Wannabe Scenario:

We’ve all seen the Discover Card commercial “Hello, welcome to USA Prime Credit, my name is Peggy”. It’s a funny commercial and we can all laugh at the frustration experienced by the caller. Obviously this is an exaggeration, a caricature of sorts, to entertain and to make you want to watch the commercial. BUT… it is based on the common premise that offshore customer service has a few barriers; first of which is language and dialect. It is often times very difficult to understand what is being said when the person on the other end of the phone has a heavy accent and only a casual understanding of the English language; second is knowledge. Many times the person you speak with at what is called “Level 1 Support” is trained to handle only the most common questions or problems (Frequently Asked Questions, usually with scripted responses). The theory behind this from a company’s perspective is to spend as little money as possible to answer the majority of the questions. This is a solid, cost-effective measure indeed… or is it?

Before I continue with my editorial, let me first share a recent customer service call I experienced.

I have a credit card that had been paid off and was put in a drawer in case of future needs. A charge was put on this card without my knowledge and because I didn’t pay it (I didn’t know about it), it accrued late fees and interest charges of almost $100 in two months. The credit card company called me (non offshore… a very nice lady named Audrey) to arrange payment. I told Audrey that I needed to check on the purchase to verify its validity and would call them back. I called the company who made the charge and spoke with someone (not offshore). I was able to discuss the situation, identify it as an unapproved transaction and get a refund processed, all in one call. GREAT, then I called the credit card company back to tell them a refund was being processed and got the company’s “Level One Support”. I didn’t understand the name of the person who picked up my call, but it was obviously offshore, based on the dialect. When I posed my situation, the representative said that he would have to transfer me to a Supervisor… and then hung up (or totally blew the transfer), so I had to call back. The second call also had to be transferred and this time I was put on hold, or “Ignore” and the call went into limbo, it didn’t terminate but after 5 minutes of nothing (no music, just silence), I hung up (with thoughts of “Peggy” haunting my brain). The third time I finally got transferred properly and I could tell that I was back in the States. The Supervisor was friendly, polite and helpful. We got the situation resolved and all was finally good, but only after having to provide my account number, date of birth, address, last four digits of my SSN, and explain the reason for my call… FOUR TIMES. This experience frustrated me to no end. I can’t even tell you how angry I was by the time I reached someone who could actually help me. Been here? I thought so.

I understand the need to save money, align resources and try to achieve the greatest efficiencies, but if those efficiencies result in losing customers or damaging a company’s reputation, what have you gained? There needs to be another way.

Complimenting the usual phone support with social media support is a growing trend. Many companies are setting up social media customer service units to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other online channels for questions and problems related to their products or services. This might be a good way to get your request in ONCE, have the company triage the problem to resolution and get back to you with an answer without the frustration experienced in my example. The responsibility is then on the company to do whatever is necessary, talk to whoever is required to resolve the situation… behind the scenes… and then get back to the customer with the answer.

So here’s my final question… Am I overreacting based on my recent experience or do you see this as a viable way to buffer the consumer from “back-office” operations?