One thing I noticed upon moving to Europe (Ireland, specifically) is how much people seem obsessed with phone calls here. I checked on Vodafone broadband service and the next morning got annoyed at work by a call from a sales rep. I wanted to change payment info with my current provider and was told I had to make a phone call. I emailed a support group and their response was to call their 1890 number - something which costs 50 cents a minute to do, and is shockingly common here.
Maybe I'm just grumpy, but why is it so much harder to get things done here without going through the arcane and inefficient process of a phone call?
On the bright side, it's nice to see this lets businesses make themselves available without trying to charge their customers for the privilege.
I have no idea; it's not exactly "popular" with the public either. But it's usually the only option that actually results in sorting out whatever it is you need to sort out. People aren't comfortable putting their personal details in email, so what's the alternative? Slow expensive postal correspondence?
Inefficient? Phone calls are anything but tbh; you have a conversation, direct back-and-forth communication, something that could take days over e-mail. Keeps the focus of the support employee on your issue, too.
I think it depends on the nature of the issue. Semi-complex and non-time-sensitive issues like (as an example of something I am dealing with at work with our internal helpdesk right now):
"I need you to disable email address X entirely, and route email address Y to this person, and change distribution list Z to this other config"
Email is perfect for this - I don't care to sit on hold while they click around because it's not time sensitive, and having things written down makes it less likely there will be confusion.
On the flip side, trying to come to a consensus on a nuanced issue or negotiate an outcome with a support person over email stinks, other than the benefit of having it written down. Way better to talk on the phone.
So it just depends on your use case. There's tons of time when I have a simple question and I'd prefer to just be able to drop a line to customer support.
It depends on what I'm doing. There are times when calls are appropriate. I quite enjoy vc'ing with friends and loved ones. However, if all I want to do is discover which broadband speeds and caps are available for my location, and click "buy" on the appropriate one, there is no need for a phone call, at least until after I've hit buy.
As it is, the phone call convinced me not to use Vodafone. The first thing they did was ask me for my date of birth, as though it's somehow relevant to purchasing broadband. They then went on to ask how much I watched TV IMMEDIATELY after I said "Just to let you know, I understand you offer bundles but I am interested in broadband only - no TV, no phone". When they failed to understand that modem != router I was pretty clear I wouldn't be purchasing service from them.
Comments
One thing I noticed upon moving to Europe (Ireland, specifically) is how much people seem obsessed with phone calls here. I checked on Vodafone broadband service and the next morning got annoyed at work by a call from a sales rep. I wanted to change payment info with my current provider and was told I had to make a phone call. I emailed a support group and their response was to call their 1890 number - something which costs 50 cents a minute to do, and is shockingly common here.
Maybe I'm just grumpy, but why is it so much harder to get things done here without going through the arcane and inefficient process of a phone call?
On the bright side, it's nice to see this lets businesses make themselves available without trying to charge their customers for the privilege.
I have no idea; it's not exactly "popular" with the public either. But it's usually the only option that actually results in sorting out whatever it is you need to sort out. People aren't comfortable putting their personal details in email, so what's the alternative? Slow expensive postal correspondence?
This is probably a good place for me to link this excellent series of 3 posts on the operational politics and failures of the call centre concept: http://yorksranter.wordpress.com/category/callcentre/
Inefficient? Phone calls are anything but tbh; you have a conversation, direct back-and-forth communication, something that could take days over e-mail. Keeps the focus of the support employee on your issue, too.
I think it depends on the nature of the issue. Semi-complex and non-time-sensitive issues like (as an example of something I am dealing with at work with our internal helpdesk right now):
"I need you to disable email address X entirely, and route email address Y to this person, and change distribution list Z to this other config"
Email is perfect for this - I don't care to sit on hold while they click around because it's not time sensitive, and having things written down makes it less likely there will be confusion.
On the flip side, trying to come to a consensus on a nuanced issue or negotiate an outcome with a support person over email stinks, other than the benefit of having it written down. Way better to talk on the phone.
So it just depends on your use case. There's tons of time when I have a simple question and I'd prefer to just be able to drop a line to customer support.
It depends on what I'm doing. There are times when calls are appropriate. I quite enjoy vc'ing with friends and loved ones. However, if all I want to do is discover which broadband speeds and caps are available for my location, and click "buy" on the appropriate one, there is no need for a phone call, at least until after I've hit buy.
As it is, the phone call convinced me not to use Vodafone. The first thing they did was ask me for my date of birth, as though it's somehow relevant to purchasing broadband. They then went on to ask how much I watched TV IMMEDIATELY after I said "Just to let you know, I understand you offer bundles but I am interested in broadband only - no TV, no phone". When they failed to understand that modem != router I was pretty clear I wouldn't be purchasing service from them.