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One of those things that annoy me are organisations that won't let me lodge a complaint over the telephone; they'll happily take my details three times, pass me to the Peterborough office, and so on, only to finally say "Well, sir, you'll have to write to our customer services team - we can only accept complaints in writing".
I mean, they'll have the notes of everything I wanted to complain about, they've checked all the details they need to know, and they say they'll record telephone calls - why make me waste my time putting it all in writing? Cynically, I suggest because they hope I won't be bothered...
I mean, they'll have the notes of everything I wanted to complain about, they've checked all the details they need to know, and they say they'll record telephone calls - why make me waste my time putting it all in writing? Cynically, I suggest because they hope I won't be bothered...
(no subject)
You are in part right. However, having worked for a customer service organisation (a small telecoms company), there is more to it than just that.
If the complainer has to put some effort in then that should weed out most of the spurious complaints. Some people complain just for the sheer hell of it, while some complaints are mearely petty. If those can be eliminated it will save the company money.
Regarding recording details of telephone calls. The company I worked for did that. However, it was a major pain in the arse to actually use the data. Firstly one needs a robust system of identifying the actual recording necessary. Secondly, it is far more difficult to move the recording around the people who need to deal with the matter raised by the complaint. Not everyone might have access to the telephone recording system. If necessary a letter can by photocopied and handed to the person in question, or an OCR (or scan) of it can be emailled. The matter might need to be sent to a third party (outsourcing); frequently they won't have access to internal telephone recording system.
It is actually easier to deal with paper (whether real or electronic) than recordings when dealing with complaints. Recordings of telephone conversations do have their place, usually in improvement training for staff: do it this way, not that way. But also if the matter gets to court. The number of complaints that get as far as court is so small that the extra hassle involved in managing the recordings is not significant.
What should happen with a complaint over the telephone, is the complainer should be told up front that their complaint must be in writing, not after being passed around lots of different people and departments. That should be a complaint in itself.
(no subject)
What usually annoys me is that I have no particular assurance that a complaint I make will actually result in any improvement to the service in future. What I want is to be able to:
In short, I want a bug tracking system...