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Customer service a game you can’t win?

Why does customer service feel like a game you can’t win?

You call…, wait…, chat… You explain everything again. And just when you think: now we’re off…, you are moved on again.

You’ve probably experienced it too. You have a problem or a question and you contact customer service.

Result: long waiting times before you get in, a whole series of questions from a chatbot and, if you get hold of someone, always another person who contradicts the previous one or promises something else.

Callback agreements are not kept, there is no trace of previous reports and your file is restarted every time.

80 percent of callers drops out. That’s exactly what they’re hoping for.

Coincidence or system?

In Belgium, you see this every day at telecom companies, banks, hotel and sales platforms. When you have a question or want to report a problem as a customer, you often run into a wall of procedures and impersonal systems.

You notice: you are not alone here.

What you experience happens to thousands of others every day. The figures from Test Aankoop do not lie.

That realization is reassuring somewhere. It’s not you.

If this happens so massively, it is no longer a coincidence. Then it’s a system, a game that you can hardly win. Now that you understand that it is a system, you no longer have to undergo the game, but you can consciously play along.

Think of it as a Stratego game:

• You are the player,
• the company is the adversary,
• And every queue, chatbot, or customer service agent is an obstacle that you need to bypass or eliminate.

The 5 levels in the game

1: The reason behind ‘the system’

Why has it become so difficult to get a problem solved in recent years?

No, it has nothing to do with young employees in call centers. Put a fifty-year-old with just as few qualifications, the same education and the same targets, and you get exactly the same result.

Cost savings, extensive digitization, cumbersome company structures and difficult communication. They all play along.

Plus a strategy of exhaustion! Yes, companies know damn well that most give up after hanging on the phone a few times in frustration.

However, there is one decisive factor that has fundamentally changed the entire customer service: compliance.

Since everything has to be ‘compliant’, and traceable for auditors, companies hide behind chatbots and rules that severely limit the initiatives and responsibility of their employees.

Chatbots can’t say anything wrong and employees are not allowed to deviate from their prescribed scripts.

What was originally intended to protect the customer has now turned against him.

2: Document your previous steps

Now that you know why the game is played the way it is, collect as much evidence as possible:

• screenshots, e-mails, booking and case numbers,
• dates, times, names and promises of employees,
• clear description of the problem and previous steps.

3: Take it to the next level

When you feel stuck and don’t move forward, there is little point in continuing to push. Take it to the next level.

• Ask a qualified employee, a supervisor,
• ask for personal follow-up in case of complex problems,
• escalate as needed, with all documentation on the table.

If that doesn’t work, it’s time to get out your bonus cards.

4: Use your bonus cards

Contact the Resolution Center on their website

It helps resolve your complaint through mediation or smart negotiations.

Sites like AirBnB and Bol.com have their own Resolution Center.

Contact an ombudsman service

Ombudsman.be guides you to the right ombudsman.

5: Result

Every call, every queue, and every email is a move on the plate. Sometimes you hit something. Sometimes the opponent has already changed places.

Guarantee of winning? … The system is counting on people getting tired. My husband’s 8th attempt at Telenet succeeded in solving his problem. You could say that persistence wins!

Good luck! Will you let me know if it works?

Emma

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