Having to deal with customer support representatives is somewhere at the top of everyone's 'I'd rather lick the inside of a city bus than' list, so it is never truly a surprise when someone's experience with these seemingly mindless drones is worth penning. Whether it be a communication over the telephone, a live chat service or through e-mail, more often than not, a consumer is always either face-palming or pulling their hair out over the annoyance of dealing with support teams. With gaming, where there's always a bug or a glitch to report, I feel like the gaming industry's take on customer support is a critical component in the battle of fair shakes.
However, I will momentarily empathise so that I don't come off as an absolute fool. I understand that like anyone and everyone, customer support representatives have a job to do. They must complete that job and complete it correctly. However, that should not suggest that you do so in a manner to sway customer decisions or opinions of the company that you represent. In addition, it should also refrain from annoying the customers with whom without, you would not be employed.
Should one decide to do a quick Google search, you'll find a plethora of articles and blogs written by employees around the world with 'advice' such as "How to Avoid Annoying Your Barista," "How to Avoid Annoying Your Waiter/Waitress," and even "How to Avoid Annoying Your Airline Steward/Stewardess." It's hard to tell whether or not they're as satirical as they appear. I never know whether to take them seriously or not. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I've decided to pen my own 'how-to' blog from the point of view of an annoyed gamer, aptly titled, "How to Avoid Annoying Your Gamer," and this one is for you, customer support teams.
1.) Do not waste time 'clarifying.'
Nine out of ten times, when it comes to gamers and video game issues, we will provide as much information as possible in the original communication. We'll tell you the platform or console, the issue exactly as it happened, any steps we've taken ourselves and perhaps even photographic evidence of the situation. Do not waste my time repeating what I've said to 'clarify.' Congratulations, you can read! But repeating something I've already told you will either earn you a pained, migraine induced 'Yes, that's correct,' if you're lucky, or an incredibly sarcastic response that will probably confuse or aggravate you, such as "No, actually I'm writing to report that my Xbox has just laid an egg whilst playing Call of Duty XXVIII."
2.) Actually take the time to read my message and not just key words.
Nothing aggravates me more than waiting days and days for a response only for you to manage to completely ignore or misread my original communication detailing the exact issue with all of the information you would undoubtedly require. It's bad enough that I waited virtually a fortnight for a response, so don't add insult to injury and finally respond, only for me to have to copy and paste my original message and then wait another three days for you to do something as simple as credit my account or something similar.
3.) Take your false, rulebook sympathy and shove it.
I've seen more realness on the Jersey Shore boardwalk and Venice Beach in California. It's gotten rather old having to contact customer support and the first thing they say is their classic, handbook, "I'm sorry to hear about that, sir/madam, but I will try my best to fix the issue for you today." Just shut up and stash your handbook under your cubicle. I would much rather hear your actual response to the situation, not words that your supervisor puts in your mouth. Tell me the truth. "Oh, that sucks, I'd be annoyed too." "Well that's annoying." "You're the fifth person to report that issue today." That's what I want to hear, not "I'll do my best to fix that issue today." What if you don't fix it? What if you have no ability to fix it? What if you annoy me so much to the point that I unplug my phone from the wall and whip it across the Atlantic Ocean? You made a false promise.
4.) "Did that solve all of your problems today?"
That's another handbook written question that makes me want to drop-kick a small child, especially if I specifically tell you, "Thanks John, that was all I needed taken care of." I almost want to hang up on you if I wasn't afraid you'll undo the service you've just done for me. Is it really so hard to pay attention when someone is speaking? Listen to what I tell you. Clearly, I had no other issues if I already told you, "Thanks, have a good day," and have my mouse ready to close the chat window.
5.) You are NOT a robot.
You are a human, right? There's blood coursing through your veins, you have five senses (maybe less), emotions and thoughts and opinions, yes? Stop acting like a robot. Stop reading from your handbook, stop sending me automatic responses and for the love of Jesus, act like you aren't made of a tonne of scrap metal. Treat me the way you'd want to be treated. You're too concerned with providing "quality customer support" that you've forgotten what those words actually mean. Take some more training courses, Deborah, I think you've forgotten a few exercises.
In closing, customer support is rarely anything to look forward to. As a matter of fact, its nothing anyone looks forward to, no matter what the situation is. When it comes down to it, most people (if not everyone) will roll their eyes and sigh once they realise that they'll have to contact customer support for the issue they'd prayed that they could figure out on their own.
It's gotten to the point that companies are one of two things: too concerned with providing their idea of quality customer service that they've actually forgotten how to do it, or they simply do not give a damn enough to ensure that their customers aren't being turned away by the employee with the heavy accent that was only hired because they'd work for less than John Smith.
Maybe this blog should be incorporated into a few customer support teams' handbooks and have them give these grievances a read before logging onto the computer or picking up the headset. Maybe the world would be a little better if the person in the cubicle asked themselves before their shift, "Will my behaviour or choices make someone want to leap out of a building?"
Just...maybe.
Follow as Leon S. Kennedy's story continues and a new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft's, journey through hell.
VGChartz's Evan Norris: "For the sake of posterity, it's great that City Hunter is now available on modern platforms in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, 36 years after it premiered in Japan. It's also great that Red Art Games has elevated the experience by adding two new modes, while also preserving the original version. The only issue is that the game, no matter the version, is too brief, disorienting, and repetitive to truly enjoy. Still, it's an interesting artifact from the PC Engine days."
VR is a fantastic medium for getting into the action! Here's some of the best sword fighting VR games currently available.
I dont know if its the same in the US but the reason its like that in the UK is that you aren't phoning the company you think you are phoning, you are phoning a generic customer service helpdesk who provide third party support for a multitude of companies - hence their training and delivery of service is very generic.
Here very few companies can afford to have a dedicated customer service team of a big enough size to deal with the calls that might (or might not) come in, so they pay a small premium for a bunch of douchebags, who have zero knowledge of the actual product, to deal with it. If they cant solve it with the script they have been provided by the company then they will escalate it back to them - hence why it can take days/weeks to get a case resolved.
But we actually have to his those BS lines for QA to give us good marks or supervisors will be on our asses till we hit those lines.
I'm tier 3 tech support for Comcast and Tier 1 techs from Philippines, India, and US are derp stupid. Any and all problems they cannot solve is thrown at us even if the problem is not something our dept should touch like a billing issue. *uck send them to billing!
Btw, I am a robot within the company anyway.
No to your last sentence. It should not be incorporated into any handbook. From reading this rant it is clear to me that you have never worked in any form of customer service (CS) before. So let me explain a few things. It really is a service. As you made a fine point of demonstrating here customer service reps (CSR) get treated like absolute shit from the people they are trying to help. You seem to be thinking that every person who calls CS is the same. They are not. For every 1 person who knows whats wrong you have 30 that don't even know what a video game is. You get parents calling for their kids, people who don't know whats wrong, and people who describe things like "my system is making a bzzzsaasszzzsedd noise." and then when a CSR trys to help people get mad because (and this is a quote from my time in CS) "I called you. Why isn't it working now." before the CSR has even figured out what the problem is.
"Do not waste time 'clarifying.'" "Nine out of ten times, when it comes to gamers and video game issues, we will provide as much information as possible in the original communication" Do you have some evidence to support this, because when I worked CS (granted it wasn't video games) people just said "It's not working". We have to clarify because we have to understand the problem. Again YOU may give a super detailed report of whats wrong but Joe Blow might just say "yea it stopped".
"Actually take the time to read my message and not just key words." This one is your only real piece of advice in this whole rant, and again, just as you assume all gamers are the same you are assuming all CSRs are the same and you're the only person submitting a complaint. If I took the time to read every single complaint/problem submitted in just 1 day I would have been there reading all day and fixing nothing.
"Take your false, rulebook sympathy and shove it." You might call it false sympathy and it probably is for most CSRs but people want to hear "Oh I'm sorry about that" because as you say they are representing a company "company that you represent." so to most people they are the company. Them not saying sorry is the equivalent of the company not saying sorry.
""Did that solve all of your problems today?"" Solving problems and explaining problems are two very different things. Saying "Thanks that's all I needed to take care of" doesn't mean the problem was solved.
"You are NOT a robot...Treat me the way you'd want to be treated." Let's flip this around for a moment. Treat them the way you'd want to be treated, or better yet, treat them the way they want to be treated.
Get off your high horse. Work in the CSR world for even a day and if you'll drastically change your opinion. No CSR hears a phone ring and goes "Oh goody a chance to help someone" they pick up the phone and say "I hope this person isn't a jackass." Or "I hope this person isn't a Valenka.
I am working 2 jobs right now that have me dealing with customers. And let me tell you, that the customer rarely knows their ass from their elbow. And the other type of customer that can be worse is the one that pretends they know, but really only know how to download porn. The great customers are the ones that realize they are calling you for help, and know a little about why and trust you. So to give good service i ask them very specific questions, and then work with them till i get a thank you.
The one peice of advice that i would agree with you is that companies need to invest in staff, and have them act naturally, so that every call isn't robotic and read through a manual. Someone here already pointed out though, that most of these companies do this because they do not just have one company they are representing. Or they have metrics that say more problems are solved this way or that way and insist that the reps use these techniques.
And your complaint about them asking to help after you said your done, is because they have tons of callers call back saying that the last guy didn't solve this other problem. So by asking that then it is definitely the customers fault for forgetting.
Ignoring a huge post / rant as to why this happens, I will simply say that it's impossible for the CS people to know everything or even most of what is currently going on and due to that a lot of problems arise. This was most certainly the problem I faced when I got my LoZ OST broken in the mail.
The first guy told me they would just replace it, which is what they normally do with rewards.
The second guy told me that they need it back and they would contact me with further details.
The third guy told me I had to send it back because platinum rewards are different and Nintendo would give me a shipping voucher.
The fourth girl who was a supervisor told me Nintendo wouldn't spring for the shipping and to send it to the repair center.
The fifth and final guy told me that I sent it to the wrong place and finally had my OST replaced.
While so many of these people were wrong and I was frustrated, it was easy to understand where the confusion / problems came into play. The first guy probably didn't know the different policy for platinum rewards, since this probably only comes up 1 month out of a year. The third guy probably assumed that Nintendo would be willing to replace a reward for spending $600 by springing for the $2 shipping. The supervisor probably didn't get a lot of returns, so she told me to send it to the return center because it was logical. This is really CS in a nutshell. A bunch of underpaid people dealing with angry customers trying to solve problems in the most logical way because it's impossible to know everything.