Plusnet get a new CEO - Andy Baker

[#1]

Quote from: Scott

I've got a meeting with him next week, that point of infrastructure is something I was going to bring up with him actually glloyd. Kelly can go for mentioning everything else to him :D.

Scott / Kelly,
So how did your meatings go?  Has the new CEO read this thread?  Does he have any New Year Resolutions to do better?

Hope you all have a great Christmas - see you on the otherside of the feast!
Cheers,
Kevin

[#2]

He was looking at the threads when they started.  Not sure if he's kept on top of them (busy man!) but I'll be getting Chris to pull the themes together to take to him in the New Year.

[#3]

My suggestions for Andy Baker are -
1)  Have at least one member of support staff monitoring this forum 24/7, to be on lookout for widespread disruptive problems affecting multiple customers, and be able to raise the alarm and call in engineers (or contact 'suppliers') quickly to resolve issues as they occur.  It is unacceptable that it can take several days for Plusnet to respond to widespread issues, just because it is the weekend or a public holiday and nobody has noticed.
2)  Please change your broadband pricing structure in time for the "Mkt2014" exchange review, so that "Mkt2014:A" customers will not be burdened with such a large price disadvantage compared to other customers in 'low cost' areas - as is currently the case on "Market 1" exchanges.  Most other ISPs have a single price for a given product, no matter where the customer lives.  With Plusnet it is galling to have to pay £7 more every month for inadequate slow speeds on ancient 20CN connections with no prospect of being upgraded, when others pay so much less while enjoying much higher speeds on 21CN exchanges.
3)  Please change your telephone system so that when Plusnet (particularly support) calls the customer, that a CALLER ID is shown.
Currently like many people on this forum, I have long suffered silent callers and overseas sales calls, and have had to invest in a telephone which blocks those calls which don't have a valid CALLER ID.  On the whole this works well to maintain my sanity, but it does mean that when Plusnet call me, that the phone doesn't ring and I miss the call.  It would be great if you could fix this simple problem.

[#4]

Quote from: purleigh

3)  Please change your telephone system so that when Plusnet (particularly support) calls the customer, that a CALLER ID is shown. Currently like many people on this forum, I have long suffered silent callers and overseas sales calls, and have had to invest in a telephone which blocks those calls which don't have a valid CALLER ID.  On the whole this works well to maintain my sanity, but it does mean that when Plusnet call me, that the phone doesn't ring and I miss the call.  It would be great if you could fix this simple problem.

With my old company the caller ID was always shown as the main switchboard number not the direct dial number of the person phoning

[#5]

Calls from our local hospital services use that approach too, supply a fixed CLI which the switchboard answer though it is not the published switchboard number.

[#6]

Quote from: purleigh

My suggestions for Andy Baker are - 1)  Have at least one member of support staff monitoring this forum 24/7, to be on lookout for widespread disruptive problems affecting multiple customers, and be able to raise the alarm and call in engineers (or contact 'suppliers') quickly to resolve issues as they occur.  It is unacceptable that it can take several days for Plusnet to respond to widespread issues, just because it is the weekend or a public holiday and nobody has noticed.

When a post is made on these forums, there's a facility below the text box for "additional options and attachments".  Would it not be possible to add a fourth option: "flag this post for the attention of PlusNet Support".
Or alternatively to add "flag for PlusNet" in the same way as "report to moderator" is currently shown below each post, when logged in.
The mechanics for setting up such a facility (the latter option at least) must be possible - just thought it might save time for PlusNet Support to get immediate flags of anything needing attention, and PN-flags from specific boards could be routed direct to relevant departments.

Regards,
Penny.

[#7]

I'm personally not aware if such a functionality exists, but imagine that if it were would create a new question of whether or not we would want to.
Chris' team is obviously of a finite size and to cover effectively 24/7 would probably require at least 50% more staff if not more, which would be a commercial decision to make.  At this stage I can't see this happening in the short to medium terms as our priority is currently on expanding the call centre operation although Chris' team will naturally expand over time, but will be aimed at core hours.
I've flagged the caller ID from support issue with my manager. I think there *may* have been technical limitations why we couldn't do this previously.

[#8]

Quote from: Penny

When a post is made on these forums, there's a facility below the text box for "additional options and attachments".  Would it not be possible to add a fourth option: "flag this post for the attention of PlusNet Support".

In my opinion that wouldn't work as everyone would click on it when they have a problem

[#9]

Quote from: purleigh

it can take several days for Plusnet to respond to widespread issues, just because it is the weekend or a public holiday and nobody has noticed.

Quote from: Oldjim

Quote from: Penny Would it not be possible to add a fourth option: "flag this post for the attention of PlusNet Support". In my opinion that wouldn't work as everyone would click on it when they have a problem

I just meant as a means of highlighting things requiring urgent attention - there's so very much ongoing conversation on these forums that it's a massive task for PN to read through simply everything all the time on the offchance there's something significant somewhere.  I know there are "tickets" but ten flagged posts on a single specifically-titled thread might be a more immediate indicator, that's all.

[#10]

Quote from: James

Chris' team is obviously of a finite size and to cover effectively 24/7 would probably require at least 50% more staff if not more

I think you have missed my point,  I'm not necessarily saying provide 24/7 technical support (although that would be nice),  what I am suggesting is having ONE member of the support staff available at all times (or perhaps evenings, weekends, and holidays) monitoring the forum as a lookout for problems.  If a problem affects many customers, then that support lookout could escalate the issue to on-call out-of-hours engineers, or your suppliers, to minimize the impact on customers.
The most recent example was yesterday when we were ALL unable to make outgoing phone calls over Plusnet VoIP,  we as customers are not allowed to contact your supplier "Gradwell" directly, and there was nobody at Plusnet to acknowledge that there was an issue or to contact the relevant people to get the problem resolved.

[#11]

I think I did miss your point to an extent but I realised the reason that you were raising it in the first place.
Yours is a fairly unique example because normally there is a member of the Digital Care Team "on call" both for the CSC to contact if unsure on something and also to periodically keep an eye on the forums.  This is only up until a reasonable time in the evening though.
I suspect had this happened outside the "holiday" two week period, it would have been picked up.

[#12]

There was another issue not so long ago where www.plus.net was suddenly taken offline due to unplanned maintenance.
It happened on a Sunday morning and it took a couple of hours from someone at PN to acknowledge the issue - and I think that member of staff (Adam) was not working that day too. Ideally, someone from PN should have acknowledged the issue as soon as it occurred. The technical guys were aware of the problem quite quickly as a placeholder was put instead of the normal home page - but it should have been communicated to customers at the same time on here and possibly Twitter.
It would also reduce the workload of your digital care team as I imagine people were calling up/raising tickets when they couldn't access the website/member's portal etc.
(the thread in question is here: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,119996.0.html)

[#13]

I would like to see PN reduced supplier fault within 24 hours (not 72 hours)

[#14]

As for the idea of flagging posts for attention of staff, perhaps if it was an option for moderators only, then they can sort of triage posts for those that could do with the attention.  Or do they already have escalation powers?

[#15]

Quote from: IngeJones

do they already have escalation powers?

No we don't as such but can and do flag posts for attention in a hidden board.