A reader sent me this email:
I applaud you guys for this website, I use one it often, but I have a suggestion about of your general tips. Specifically the one that reads 'connect to sales and have them transfer you'
While this generally works in my company, it can in many cases, cost the person answering the phone money. I work (in sales) for Dell computer, and while I understand that my company having a more efficient customer care setup would avoid this, there is absolutely no way I can change the situation from within. I am always helpful and transfer the person calling in, because they don't understand that they're costing me money, and furthermore could usually care less since by the time they get to me they're frustrated to their wits' end.
The reason it costs me money (and probably the majority of other companies' sales departments that people use as 'switchboards') is because call centers are based on phone metrics. My monthly bonus is, in part, based on how many calls I take versus how many systems I sell. If I transfer a person using me as a switchboard, I don't make a sale and that percentage goes down and it does wind up costing me real money (quite a bit actually).
As I said before, I know that the users of your web site could care less, and the whole idea behind this site is to stick it to corporate america, but cheating in this particular fashion hurts the paychecks of real people who are not responsible for the problem, and in doing that you're helping one group of people while unknowingly hurting another group who are not directly responsible for the problem nor have any power whatsoever to change it, and I don't think that that's what you want to accomplish with this site.
If I can help you in any way to improve the site I'll be happy to answer any questions about the way a call center works and perhaps offer alternative suggestions, but I do request that you please remove that suggestion becuase it goes against the principles behind your site when it degrades one group of people to assist another.
My response: First, the purpose of this website is not to stick it to corporate America. The purpose of this website is to be a voice for a consumer movement including millions of people. Our goal is to change the face of customer service. A side effect of this is that we will stick it to companies with bad service (hopefully hurting their business and/or forcing them to change) but we will also help companies who provide good service, by highly recommending them to others.
As to your comments about gethuman.com "connect to sales" being hurtful to sales reps:
Sales reps are measured compared to their peers. The "connect to sales" tip will randomly choose any sales rep, so the few extra seconds to take and transfer a call to customer service should not impact your rating compared to your peers.
If this upsets you, complain to your company. If enough of their employees complain, it will help send yet another message to their employer that they should take the issue of customer service staffing more seriously.
We've also had some sales reps tell us that bypassing IVR and connecting directly to sales will not shorten the time on hold. First, that is not always true. We currently have 16 volunteers who edit the cheat sheet, and we have tested this technique, and it works with many companies. And even for companies for which this technique does not save the consumer time, it still saves the consumer the aggravation of having to deal with a computer. I would rather wait on hold for fifteen minutes without using a computer than instead being forced to spend three minutes talking with a computer and then spending only five minutes on hold.
Dell Sales customer service details »
Posted by gethuman on Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:43pm
