How to find out if we love you.

[#1]

Working on the assumption of PlusNet caring about customer satisfaction levels, there are various ways they can check their customers' perception.
New customer surveys:

• Email each new customer an on-line questionnaire to ascertain their experience of account provision.


• Offer a present, perhaps 2 months rental refund for each completed questionnaire.


• Don't load the questions to bias the results, be honest.


• Publish the results on here!

Monitor dropped phone calls to customer service.
Monitor median time to answer the call to sales and customer service.
Have a post-support call questionnaire, establish whether the customer was satisfied.
Publish the management objectives on support calls.
Have automatic roll over of calls to manager's desk if it is not answered within x minutes.
Have Andy Baker spend one hour a week answering calls on the customer support desk.

[#2]

Thanks for the feedback AlaricAdair.
I'm honestly not sure how having Andy or managers answering calls would help as they're neither here or trained to do that but thanks for your suggestions.

[#3]

Simple really, they'll get an understanding of both the problems the Front Line face and also the frustrations of the customers. From the client side it might demonstrate they actually listen to the customers' viewpoint. At present all they get in the way of customer feedback is extracts from summaries of filtered reports.

[#4]

Quote

I'm honestly not sure how having Andy or managers answering calls would help as they're neither here or trained to do that but thanks for your suggestions.

That explains everything: If the management do not know  what you guys are  doing or cannot do your job , they should not be un that role. The first ruleof management is " do not tell others to do what you cannot do yourself"
Other wise your business is doomed to eventual failure.

[#5]

@gpsmout -sorry,but your last comment shows a lack of understanding of the role of a manager -  I was "responsible" for a large production operation in my working days ie financial, quality and productivity -but no way could I carry out the day to day operations of the 30 or so people working every shift.

[#6]

Some agents also decide to learn stuff off their own back out of their own interest, e.g. FTTP. Speaking to their managers would probably cause a bit of confusion in honesty!

[#7]

Quote from: davidj60

shows a lack of understanding of the role of a manager -  I was "responsible" for a large production operation...

No, I think he has a good understanding. I too was a manager, in a large international financial organisation. I was responsible for the IT Infrastructure across 28 EMEA countries. Part of those responsibilities included the managers of the Help Desk teams.If you want to understand what is really going on in an organisation there is no substitute for going out and experiencing what the support people encounter. Relying on reports, briefings, traffic light status reports is hopeless. Well meaning supervisors will filter the bad news. If you are the manager/director of such an environment you must take time to get away from the spreadsheets, senior management video conferences, committee meetings to experience the "coal face"; turn up without warning on a night shift and see what really happens.
If that means you have to deal with an angry client on the help desk phone you'll soon appreciate the need to properly fix the flaws in the system.
I've seen no evidence of the current PlusNet executives experiencing this type of exposure.

[#8]

An episode of Undecover Boss for Andy is needed

[#9]

That should be easy for him to pull off - if he gets out there as often as the evidence we've seen would suggest the majority of staff won't know who he is!

[#10]

Quote

No, I think he has a good understanding

Thanks  AlaricAdair!
I think I do have a good understanding having been "managed" and been in a  managment seat  in my working life, which is probably why I ended up working for myself in the end . 

[#11]

Quote from: AlaricAdair

If that means you have to deal with an angry client on the help desk phone you'll soon appreciate the need to properly fix the flaws in the system. I've seen no evidence of the current PlusNet executives experiencing this type of exposure.

...thats slightly different to the point I made - as I understood it, gpsm was suggesting that these senior managers should be capable of actually carrying out the day to day duties of all their reporting staff ie resetting lines,interrogating systems etc to update customers - that will never happen in an organisation of the size of PN -  HOWEVER,I fully agree that the same senior managers should experience first hand the sorts of issues currently occurring with the helpdesks 

[#12]

Look like we agree in principle then! PN, please get your senior managers to take an interest in  and observe and respond to what is really happening in Customer Service - or the apparent lack thereof!