Eat your words - brick bat time.

[#1]

I have recently had occasion to use the ticket system to try to get a speed issue sorted.   The experience has not been a good one. I had to send a PM to senior PlusNet staff to get some form of action on the ticket initially, and then the action ceased... I responded quickly to the replies I did get. but then it took another THREE DAYS before I got a response, AFTER ANOTHER PM to senior PlusNet staff.... UNFORTUNATELY, that response DID NOT read the ticket, and resulted in a further DELAY during the weekend, when I had to send ANOTHER PM to get some action. Questions I asked on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY last week, were not answered in the previous responses, and only after a second PM were the questions answered today... MONDAY...
so here are a few quotes from my  "blast in the past" post..... EMPLOY MORE STAFF to deal with tickets and phones...
These are the "latest/last" posts on the subject before it sank into oblivion.....
Mark, PlusNet Staff stated on reply number 84 dated 21 MARCH 2010

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I admit that we're not completely sorted yet but we're not far off. Steve has already stated that we are comitted to improvement and delivering excellent customer service and we are making very significant progress The ticket system does not need a complete overhaul, we simply need to ensure we are staffing accordingly and working efficiently. Thats eactly what Steve and team are working through right now and is exactly what they will deliver and to be fair, their not that far off. Give it a short time and you and the customer base will continue to see the improvements which are happening each and every day. Its taken a bit of time and we've still a bit to go but we are most definately on the right track

Note the date...... MARCH ..... over seven months ago, and he said

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Give it a short time and you and the customer base will continue to see the improvements which are happening each and every day.

Erm...... how long is a "short time" Mark?  
Next up is Jameseh  .... who is he?..... COMPLAINTS MANAGER !  (and look at his expression on his avatar)
In an "Introductory message"  http://community.plus.net...php/topic,84639.msg698751
he says ......

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I do completely understand that a number of you have raised concerns have the speed of which we’ve been answering tickets of late.  Part of our period of growth is to ensure that we’re able to getting the average response times on tickets down to a better level – we’re aiming for 4 hours by the end of June.

Erm ..... what was that James? ? ? ? ?   "We`re aiming for 4 hours by the end of June ".....
OH ... I get it now..... You did not specify WHICH June .......  But we all assumed you meant June 2010... how silly of us ....

Now.... still on the "blast in the past" posting from me.... Steve Woods drops by to "update" us all on "progress"....
This is reply number 89 dated 27 MAY 2010

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I'm pleased to say we are now (and have been for the last month or so) a lot closer to where we need to be to give the levels of customer service you require. Anyone that has needed to raise a ticket recently should have seen a more rapid turnaround in the time it takes to respond.

perhapst the month is significant..... MAY ? ? ?  
sorry Steve...
. I dont`t think your words " Anyone that has needed to raise a ticket recently should have seen a more rapid turnaround in the time it takes to respond." ......     are ringing true in OCTOBER 2010....
So it seems, we have still got "a long way to go"..... to be "on the right track".... and be " a lot closer"........  to see a "more rapid turnaround in the time it takes to respond"....
how many more of these "cliche" statements are we going to be fobbed off with, before the "good intentions" (I did type promises,..... but nobody "promised" anything..)  that were made earlier in the year, actually produce results..
and don`t tell me that your "customer satisfaction survey" has said you are improving...    you can get any result you want by asking the "right" questions.. to get the "right " answers...
or to put it another way...

" How long has PlusNet been in the business of an ISP, and providing "customer service levels" that STILL need to be "brought up to standard" ?  
Well, those who have been named above, will not be going hungry.... as they will be eating a lot of humble pie. I just hope they don`t choke on it before getting the ticket system sorted out and giving the best possible service that the customers of PlusNet expect and deserve.
I leave you with a reminder of  a quote above.... (bold type is my addition)

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The ticket system does not need a complete overhaul, we simply need to ensure we are staffing accordingly and working efficiently. Thats eactly what Steve and team are working through right now and is exactly what they will deliver and to be fair, their not that far off.

Oh and just to rub salt into my wounds...... here is todays "forecast" for ticket response times..... HA HA HA

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Customer Question handling When a customer raises a query by phone or through the Help Assistant, we raise a 'Question' (also known as a Ticket) on their account. We aim to close all Questions within 4 hours. Question Handling Statistics Average closure time ................................................................................ Target closure time 2 hours, 1 minute and 48 seconds........................................................ 4 hours Last updated: October 18, 2010, 9:32 am

Unbeleivable.

[#2]

Couldn't agree more. A good candidate for a plusnet company anthem might be:
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day away!
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/annie/tomorrow.htm

[#3]

Hi Gerry,
After reading through your post the main issue you're highlighting is the ticket turnaround time. Before I respond it's worth keeping in mind that the figures you've quoted for the average response time are for standard CSC tickets, these do not include responses to fault tickets (which is what your ticket was raised as.
I've taken a look in the standard Customer Support ticket pool (where the staff respond to the queries from) and the oldest one awaiting a response is from 8am this morning. There are older tickets in some other ticket pools and faults/prov tickets are substantially older.
I'm going to ask if we can get some clarity around the type of tickets on csc.plus.net to make this clearer as there is no mention that fault tickets aren't included in the average.

On a side note, the support centre is bigger than I've ever seen it and most of the staff are getting up to speed now. The faults team has also been increased and we're working on process improvements to bring down their response times too.

[#4]

Yes... it is the ticket turnaround time, that is a big part of CUSTOMER SERVICE, that PlusNet keep banging on, that is so wonderful, except that it IS NOT.....

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the figures you've quoted for the average response time are for standard CSC tickets, these do not include responses to fault tickets (which is what your ticket was raised as.

the figures I quoted  are the figures that are available to customers on the Plusnet Service Information page. and provided by PlusNet... and also the quotes used are made by senior PlusNet staff..
I`m only using the same figures and information that you use, to pacify us, when things don`t look good....

So what is the point of putting up a picture with ticket response times, if it refers to "INTERNAL TICKET" response times.... smoke and mirrors come to mind......

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I've taken a look in the standard Customer Support ticket pool (where the staff respond to the queries from) and the oldest one awaiting a response is from 8am this morning. There are older tickets in some other ticket pools and faults/prov tickets are substantially older.

So if you, csc staff, raise a ticket, then it will be answered within the specified time...... BUT..... if a customer puts a ticket in the system,...... then it won`t get anywhere near that..... and it doesn`t even get put into the equation to produce the estimated clearance time....
The quotes I used in this post are from a post I made starting last November. and those responses indicated that by JUNE this year things should be "up to Par"  (no pun intended)... it seems that PlusNet have always got an excuse and keep promising that things will get better, but they never do....
Once again... I have to point out that PlusNet has been in this business a long time.... and by now these problems SHOULD NOT EXIST, let alone come under the title " still being fixed"....
What you are saying in your response above is that despite all the increase in staff level, and training, you still haven`t got it right.... how long do you need to get it right....  I give you a quote.... from my post above...

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Give it a short time and you and the customer base will continue to see the improvements which are happening each and every day.

NO.... we don`t "continue to see the improvements which are happening each and every day"..... what we are seeing is more and more BAD FEEDBACK and complaints regarding slowness or lack of answering tickets....every day.... Just go and check how many "new posts" in Feedback have been made in the past 24 hours.... and then tell me  that I, and other customers, can "see the improvements which are happening each and every day."
You failed to acknowledge that I had to wait for almost a week before two questions I posed on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, were answered..... despite my PM`s to senior staff........ which, incidentally, I should not have had to do,. ... if..... "the improvements which are happening each and every day." were, indeed, "happening every day"...

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I'm going to ask if we can get some clarity around the type of tickets on csc.plus.net to make this clearer as there is no mention that fault tickets aren't included in the average.

instead of "making it clearer" that customer fault tickets are not included, perhaps a better way forward, would be to be completely "open and honest" about the correct resonse times on the Plusnet Service Information page.....  Which DOES include them..

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most of the staff are getting up to speed now. The faults team has also been increased and we're working on process improvements to bring down their response times too.

BUT .... hang on a minute, Chris...... isn`t this what was said in earlier postings?  and why are "most of the staff getting up to speed"..... instead of having ALL of the staff  "at speed"...
why are you STILL working on process improvement.... when previous replies advised us that it would all be sorted by JUNE ?
Sorry, Chris...... you have not even nibbled at the "humble pie" ....... try it.....    you may not like it.... but at least you should try it.....

[#5]

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So what is the point of putting up a picture with ticket response times, if it refers to "INTERNAL TICKET" response times.... smoke and mirrors come to mind...... So if you, csc staff, raise a ticket, then it will be answered within the specified time...... BUT..... if a customer puts a ticket in the system,...... then it won`t get anywhere near that..... and it doesn`t even get put into the equation to produce the estimated clearance time....

Sorry, I mustn't have explained myself very well. Those figures are *not* from internally raised tickets. They are standard support tickets raised via the help assistant, what I was trying to get across is that fault tickets (those raised from faults.plus.net) aren't included in the average figure.

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I had to wait for almost a week before two questions I posed on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, were answered.

Apologies for this, as I understand it Adam did reply to your ticket but missed those specific questions completely by accident.

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and why are "most of the staff getting up to speed"..... instead of having ALL of the staff   "at speed"...

As we've continued to recruit we need to continue to train and bring the staff up to standard.

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why are you STILL working on process improvement.... when previous replies advised us that it would all be sorted by JUNE ?

Unfortunately the additonal staff and the process changes already made haven't had as much of an impact as we'd have liked, specifically for faults. We're determined to get this right and show improvements.

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Just go and check how many "new posts" in Feedback have been made in the past 24 hours.

That's the nature of a forum and our willingness to respond to forum posts means we will continue to see posts like that, no matter how good a process is there is always something that can go wrong.
We're not where we'd like to be with fault turnarounds, and there are some delays in provisioning that we're having to cope with (supplier and internal) but we will continue to work hard to improve and I'm certain we'll get to where we want to be.

[#6]

Gerry,
Happy to give you a ring to discuss rather than your having to spend considerable amount of time writing your replies.
I'd like to think that after we've spoken you'll have a better understanding of the massive investment that we have been making within our call centre to improve both quality and response times.

[#7]

Thanks for the call, James.... nice to have a chat, and hopefully things will start to show the improvements mentioned are beginning to work...