Suggestion..... employ more staff to answer tickets and phones

[#1]

The 'system' isn't exactly as it was 2, 3, or 4 years ago, we're constantly making changes and improvements to improve our service.
The current situation means we have higher queues of tickets than normal, and more calls in too.
However, employing lots of extra staff is not necessarily the best way to resolve this. What would we do with them after the queues are lowered? We could hire temps, but they're very costly and taking a long time to train them would be inefficient as they'd be leaving not long after the training completed.
To use an analogy, sometimes events happen which cause massive spikes in internet traffic, should we have loads of extra centrals to cater to this (even though they'd be unused the majority of the time)?
To do that would mean a massive cost outlay for very little gain. Much like taking on lots of extra staff when the ticket queues are temporarily high.
That said, we do have some new (permanent) starters in training next week, and tend to add extra CSC staff every couple of months these days (as the ongoing forecast for customer contacts indicates that we will need more staff).

[#2]

Hi Mand.... thanks for your input.
awaiting Chris`s answers to my posting.

[#3]

Hi Shutter,
I'm not sure what else I can add that Mand hasn't already said. She's covered all the points and given you the answers to the questions you raised.

[#4]

So basically, then, customer service is not, so it seems, a big deal.... a few more staff in training, will be very welcome, to those already hard pushed to clear up problems.
Plusnet will still tell the customers (but not to their face/ears) how important their problem is (to plusnet, not the customer).  (prioritising calls)  and waiting times will only improve if more customers decide not to post their problems as tickets, or decide they do not want to wait  on the phone.....
good scheme that....less problems reported from the stalwart few.. fewer problems, need less staff, keep costs down.increase customer base, make more profit but don`t spend it on customer service, back to the beginning..
Chris, and Mand... I know that both of you work very hard trying to sort out problems that have not been dealt with properly by some staff, and this probably takes up a fair amount of your time investigating, the original problem, the actions (or lack of) taken, and then trying your very best to resolve the (individual) problem....
I also realise, that neither of you can commit to any positive promise of action to improve the terrible complaints backlog, and indeed the complaints themselves, on the open forum, but it would be nice to have some sort of "we will have another look at the situation," type answer, rather than "we looked at it a couple of years ago", and that`s how it is.... "sorry for any inconvenience" type answers.
I know that both of you read the "Rants & Raves"  forum, and the number of complaints there, together with complaints in other sections of the forum, seem to be very much on the increase..... does this not ring alarm bells somewhere?  Customer Service is becoming something of a joke in the reputation of PlusNet.... when "a couple of years ago" it was the prime factor for people joining..... From what I have been reading lately, it is the prime factor for them to want to leave..... and as quickly as possible...
I wonder what would happen if the forums were closed. completely.... how would problems be resolved then?  imagine the situation.... No, on the other hand, it doesn`t bear thinking about, does it....
For every "personal intervention" that you two make, and a few other "bright sparks" on the forum, I say "Thank You Very Much". I, for one, appreciate that, and I am sure the people that get this personal service also appreciate it....... the trouble is, it is usually instigated by someone getting very very angry on the forum, before any action is taken.
An outsider might consider this "personal intervention" to be a symbol of a weak infrastructure to deal with problems.
I am not saying "the customer is always right" .... what I am trying to do, is to see how the present system can be improved, "from a customer`s pont of view".... a fair queuing system, and realistic forecasts of response times would go a long way towards improving the image of PlusNet Customer Relations Centre.....

[#5]

@ Chris....

Quote from: Chris

Hi Shutter, I'm not sure what else I can add that Mand hasn't already said. She's covered all the points and given you the answers to the questions you raised.

Not quite....  This is a specific question to you.... which remains unanswered.

moving on further down the thread. I drew your (and everyone else) attention to the vast difference in Response times to tickets.... You seemed to be surprised by my revelation, and said
Quote from: Chris on 30/11/2009, 14:04
That seems strange that the time has dropped that dramatically, let me go do some digging.

Did you actually go and do some digging?  if so, you never came back to explain what happened. so presume you just "went away"
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I presume, because Mand has given me the whitewash treatment on the previous page, there is nothing further to say about my posting on this page either......
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EDIT    EDIT  EDIT
here`s another one....http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,81499.0.html
Ringing any alarm bells yet ? ? ? ?

[#6]

OK, I did response to your direct PM about this, which you know as you replied back to me since then. I'll post my reply in here too.

Quote

The ticket stats on there are updated daily, and as far as I can tell on the day where they went back to 3/4 hours that was a mistake, as simple as that. I pointed this out and they have set the response time back to what the average actually is. Sorry if this caused you any problems.

[#7]

Thanks for that Chris....
Presumably there is nothing further to say on this matter.
Can`t say I didn`t try...........................

[#8]

Hi
Improving the quality of customer service is a massive priority for us. Steve Woods (Customer Service GM), I and the team are spending a lot of time working through improvements we can make to our processes and making sure we have the right number of people on the phones and dealing with tickets. We have invested a lot in this area so far this year and we'll continue to do so. Its disappointing that there is a perception that we have slipped a little in recent months when I think we have made a lot of progress. Looking forward, I'm really confident that Plusnet service will be excellent - the team are totally committed to this.
Anthony

[#9]

Anthony.  Thank you for your response...
I am now re-assured that customer service IS a priority, and possibly an overhaul of the whole Customer Service system will improve the present one, to the extent that only a handful of complaints arrive on the Rants & Raves forum, and that hopefully complaints in general will be handled more fairly from the Customer`s point of view.  I am sure that the team are working as hard as they can to deal with the amount of problems, to reduce the waiting times, and to give as good a service as they possibly can. 
Frustrated customers are the worst kind to deal with, especially as the person they are speaking to, ( or in contact thru tickets) has nothing to do with the actual problem the customer has.
It will be interesting to see what improvements to the system evolve, over the next 6 months or so. 

[#10]

Seeing as how my other post about getting more staff to answer tickets, has been sidelined by Mand and Chris, together , with their responses

Quote

From Chris (reply number 40) Gerry, whilst I appreciate your concerns that some tickets aren't being handled in a timely manner, it's not quite a simple as throwing more staff into the mix. First of all they have to go through a 2 week training period (that's if we get the standard of staff we need), then they have a steep learning curve where they'll need close help from other members of the CSC. Of course adding new staff isn't free either and that extra salary has to come from somewhere.

Quote

from Mand (reply number 45) However, employing lots of extra staff is not necessarily the best way to resolve this. To do that would mean a massive cost outlay for very little gain. That said, we do have some new (permanent) starters in training next week, and tend to add extra CSC staff every couple of months these days (as the ongoing forecast for customer contacts indicates that we will need more staff).

This morning`s update on the Support Page
Question Handling Statistics
Average closure time                                                                         Target closure time
2 days, 20 hours, 24 minutes and 10 seconds                                   4 hours

Last updated: December 4, 2009, 7:37 am

Which to all intents and purposes, means 3 DAYS  if you have got a minor, but irritating,  problem today, (Friday) and post a "ticket"....you are not likely to have it solved  until Wednesday next week.....

[#11]

We didn't sideline the other thread, we responded to the points you raised in it. I'm not sure why you've raised a new thread on the same topic if I'm completely honest.
Yes the ticket times are longer than both you and we would like them to be, there isn't a way to instantly fix it or make it go away. We need continuous improvements which are in the process of being made.
Don't forget that raising a ticket isn't the only way to get support, giving us a call is a good way of getting help on issues. Don't forget you can check when the CSC has alot of calls at csc.plus.net

[#12]

Gerry, I'm not sure why you've started another thread either, it makes it very very difficult to follow what is going on, especially considering Anthony Vollmer's response on the other thread.
Surely just posting the update of the current ticket handling times (not b. good) with any appropriate comment would suffice.
In fact having made that suggestion, I will ask the mods to merge the threads.

[#13]

dick:green Topics merged.

[#14]

Here's another point that needs re-iterating if it's already been made, I've been reading here and there about "automated" ticket responses.
So have PlusNet started using some clever software that picks out keywords from a customers ticket and then posts a ready made reply. I don't think so. Somebody has to push a button for the stock answer to be pasted in. It's just a shame they didn't read properly before the button was pressed!

[#15]

Intermittent fault tickets do have automation on them, as turning interleaving on is nearly always the first step in trying to resolve these issues. We have a problem at the moment which is causing the interleaving orders to fail, so it tries to place it again which leads to the same response on a faults ticket multiple times.