Live Chat - operating hours update

[#1]

Morning Everyone

Since the Bank Holiday we've been reintroducing live chat for periods of the day, to help us understand the impact on call wait times, as well as our ability to handle the number of chats coming in too.

With this in mind we've taken the decision to operate chat over the following times next week:

Mon - Tue: 12:00 - 16:00
Wed - Fri: 11:00 - 17:00

This plan is fluid and being reviewed on a daily basis. I'll update on here should these times change and will update next Friday our plans for the following week.

For users who rely on Chat as a form of contacting us, we do still offer a Text Relay service as well as private messaging on social media channels i.e. Twitter and Facebook, which can be used the same as live chat.

Thanks Louisa

[#2]

@LouisaMartin  I must point out Chat does not impact on call times !!!! 

long call times reflect

1--- Lack of suffient staffing

2--- Mistakes in ordering , regular

3-- Problems not comunicated via service status ,, ie Chat disabled

4-- lack of a up to date Billing system

i could go on but no doubt more customers will add to the list

[#3]

If we wish to contact our ISP via Chat, then, we now have to check on the latest 'fluid' plan to see when today's window of opportunity will allow access.

You couldn't make it up.  

[#4]

Obviously this isn't perfect @198kHz and we would love to be able to offer chat for the whole time of our opening hours however, at this moment in time, this is the option for us offering this service to users. 

Our resource and planning team will continue to monitor and will try to get back to BAU as soon as possible.

[#5]

So Obviously , if your   " resource and planning team will continue to monitor " i suspect Plusnet has a lack of resources to run Chat and phones together .

Obviously this is Commercially sensitive and will not be replied to

[#6]

I have no issues with replying at all @rongtw. We are very tight on resource at the moment and have ongoing recruitment, but  with the volume of contacts we are receiving at the moment, we are struggling to answer all of our channels within an appropriate time. Yes.

[#7]

---

@LouisaMartin wrote:

Our resource and planning team will continue to monitor and will try to get back to BAU as soon as possible.

---

But 'Business As Usual' for quite a while now has been sub standard, with appalling wait times on phones and Chat.

We were rather hoping for an improvement.  

[#8]

Basically Live Chat will be available between the times posted, except when it isn't!

Not much change to what we have now.

[#9]

@LouisaMartin Than you for your open reply

But i will say one thing Plusnet have been actively looking for staff for at least 8 years , things have not changed a lot in that time

[#10]

Some of the problems have been with PlusNet for the past 8 years..and  have been well discussed, during my campaign... . started 8 years ago...  during that time,... many "promises" were made by Plusnet staff, and many were broken,... but all were given under the well worn phrase... " give us time... and we`ll get there".... well... 8 years on... and the phone situation is worse than it ever was.... but with Live Chat, there was ( is ) an alternative, and pretty good it is too... you get a copy of your chat... you can see where you are in the queue, and  you can do other things whilst waiting for your turn...( unlike on the phones where you have to listen to  muzak  etc, and have no idea when you are likely to move up the queue, or if you have moved backwards down it)..

Live chat is running a "partially disabled service" at present.. and my present campaign... only lasted 2 weeks this time.. so the possible intevention of the SU space/environment/group ... seems to have opened a few eyes and minds to the consequences of rash, poorly thought out "quick fix" decisions.

I am sure... that    " Given time......  Live Chat will soon be available as a 1st point of contact, especially for disabled/hard of hearing customers, as it used to be... unfortunately, I cannot see the same thing with the phones at present..

Note... some of the problems causing an overload on Live Chat, were due to customers ( apparently) waiting on the phone, and trying to get an answer on Live Chat at the same time.... hoping, that, one or the other, would prove to be the quicker method of communication..

[#11]

@198kHz I can't disagree with you at all and can only say how hard we're working to try and get this back into an acceptable place

[#12]

Considering it was switched off completely last week and not even considered to put be put back on at the height of the day @agedgopher, I think you have to say this is a change.

It wasn't a decision which was taken lightly, I can absolutely assure you of that and it's also seen as a massive set back to have to make a decision like that.

[#13]

@LouisaMartin

Whilst I applaud the re-introduction of Live Chat within restricted hours, the addition of the caveat that it will be reviewed on a daily basis is hardly a major improvement.

Here today and gone again tomorrow ?

Live Chat will be available except when it is not.

[#14]

And here lies the problem   

Plusnet are not getting there ,,,,,, they are getting further away , would of thought 8 years was enough time to arrive

[#15]

@rongtw I know and I feel a bit like a repeat button at the moment, as someone else has just pointed that out to me. 

I don't sit within the resource and planning team and therefore don't feel comfortable trying to talk through what they're doing to address the issues we're seeing. As such I'll take this discussion away and come back to you next week with some better information to let you know what the business is working on, to improve the situation.

Thanks