29 August 2004

We don't support that

Folks are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of tech support received. For an understanding of why the sordid state of technical support, check out this in-depth look at tech support center from the vantage point of the tech support worker himself.
When we pick up the phone we're lying. We don't really work for the company we say we work for. Because of the expense of housing and running a technical support operation, many computer manufacturers choose to outsource the work. We work for one such outsourcer, though you'd never know it just to talk to us. To the customer on the other end of the line the distinction, while important, is invisible.

Outsourcers are paid by the computer manufacturer based on the number of calls they handle. The more calls we take, the more the outsourcer is paid. So naturally everything that happens in this vast carpeted warehouse of cubicles is done with an eye toward speed. Our managers stress something called "average call time," which is simply the average amount of time a tech spends on each call. They want us to be under 12 minutes. Our phones monitor our ability to reach this magic number as well as the total number of calls we take, the number of times we ask for help, how much time we take between calls, even the amount of time we spend in the restroom. In short, your phone is always watching you.

It seems silly to use "average call time" as the absolute barometer of technician effectiveness – isn't it obvious that "givers" and "punters" (those call responders who are gifted in passing the problem off by claiming it's something else to blame) are rewarded, yet the truly qualified who are the most helpful will be penalized in such a structure? Then throw in offshoring workers to foreign locales – introducing a language barrier into the process, and there you have one messed up deal.

Comments

Why I don't trust any computer Customer Hotline. It's not just foreign. I might get an operator from Podunk, USA, get transferred to California, and then get transferred again back east.
I firmly believe that no one can fix a computer; computers will take over the world; right now, I'm keeping an eye out for John Connors.