a little slack on the year.

No offence intended, just my 2c worth.

 

[Himeno]

Had a 'nice' one with the work help desk in the last month.
One of the hand held printers used to print special and reduced stickers wasn't working right, leaving a blank strip down the sticker so that the barcode would not scan.
Called the IT help desk and told them that someone needed to come out and fix it as it was a physical problem with the print head.
... They kept trying to access the printer remotely to fix a non existent software problem.


Then there is the issue I'm dealing with now. Work's uniform provider. They are rolling out new uniforms, so everyone has had to order the new ones. It didn't help that the provider moved offices from Melbourne to Sydney during this. They haven't been answering the phone (and people who had been getting through were being yelled at), nor have they been replying to email. It took them 7 weeks to reply to an email I sent them, and that was only after prodding them and sending it again. Their reply was to go look at the thing that was causing the problem in the first place.

Or BA's EU261/2004 claims desk. :shock: It seems that they automatically deny everything without even reading the issue.

 

[legroom]

I loathe poor customer service, I believe that quality CS is part of what you ought to purchase with any product, but alas it is often lacking as many here have experienced.

Not to offend the OP, but much of the world operates on a different date system to us... its not always 2014. In Dubai, Shanghai and Bombay its possible you will be in the minority date wise.

Now the CSR should adjust to the date system of their employer, or perhaps the region they are servicing, but it could be different from what they use at home and perhaps change from call to call, so I'd cut the a little slack on the year.

No offence intended, just my 2c worth.

Interesting take on calendars

I did not realise that India and Thailand use different calendar systems from our Gregorian one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_national_calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_solar_calendar

In that Wiki example, 2004 AD would be the year 2547 in Thai solar calendar.

Ignoring the expected requirement for CSRs to be conversant in clients' language / time zone etc..., the year '04' [AD] would - in that example - still be different from the year '47' [solar calendar].

Further, even if someone had offered 2004 [AD], how could one be sure that the Indian or Thai CSR would not misunderstand it ?

As defurax suggested earlier, it won't be complete unless we state YYYY [AD].