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

[#1]

Perhaps you need to badger BT Wholesale about seamlessly transferring people from one supplier to another, since AFAIK it's actually them that does the work... if they bodge it up, there's nothing Plusnet, Tiscali, Talk Talk or any other ISP can really do about it.

[#2]

Several times I have suggested backing off the advertising campaigns to allow support to get to a better place.
That that hasn't happened has me utterly convinced that there is one or more sales/marketing managers who's bonuses relies on the number of new sign ups they manage to get. They will not be at all concerned as to whether these people have a happy experience. It's highly likely they will have been parachuted in to Plusnet by BT - and we all know where BT stands on the make a profit/do what's right for the customer balance. They probably knows that if things continue the way they are Plusnet will get a bad reputation and that getting new users will be more difficult, but that won't bother them, like all these bods totally focused on their bonuses they'll just move on. I've seen this sort of thing so many times over my working life, as far as sales/marketing are concerned if they get paid a bonus it's the right thing to do.
I'll bet there are some very interesting discussions go on between the sales/marketing and the support management teams!

[#3]

I wonder who got the bullet for the South African fiasco. 

[#4]

I'd guess nobody - shutting it is saving Plusnet money and so will be regarded as a success.

[#5]

Quote from: shutter

just so you know that it is not "just me".....

It really isn't just shutter and jelv who think all this.
For a long time (ie 2 years ish), Plusnet have been giving specific apologies over specific instances of Support failures and delays, and often say they are recruiting more staff to improve matters.  And yet the general point seems not to be addressed - the same Support failures and delays are still happening at the same or worse level.
We can argue and debate about what the numbers of complaints that reach the forums actually shows; but whatever these numbers of complaints do show, the numbers of complaints have not fallen (and may have slowly risen over recent years).  The factors that make people post on the forums haven't changed, so the thing that keeps the complaints coming is that the real Support failures and delays have not fallen.
Maybe the level of recruitment is only keeping up with demand/need.  In which case the level of recruitment needs to increase at a faster rate.  And maybe the gradual improvements in the infrastructure, systems, and support tools are only keeping up with demand/need.  In which case the speed and quality of improvements needs to increase at a faster rate.  I suspect it's both.

[#6]

Quote

as far as sales/marketing are concerned if they get paid a bonus it's the right thing to do.

That's not the kind of working culture we have or want to encourage at all. As mentioned by James rather than us over-seeing the mark in terms of raking in new customers that we can't handle, we're actually behind on where we ant to be in terms of head count.
I'll make sure you guys know when the new staff hits the phones and when we're met the desired 20 extra heads and we'll see where things go from there.

[#7]

No, Adam, that is not the kind of working culture you have, or want....
However.... this
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,93006.0.html
proves my point..... despite all the assurances given over the last 12-15 months...... nothing has changed....
As mentioned in my postings.... the ticket system is in need of a serious overhaul, to stop this sort of thing happening... waiting for 2 days to have the above response as the "first " response is downright pathetic. other comments that come to mind are "inconsiderate" "useless" " pointless" "stupid"..... I am sure you could add some of your own to the list...
A ticket requesting assistance is, to each individual customer, an IMPORTANT request. and as such should be dealt with by PlusNet in the same manner as which it is posted to them....
Urgency does not seem to be one of the first things that come to mind when getting this kind of response.... nor does Customer Service.... more like Customer Dis-service.
(incidentally, talking to the individual concerned, may well educate him/her about the errors of their ways, but that is no appeasement to someone who is on the receiving end of such a message, especially when it is known that it will happen again with another agent within minutes/hours/days.....)

[#8]

Just been checking up on a few things, to see how it has "improved" with all the "nice words" spoken in previous threads, trying to convince us, that more training, more staff etc etc and  " we are getting there" "Give us a few weeks"....
well,,... the last post on here by me was in January 2011....
and tonight I check the Plusnet service report

Quote

Residential Call statistics (updated at least every 3 minutes) Current calls waiting ........Longest call waiting now ......... Average answer time today 34............................ 26 minutes and 22 seconds .............2 minutes and 23 seconds Last updated: February 8, 2012, 8:15 pm

and as for Question Handling

Quote

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. Average closure time ............................................ Target closure time 6 hours, 47 minutes and 15 seconds......................... 4 hours Last updated: February 8, 2012, 8:41 am

If nearly 7 hours is the average, then that means there is a much longer time above 7 hours, ( and some simple ones less than 7 hours),,,, but it still is not reaching the 4 Hour target....
So.... Adam and the rest of you, who said things will get better..... give us a chance to prove it.....

Quote

I'll make sure you guys know when the new staff hits the phones and when we're met the desired 20 extra heads and we'll see where things go from there.

so where are they, Adam?  been a bit quiet on this point...............
over 12 months..... and this is it?
Somehow, it doesn`t seem to be.....
especially to the last in the "queue"  (that doesn`t exist, cos the calls are prioritised)... waiting on the phone for over 25 minutes...
MORE STAFF TO ANSWER THE PHONES.....  WOULD CUT THIS CALL WAITING TIME...

[#9]

Gerry,
A one of snapshot of stats doesn't suddenly mean we're understaffed! The proof is in the reduction of complaints on here about the call wait times (I'm not saying we don't still get complaints but EVERY call centre has spikes of calls that means long waits happen sometimes. We've also not seen as many complaints about ticket turnaround times. I'm not saying things are perfect, but they certainly aren't as bad as you're trying to make them sound.

[#10]

Agreed, that one snapshot doesn`t tell the whole story... and Probably is much better than my post implies...
however.. getting that sort of picture after all the hype from PN about how things were going to improve, isn`t a good thing to see, if you are waiting on the phone..
I have been fortunate, that in the past year, I have only had to contact PN once, ( about a house move that went wrong), which did get sorted eventually, and I am still a firm PlusNet customer.... Just want it to be "the best"... 

[#11]

Quote from: cso

I almost responded to this the other day there, but decided against it. However, I had an interesting chat with some high-level directors of a large business yesterday afternoon, and their thoughts echoed my own so it's obviously not just personal opinion. People will only post to forums when they have a problem, because they feel it's either the only way to get it answered, they want to provide feedback or they want to verify that they aren't the only one with the problem. People that have no problems with the service RARELY post to forums, or provide any feedback what-so-ever on their experiences if they are actually good.

:smile:  I got to reading this message yesterday afternoon, because my broad band had slowed to a crawl (again) making it impossible to work.  Whilst I take the point that the forums will attract a higher proportion of dissatisfied customers, I will make the point that most of the directors I speak with, a weekly occurrence, tend towards denial and excuse.  In my experience, the bigger the organisation, the less in touch the directors and the more likely and wider the denial of problems is.  You might have watched the TV series, 'Back to the Floor' or 'Undercover Boss.'  Clearly my observation is far from new or unique.
If you want to know what happens on a forum, talk to the moderators.  What you are likely to find, because all 'open' forums tend to adhere to similar, socially guided principles, is that the scope is representative but the volume is not.  Any complaint that appears is representative of pain being felt across the user base but the force of the dispute, and repetition of it, is un-representative.  i.e. A few people can make a lot of noise about a few things. 
Complaints made quietly and often really do need to be taken seriously, as they are the ones that point toward the endemic faults.  James is entirely wrong in his deference to the British Stereotype.  Brits don't like to complain. The stiff upper lip may be wobbling a bit in the 21st century but, generally speaking, Brits complain only as a last resort and so often feel the need to apologise when they do.  Worryingly James is a Complaints Manager but is somewhat quick to excuse himself.  That I fear is the British Disease.  Please James, stop looking for the reasons why performance is adeq

Quote

The people on this forum are only very probably the minority of people, less than 6% of customers are registered here at a guess, and I'd hazard a guess that an even smaller percentage of them have problems. Perhaps a thing called 'perspective' needs to be applied?

[#12]

I last replied to this thread a year ago?

[#13]

Seven years on from this topic being started and has it improved?

[#14]

Might also be worthwhile resuscitating the Billing; Provisioning and Automation threads from the same era?

Same excuses words being trotted out - perhaps it would speed things up a bit if we gave the common topics / responses reference numbers to minimise typing?

On a more serious note:  Some investment in the back office support systems would have a big impact on support effort by reducing the many repeats of known issues.  Similarly actually being pro-active in fixing Network failures rather than waiting until the problem is being actively and vociferously being debated in the Forums would help.

M

[#15]

Certainly doesn`t look like it from the Support pages Phone calls waiting graph.There has been 40 to45 calls waiting for the past hour and half....

Average waiting time just over 21 minutes...

however the figure for Longest Call Waiting Now, is " surprise surprise"     Currently Unavailable...

Can someone ( @jaread , maybe, ) explain that ?

So much for the "intro" to the graph

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us. That's why we publish these statistics to keep everyone at Plusnet focused on your needs. If we're not meeting our target times, we'll be working hard to make improvements.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Apart from accessing the above on the support pages,...  those poor souls, getting earache ( and arm ache)  from holding a phone up there for  ( more than 21 minutes ) and further earache from the incessant muzak, and adverts to conact PN by going online...  they have no idea how long they will be there, because there is no queueing system to inform them, ( despite the repeated message   "your call is important to us.... "   of where they are in the mystical queue.

On another subject, but, also linked with the above,.... Live Chat, DOES actually give you a notice of where you are in  the queue... and it is much easier to keep coming back to the screen, whilst doing other things, like making a sandwich and a cuppa, or cleaning your shoes, writing your christmas cards, playing chess online, than it is to keep that phone stuck to your ear, and trying not to miss the voice actually speaking to you, and asking what you want...

staying with Live Chat... why is there no statistics published about how long it takes to get an answer on Live Chat, or how many calls there are waiting on Live chat, as with the phones ?