Tales of crap customer service; part 1,283,293 in a series
Every once in a while it seems that people think online RPGs have a monopoly on terrible customer service. Unfortunately, this is not so. Let me recount a tale of what happened when I called my credit card company.
I have a card from my university's alumni association. I got the card in 1996, a year before I graduated. I've used it through the years, and put a lot of money on it while I was starting up Near Death Studios. We eventually paid it off, but a few late payments had bumped the interest rate up to 25% annually. Ouch. We had canceled other high interest credit cards, but this card had a nice emblem from my university and I liked to keep it in my wallet as it got a lot of comments. It did have a credit limit of about $12,000 or so, several increases as we maxxed it out and paid off chunks
Of course, at that interest rate I wasn't going to actually use it for purchases. I have other cards that are much lower. But, my better half decided to call and see if she could get the rate re-evaluated. She called them today and they asked for household income. She gave our base income, ignoring the contract work I had been doing over the last year. They told her that they had put a hold on the account and the primary card holder (that's me) had to call. Turns out that they actually canceled the card because we "didn't have enough household income". The card I had used and paid off multiple times over the past 9-10 years. When I called to get things cleared up, the line was dropped while I was on hold. Probably an accident, but not the best way to get money from a customer.
Here I was, wanting to essentially give them more money (but not 25% annual interest more money), and they close my account. And, I've paid them much more than the $10-15/month an online RPG player pays to a game company. Anyway, in the long run I'm sure they did me a favor. But, online RPGs certainly aren't the dumbest companies out there when it comes to customer service.
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It is sad in this day and age that this type of thing continues to occur. However, it is quite common in every industry. Credit Cards and Banks are in my opinion some of the worst providers of customer service, or rather a lack of it.
I may be off on this, but having worked for 4 years managing a customer support department for a small state ISP and then working in customer support in the gaming industry for over a year I feel that the problem is not policies or a lack of call monitoring or any such thing. Rather, it comes down to two key issues.
First, management. Many companies promote to management based not on skill, but on length of service. Add to that the fact that many do not receive adequate training in key areas such as coaching, active listening, giving recognition and criticism, and other areas that managers need to excel at in order to have productive and happier employees, and you have a situation ripe for poor customer service.
Second, hiring. The majority of companies hire anyone who can breath. ISPs are particularly bad about this. ARe you alive? Yes. Good, you're hired. At the ISP I used to work for the supervisors believed that the applicant must display the ability to work with customers, to be good at customer relations. It didn't matter if their computer knowledge was less than average because you can teach computer knowledge. You cannot teach someone how to be a good person and how to deal with other people properly. This approach worked well for us and we had a good track record of hiring people who genuinely cared about helping others.
Not sure where I'm going with this. I guess just to say that the problem is usually not solely the individual representative's fault. I mean, it is because they do not take care of the customer and do not care enough to try to change that. But the larger fault is that of the company itself for not doing things right from the start, hiring properly, promoting properly, and instilling a culture of caring and of customer service from the bottom to the top.
Comment by Amon Gwareth — 10 January, 2006 @ 6:40 PM
Very few people who provide customer support are allowed to care. Instead they are given a manual of guidelines for how to handle calls, and punished when they deviate. That is a core problem for the CS industry, no matter what customer they are providing service for. It's exactly why a living/breathing requirement is the only one needed -- people who think get frustrated and quit.
If you call these people back and suffer until you get a 'manager' I'm sure the card will be re-issued; because they get to make exceptions. Thing is they don't deserve you back. Find another card with better rates that offers your University Logo. I'm almost certain you can with the way cards are going these days. :)
Plus you might as well get the best deal available on the market. I've yet to find any bank worth staying with on higher fees in exchange for better service.
Comment by Grimwell — 16 January, 2006 @ 8:57 AM
You're right, Grimwell. And, I understand *why* it happened, because I'm in an industry that provides CS as well. The "give someone with a pulse a manual" is the most cost-effective way to handle customer service, because 99% of the time the problem can be solved with the manual.
I like to post these anecdotes to show that, no, online RPGs don't have some sort of monopoly on poor customer service. In fact, the market has essentially said that customer service doesn't matter. Some vocal individuals expect stellar customer service, but are unwilling to support companies that try to prioritize customer service. Given the costs for customer service, it's just not profitable to put a focus on it. As long as games can be mega-successful without "acceptable" customer service, we'll continue to see what we've already seen.
My thoughts,
Comment by Psychochild — 16 January, 2006 @ 6:58 PM
Well, I work in customer service for a bank, currently in their on-line
department. I did work in their call center for 2 years before moving and
have noticed several things, 1) Customer's suck when your working with
their money. 2) Everyone thinks that the customer is always right, when
they are the customer. 3) Most people who swear at us and threaten us don't
understand that we have all of their personal information right at our
finger tips. 4) Nice customer's get the best service. Working here, I have
done my best to be understanding and sympathetic to customers. However,
having a customer yell, swear, and threaten me over them using the wrong
password, or trying to log into the wrong site is rediculous. Now I
consider myself a fairly calm fellow, but when someone's first words out
of their mouth is a cuss word cause "your F*#$ing site is down" and you
find out they are using the wrong password, it doesn't make you very
willing to help. Now I'm not saying what that bank did was right, and I'm
not saying that bad customer service is ok, but people who call customer
service center's have to realize that they are not the only person calling.
Be patient, calm, but also, state your problem in a firm/clear voice. It
will help.
Comment by Black Daisho — 17 January, 2006 @ 9:56 PM
Black Daisho's comments are spot on, when you call it only helps to be nice. If you are a jerk you increase the odds of not getting what you hoped for. Still, even if you are nice it's also wise to understand that the person on the other end of the phone are limited in what *they* can do. I provided technical support on the phone for a finance company and the answers I was *allowed* to give were not always the most helpful, or the ones I would give with free reign. Even to the stupid rude people who are the problem.
Comment by Grimwell — 19 January, 2006 @ 10:10 AM