Live chat Just a general query

[#1]

Hi @EnglishMohican - cheers for the questions.

I'm responsible for the performance of all Digital products. I'm not responsible for the People as you quite rightly mention, that falls into our Operations teams with key measurements being things like answer rates. Chat is important to me as I'm responsible for the relationship with our vendor & the technology. We take feedback from users to ensure the configuration is right to give you guys the right experience when you use the channel & to set up our people to succeed.

RE call queues, it's not my area & not something I'm particularly comfortable discussing as I think that it sets others up for a failure. What I would say is that no one in Plusnet believes an hour to be acceptable and we're doing as much as we can to reduce that.

Not intending to sound evasive but appreciate it comes across like that!

[#2]

No problem @shutter - I'll take a read later today. 

We'll be switching Chat back on tomorrow, just working up finer details and will communicate when we can.

Understand the scepticism & genuinely appreciate the passion in which you guys talk about our business, we care about it just as much as you do & we're doing everything we can to give you what you expect. Sorry we've not done that with this.

Cheers!
Liam

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@PlusnetLiam Thank you.   it`s been a long haul. 

All the "bashing" and "carping" seems to have had some effect..... at long last..

Watch this space... !

[#4]

@PlusnetLiam

Thank you for answering both questions. I am clearer about the first and I understand your reasons for not wanting to answer the second directly but I wonder if you could direct the question to whoever is responsible for the phone queues. It will be a pleasant change if they bravely put their head above the parapet as you have done.

[#5]

Evenin' all

To follow on from my previous post, we'll be restoring chat tomorrow but only at this stage for a limited time - between 12 & 4pm Wed/Thu/Fri but off at the weekend. We're doing that so we can effectively track & monitor the impact it has on overall contact queues & then make a more informed decision about what we do next week. Appreciate not ideal & not a full restoration of service but I'm keen to make sure we manage it in appropriately & this is a first step.

We'll also be making it much clearer for customers and removing some of the issues you've all identified in this thread, using pop ups to inform customers of the opening times on the Chat page & updating Service Status shortly but I wanted you to be the first to know. 

Thanks
Liam

[#6]

@PlusnetLiam  Thanks for taking time to let us the customers Know whats happening

[#7]

@PlusnetLiam Thank you....

[#8]

I thought I would post this https://uk.linkedin.com/in/liam-dyson-digital

Key achievements to date:
- Delivery end to end of new Community, in partnership with Lithium
- Management and delivery of new Help & Support site which included full redesign, content review & rewrite which saw increased journey completions & reduction in PTC
- Delivery and management of Web Chat. Responsible for ongoing optimisation and drive to increase channel share. Oversaw delivery and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) ratings above voice channels.
- Introduction, delivery and on going responsibility for Plusnet Help, our Youtube channel. Over 200,000 views in first 12 months.
- Responsibility for our Search tool including vendor management, identifying opportunities and optimisation. Increase in usage of over 30% YoY.
- Reduction in email contacts by nearly 70% YoY, driving customers to self serve or Web Chat.

So you were responsible for effectively junking the ticket system and for bringing in webchat which has now fallen over

So why wasn't the manning requirement fully checked and recruitment carried out to keep it being effective before we got to this dire state

[#9]

Oh Dear..... Just received the Plusnet portal announcement about reduced service on Plusnet Live Chat...

Well,  a positive thing to start with... and thanks for the message.. 

( not sure about how long it will be disabled degraded from the content though...)

"

 Chat will be available 12-4 Wed/Thu/Fri this week but with no availability on weekends.

"

( note the last word is in the plural - so the partially disabled service looks to be a thing of the future and not just for this week END )

`still... I suppose that a partial service is better than no service, so we must be thankful for small mercies....

Obviously..... still not quite "up to speed" on the contact us live chat page....

https://www.plus.net/help/chat/

Online Chat Opening times..

Customer Services & Technical Support	7.30am - 10pm	7 days a week
TV	7.30am - 10pm	7 days a week
Sales	7am - 11pm	7 days a week
Order Tracking	9am - 9pm 9am - 5.30pm	Monday - Friday Saturday
Business	8am - 8pm	Monday - Friday

https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/contact/residential/customer-services/

Let`s get you sorted

Chat to us online

Online chat is currently unavailabl

please choose another option 

     [Start chat]   ( greyed out )

Apology for "continued" degraded service..... But... no apology for all the time that no information as to why it was degraded ( aka  disabled )  from the start...

How sad...

[#10]

@Oldjim  That`s quite an impressive set of achievements...... ( on paper ) .. however, the reality of some of those are dubious, and will not be noticed when he applies for his new job.....

What a pity you can`t add comments on Linkedin.... like you can on TripAdvisor... , to show the real extent of those and subsequent achievements.

As a point of interest though..... from a previous thread of mine... ( another complaint ) @Chris responded that Plusnet has never had an email contact address.....  ( that was in reply to my thread regarding the "survey choices" after using Live Chat)..

"If live chat is not avaialble what would you have done  ?  and gives three or four choices ... one of which was "contact us via email "    

Memo... must go on live chat tomorrow, and see if that pops up on the survey questions,  afterwards ....

[#11]

Evening Jim

Thanks for posting that - I'm really proud of those achievements & many, many more since I joined Plusnet. I sense that you're not which is very much up to you, however, I do feel you posting that in this public forum is a little unfair especially as you are well aware of what I've done since I joined here as part of other conversations.

To address your points:

- RE Webchat - our demand has outstripped our capacity for a short period. We're committed to chat & to getting it back on ASAP. We plan for demand across our channels and as you can see demand was more than we anticipated. We're working on ensuring we have the right number of people as soon as we can.

- RE tickets, I still stand by us working to reduce the volume we had to manage. Whilst I appreciate & understand you disagreeing, there will be decisions we make that have a lot more context to them than what we can share on here. What we are doing is working to open up channels our customers want to use to contact us but using a technology that is suitable for such volumes.

Cheers!
Liam

[#12]

@shutter

Unfortunately, we can't amend the Chat page in time - however, what we are doing tomorrow is launching a pop up overlay on top of that to explain that we're not open in those times and pointing to our Service Status announcement. Not ideal but the best we can do in the timelines we have.

And RE the plural, my bad in sending that to the guys - busy day!

And the email option in the survey will exist tomorrow, whilst tickets is a term used frequently on here it was felt referring to them as email was more appropriate for the majority of customers (considering tickets do still exist but in a slightly different format to how you guys remember).

[#13]

@PlusnetLiam  OK.. on the "pop ups"..  .... however..... .the word "email" on that survey question.... really..?  if you insist on keeping it.... then you should provide an email address. 

It may be, that on your end "email" and "ticket" means the same thing... but on this end....the users end...

     email means "email"

              as in " wot`s your email address, and I`ll send you ....... "

  You are suggesting to the customer, who is completing the survey, that it is possible to send his/her  questions to PlusNet via email.....if Live Chat is not working.... . A service that does not exist.......

(point to ponder, though.... if live chat isn`t working... then customers won`t know about sending their queries by email as they will not have gone throught the survey ).... Hmmm   ? ? ? ? 

the word  email  should be removed as there is NO EMAIL ADDRESS to contact PlusNet..

If a "ticket system" still exists... then that should be the wording... ( with perhaps a linky to how to use it  ? ? ?  ) 

Probably not the most important of things for you to organise ( at the moment)... but you do ask for feedback on stuff... so it is something you will have to put to your minions, and get that fixed too.......

I think the biggest problem with managers thinking about the job they do, is "how will this affect my personal level in the company"... if I do (suggest) (organise) it this way, or that way.....  not "how will this affect the customers of my company"... 

In other words... whatever you are thinking about...needs further thoughts "out of the box" from the customer points of view. ( which you are now relying on from the SU group, presumably)... 

[#14]

@PlusnetLiam

I don't know why you are unhappy with me posting that

All I did was search for Liam Plusnet in Google and yours was the top result

[#15]

@Oldjim  did you notice Liam has only had his present post for 3 months  ?

I have no doubt he is more than capable to do this Job , But as @shutter a bit more empathy for the customer would not go amiss .