Customer service, Social Media, and Outsourcing

Last night, I finally watched “Customer (Dis)Service” by CNBC. Evident by the title, the special was about customer service, its evolution, its problems, and the process, good or bad. The special premiered more than a week ago, so, first let me apologize for being late on this commentary. I found a lot of it relatable and also sympathetic for both customer representatives and customers. Obvious things were discussed – people want excellent service regardless of price, social media has given the customer more power and businesses quicker feedback, and that sometimes people, both customer and representative, have bad moments.

There was one very informative portion of the show. The program explained the training program for outsourced call centers, specifically a call center in Delhi, India. The program reports that businesses give these reps little information regarding the service/product. There was a moment when a rep was being filmed during a live call. A customer wanted a definitive answer to when his computer would be fixed. The rep did not have an answer; all she could do was repeat, “the parts are on order”. The customer got frustrated and asked again if he could get an answer. The rep got nervous but couldn’t do anything but repeat herself. The customer asked to speak with a supervisor. The rep responded she didn’t have one. According to CNBC, in call centers, like the one represented, reps are not allowed to “escalate” calls aka send customers to supervisors. The result was that the customer was infuriated and the rep was stuck repeating herself.

This moment made me angry. I’m not angry with the customer because anyone can relate to the fact that when you call about service you would like sensible answers. From my own experiences, I have gotten very angry when I have been told that I can’t get an answer about something I’ve paid for. I’m not angry with the rep, in fact, I feel sorry for her. She was stuck with no information and no possible solution when being asked a typical straightforward question.

Why would a company purposefully withhold information from their reps, when they represent the company and have to defend the company talking to every customer? Why would a company prevent a customer from talking to a supervisor, especially when the reason is very valid? 

Maybe it doesn’t matter if companies lose some customers from a lack of preparation and care in customer service because the overall amount of revenue balances the loss. But, as mentioned, customers now have more power. Everyday people have the ability to air their grievances publicly on their own social media profiles or using various other blogs and public forums dedicated to angry customers. This is not to say that every person online is going to gain that much publicity from a post, video, or tweet but all it takes is one of those to become popular or a mass of customers to join together to make companies notice the effect of bad customer service. Examples have already existed in which this has happened: Verizon abandoned a proposed pay fee, Netflix abandoned splitting off their DVD division, Bank of America abandoned an account fee, and, as shown on the program, United Airlines was forced to confront a singer was made a popular song about a guitar they refused to fix.

In a nutshell, I feel sorry for those reps in outsourced call centers but their anger should be directed at their employers who purposefully set them up to fail at solving everyday customer service problems. Businesses, regardless of size, need to think many times about the effect their bad customer habits have on their brand, especially if the product/ service has many competitors. Most importantly, this is the social media era – you and I can go online and find many platforms to say what we feel. Businesses can’t hide their bad habits anymore.