The website that I have maintained for some years was down for many days and I got very upset. I understand that this really happens sometimes, but no, not these days! I have to update it in preparation for the long holidays.
I emailed the online support team behind the hosting company and I got an auto-reply that their support system changed so I must proceed to their contact center webpage which would take few mouseclicks before you can email or have a live chat with their agent. Fine. It took two (2) days before I got a reply to my email. My specific concern was not answered, and instead, I was pushed to subscribe to a higher subscription plan package.
Prior to the system change, the previous online help page showed a more customer-friendly online form with a button to attach a file, say, the screenshot showing the specific problem, and I got an immediate reply. There was this agent who was very caring as if he were your son who would not leave you until you were happy with his answer. He had the initiative to make everything easy for me. His name is Christopher and whenever I sent a message to the team I would write in the subject line -- "Attention: Christopher".
Well, I felt sad when I emailed them and it bounced back. The company was acquired by another for US$300+M, but the previous support system was much better than the current one.
I sent the same message to three (3) email addresses linked to that company but I got the same auto-response -- that I must proceed to the online contact center. Fortunately, after many attempts, one did not email back that auto-response, and there was no bounced message.
Desperate to get the immediate response, I patiently waited for my turn to talk to an online support staff via live chat. She told me that the payment failed on 25th and 29th of July 2019, and forwarded me a screenshot of the transaction. It was very clear that the payment I made on the 23rd of July 2019 was successfully processed. It was my son's debit card as we collaborate on this project, and it was funded. I checked the bank statement and it showed that there was a deduction for that transaction from his balance.
I asked the online agent to check the last four (4) digits for the successful and failed payments as we already stopped using the old card for expiry reason. She said it was the new card number with four (4) digits that I mentioned. I asserted that the transaction summary showed that the payment was successfully processed and that the subscription was extended but later it failed and I asked why.
"It is a debit card so it would be declined if it is not funded," I explained.
"Yes, it looked like a successful payment so we activated it on 23rd but on 25th and 29th it failed to process," she said. "I already checked it with my superior, the accounting team, etc. and all possible options I tried. We gave a grace period until 2nd of the current month." Aha, so I should thank them for 'the grace period' for the days it was up and running, but they should be as they were covered by our payment!?
I got restless with her answer, particularly that 'it looked like a successful payment' thing. Meaning she did not know what she was saying. A transaction cannot be processed successfully just because it 'looks like it is a successful payment'. 'Look' is not enough. There is multi-layer processing involved, verification and validation, then the activation. I got an email acknowledging the payment, indicating therein the receipt and the last four (4) digits of the debit card used. It was processed successfully so my website must be up and running!
She said that they would not take the money that was not theirs. Well, I was not thinking of that, and I did not say so, so why she was defensive? I was just repeatedly requesting for a recheck because in my mind they linked the supposed renewal date to the old expired debit card number. I knew there was something wrong in their auto-renewal system. The manual changes I made as to the new payment method and payment were not posted despite the payment acknowledgment. There must be an error in their program flow.
This time she apologized as she said her superiors saw the system error and they already fixed it so I could publish it. She told me that she could not sit to figure out to answer my why's and other things which were making things hard for me. I was not still finished but she closed the chat. I had the screenshots of our conversation for future reference.
Christopher was different. His approach was like a light feather that would make you feel easy to handle all. His approach was aligned to Hazel Edwards' --
Ease your customer's pain.
In between those conversations, I was chatting with my American friend for 20+ years. He is retired now but in his younger years, he was a highly respected IT consultant and my remote mentor. At least we were on the same page and it was a relief that he understood my frustrations.
BPO (business processing office) personnel must care to listen to the customers and if there are issues, there should be no assumption. They must check all background, history of transactions plus supporting data. It is good to defend the company, but customer experience is important to establish a good relationship and to find the key areas for improvement. Some companies even reward people who can help find vulnerabilities of their systems via their bug-finding bounty programs*.
Henry Wrinkler said,
Assumptions are the termites of relationships.
I told her that what I did and said led to the discovery of a vulnerability in the system, that they had fixed.
She could sense my unhappiness but she seemed to get irritated by my being assertive. If I were her, I would be grateful for the learning for that particular experience.
Isn't Bill Gates right when he shared his words of wisdom?
Your most unhappy (unhappiest) customers are your greatest source of learning.BPO people must realize that they should passionately make it easy and fast for customers to get the help they need, and treat them like their family members or friends.
Gene Caballero, the co-founder of Green Pal, hits it at the center, bull's eye --
The Customer: Someone that indirectly pays for your food, clothes and vacations. Be nice to him.
---
Photo credits: Pixabay
*Bug-finding Bounty Programme Stories
Chennai techie finds flaw in Instagram again, wins $10,000
Comments
Post a Comment