A simple idea (that no one's apparently thought of)
Thursday, August 17, 2006
A book I'm currently reading, "Why Not?: How To Use Everyday Ingenuity To Solve Problems Big And Small", mentions a simple yet elegant idea for which, try as I might, I can't seem to find a downside. And the reason I'm moved to write about it now is that I spent 2+ hours on the phone with Dell yesterday, ultimately solving nothing, and turning me from a mild-mannered guy into a mushroom cloud looking for a place to happen.The idea goes like this: Why is it that, instead of waiting on the line for minutes (or hours, as was my case), companies can't just have a system that places your call in a priority sequence for automated callback as soon as an operator becomes available?
This is just one of the many interesting questions raised by this book. Having just recently left the academic world, I can quite cleary see that stopping--even for a moment--to consider such apparent inconsistencies, is a rare and precious occurrence in the business world.
To wit, a colleague of mine--brilliant, thoughtful and extremely knowledgeable about this particular topic--was momentarily stumped by such a simple question. And I don't think it's a default of ability or creativity. Rather, I think it's simply that business imperatives are often crushingly blighted in their scope: Get it done, now, for as little as possible.
Anyone stumbling onto this post, by luck or accident, is welcome to weigh in.
Nic
posted by Nic at 6:58 PM
5 Comments:
Thought about this for a second and a few issues come to mind.
The first is of course cost (shocking coming from a fellow MBA I know). While it costs Dell nothing for you to stay on the phone with them (or a at least a set fee for their 800 Number), if they were to have to now call ALL of their customers back (at the very least long distance, presumably overseas), that would be a pretty hefty monthly phone bill. Say what you will about Vonage or other VOIP (I think thats the right acronym) technology, to my knowledge it still has some bugs/reliability issues to be solved.
From a customer standpoint, this would also become akin to waiting for the cable company to arrive (i.e. completely unreliable and a major inconvenience). You're going to sit around waiting for your phone to ring from Dell like an anxious 14 year old?? That would grow old quickly.
Among the biggest reasons is simple CRM practices. Your phone number is in a Dell database somewhere, and when the automated line answers, Dell knows precisely how profitable a customer you are. And given that this was likely a single purchase, made on a cost basis, I am guessing you are not a very profitable one. Therefore, it is not imperative that you be given immediate service. You also presumably neglected to buy the premium service package (which is basically 50 bucks to bypass this hassle). Do you think one of their large commercial buyers waits on the phone?? I doubt it.
Quite simply, you are not important enough to be a priority to Dell.
This is also a filtering method for Dell to move you into lower cost points of contact (therefore trying to make you a more profitable customer). Phone calls cost them money. If they get you to solve your problem over 1) Email 2) Online Chat session or 3) Online troubleshooting. Then it drastically reduces their costs.
Just thought I would throw a few of those out there. Fire away.
-Jamin
pas raport mais... I was listening to cdc radio one earlier today, and the debate was on "the internet" and if it affected your life in a positive or negative way. People called saying "yeah! I dont take a trip without checking the web about it first...", "Yeah, my wife used the internet to put up a podcast with her students to annonce a bake sale and bla bla bla..." and of course the NO-ers "internet is the plague of modern society, kiddy porn, bad posture, and interacting with a machine instead of human being..." and od course the granny saying "internet... I dont like his lyrics, he looks like a girl and the music stinks! what ever happened to ball room music?"
ANYWAYS the point of all this, if there is any at all, is that I too, decided to call in and talk about how the internet affects the music industry we know today. How it has singlehandedly flattened the landscape of the music biz, how it is making every major record labels biz plan obsolete, and how its letting the world know (if the world decides to check out their web pages of course...) about the millions of starving artists that are out there. I was reving up to tell my tale...
So I called in, and they put me on hold, and told me they were going to redirect my call to Wendy, and put me on the air.... So I wait, I wait, I wait... 2nd line rings in... and I take it. Hello Mr. B your car payment is late... again! When bla bla bla... By the time we finished, I had missed my window of opportunity with CBC...
oh well, writting this comment kind of makes up for it... didnt scratch the surface of what I wanted to say... but hey, I FEEL BETTER NOW!
StereoUdo
PS: Nic, you have to change your web page to say "Journal : Almost weekly reflections on ....."
PPS: The wait is over on friday, 9th inning, bases loaded, 2 strikes, 3 balls and we are down by one!
Jamin:
So you didn't really think I'd let you post without responding with a long-winded diatribe of my own, did you?
To your first point, re: cost. In fact, when you dial any 1-800 number, the company is on the hook for the long-distance charges, not the caller. That's the fundamental point of 1-800 lines. So having you wait for two hours--on their dime, mind you--is simply a bad economic decision, no matter how you justify it. Having customers hang up for callbacks would shift the balance of calls towards outbound calls, which could then be bulk-negotiated or routed via VoIP, either option of which would be cheaper.
Also, I can easily imagine a system that can compute an average waiting time on a continuous basis, such that it can pretty reliably tell you what kind of callback time to expect. Yes, you are indeed turned into an anxious 14-year old waiting for the phone to ring (great metaphor, by the way), but the main difference is that now you're waiting while doing other things, not with the receiver glued to your head.
And to your last point, well, all I can say is I thought I was pretty cynical, but you, my man, take the cake. Yes, of course I can imagine that companies could, in theory, prioritize customers based upon their economic value, but you're presuming that the information a) exists readily before the call is even routed to an operator, and that b) they're smart enough to make good use of it. Those are two pretty big presumptions.
But what do I know? Maybe you're right. I just hope that I never come to find out those kinds of truths. As Otto von Bismarck said, "People who enjoy eating sausage and obeying the law should not watch either being made."
Add toll-free lines to the list.
(What, you didn't really think you'd get away without a quote, did you?)
StereoUdo:
So, now that you have a forum of (dubious) importance, what would you have said on the air had you not blown your chance?
dubious importance? hey I am holding my end of the deal... weekly posts! Some guy I know told me "if you say it... u better do it!!!"
Change the daily to monthly already!!! ahahahahahhahahahahahhaha!
what I would of said about the internet and how it changed certain things... well I think I am gonna save it for another day... but pretty much the whole 9 yards of what you got going on in your head!
ok. ok. maybe 8
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