buffer-overflowed's Journal: Reflections

I had a conversation with Mekkab a long time ago about help desks and why they don't help. The short answer is, helpfulness isn't what's measured, stats are. And stats are built up by keeping the queue clear. Getting you off the phone ASAP or to call back.

My first job, which was also my first IT job, was on a help desk. 3 tiered. CSRs took customer calls and entered in tickets into a web front end and then transfered the calls to the tech queue(where I was). Calls would also directly enter the tech queue, with CSR acting as overflow(and they made only $1/hour less than we did, go fig). Third tier was management/supervisors.

If you've ever screwed around with an ACD system you know that there is a post-call and user enterable state generally called either make busy or aftercall which makes a logged in user ineligable for calls from the queue. Now, management had supposedly disabled this state, but they didn't actually do it(very incompetent upper-level staff, they gave my friend Tom a pager and a key to the server room so he could joggle badly crimped cables).

One day, while desperately trying to close out queued tickets, I discovered it was not in fact disabled. I decided to start using it to call people back who either hadn't been dealt with, or who I had given some kind of task to do(reinstall windows, reinstall drivers, what have you) when call volume was low.

I led closed tickets and client/customer compliments for a month, was second to last for total inbound calls for my shift, and second for shortest call talktime. When asked how I did this, I told them.

They fired me for excessive aftercall usage. Temp employee. 2 months later after having the staff rewrite their training manuals they fired the whole permanent staff, rebought the company from the parent company, and relocated.

Service did not improve.

Yep.

[KshGoddess]

That's exactly what happens. Statistics are the king. Whether or not the problem actually gets resolved. Actually, having a problem get temporarily resolved is much better than actually fixing the issue, because the customer will call back, and that's *ANOTHER* ticket you can close! [And probably quick, as you've seen whatever it is before.]

Sigh.

This is true, these days, anyway.

[artifex2004]

When I started in the ISP world, I was a dialup technician, but it was before stats became such a big deal; I was hired to help people, and because my customers were fixed when they were done, management didn't hassle me if I took twice as long as some people. In fact, that was how I got promoted up the chain, moved into special groups, etc. - they saw me as a smart guy who really wanted to solve problems for people, and I cost less than the people who had been there longer. I was doing case management/reco

Tech Support

[ces]

Sigh ...

I've seen this happen too. Company I used to work for had excellent customer service/tech support as one of it's key selling points vs. the competition.

All customer service and tech support was done in-house. (which lead to a rapidly growing department especially once we started adding premium support options)

Our techs and CSRs were very well paid for that type of work and very happy with their jobs. (they actually got to help people) While stats were tracked, helping the customer solve their iss

I now work in a call center

[Planesdragon]

I now work in a call center, and the service is exactly what you'd expect.

Call up with a question, any question, and you'll be politely listened to, for as long as it takes for the rep to find out if you are someone they can help or not, and transferred on up the line as far as necessary.

We track call stats, but as a group-wide and indivdual-coaching measure. I couldn't tell you who had the most calls last month, and I suspect my boss would have to walk down and put in a special request if he wanted to f