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Service and Support Comments | Service and Support Ideas
310

Low cost staff shouldn't mean untrained staff...

310 points posted to Service and Support by cestuila 05/31/08

Of course, when you hire someone who will stay 6 months in the company and pay him/her a basic wage... you don't want to invest in him/her.
But some basic product knowledge is NECESSARY!

Here's a recent situation I read: someone going on the Dell chat and asking what accessories come with the XPS M1330 (thinking about the headphones, remote control, second skin, etc.) and the chat person just answers that that laptop doesn't come with ANY accessory!!!

So maybe that person thought, if I don't tell him the laptop comes with accessories, he might buy them so more sales for the company! (I don't actually think that person thought so much...) But the reality is that this customer had already placed his order and just wanted confirmation.
In the end, he now is about to cancel his order (although I told him that he WILL receive the accessories) because he is unsure he will get them...

So the situation is that DELL may actually lose business because of untrained personnel.

sugarbear
05/31/08		 Some of it is untrained but, in the past year I have experienced some that simply want to play games with the consumer deliberately.
cestuila
06/01/08		 @sugarbear: that's quite sad. But someone who doesn't have the necessary knowledge will be all the more tempted to play that type of silly games...
kingnewby
06/03/08		 why did he even bother with the chat session once he had a order conformation you can look up the order yourself and not deal with the drones that chat and answer the phones?
cestuila
06/03/08		 @mods: thanks for editing the title
@kingnewby: maybe you buy $1000 products every day. Others don't. So when they make that kind of big purchase, they want to make sure they did the right choice. And when buying online, they might want to make that kind of verifications until they actually receive the product.
And as may not seem to know, the order confirmation doesn't state that the bundle includes earphones, a second-skin bag, etc.
jtarkenton
06/08/08		 I agree with you there should be better trained staff, but in today's day and age, it's nearly impossible to find a company that you don't find at least some bad support. It's not just Dell. Most companies don't pay commissions to their support staff. If you search for a specific system you will often find that many affiliate companies have special configuration and options that are not otherwise available.

If you get frustrated with one support rep, just close your case and try again. Chances are you will not get the same person, and hopefully you will get the one that has at least a little more experience. Can you imagine all of the requests agents get on a daily basis from people that are doing good just to turn on their computer? Over time this may change too, but troubleshooting for the masses entails staffing for the masses. Corners have to be cut to keep a lost cost product. Which would you rather pay $3000 for a new machine with great support, or sub $1000 with a staff that is less than ideal but can handle all of the crazy requests you get from uninformed consumers these days?
cestuila
06/09/08		 Well, then a relevant suggestion might be: adapt the interlocutor to the customers' knowledge level.
In the above case, the customer had made some preliminary research so he deserved a knowledgeable interlocutor.

When a customer has no IT knowledge or experience, a Dell rep with 1 week experience in Dell could answer their questions.
But, when the customer is more skilled on the subject, he doesn't want to waste time with someone who knows less than he does on the products, services, etc...
sugarbear
06/09/08		 Even if one has IT knowledge, the percentage is high for tech support to just reformat the HD.
anji
07/17/08		 It takes a lot of effort just to route people to the proper support staff, nevermind matching skill sets. The more a person knows, the more they just want Dell to send them parts, because they think they know what it is. They're not always right. There is an alternative for business owners: Warranty Parts Direct
Or, people can become certified themselves. There are choices out there.
 
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