Support That Sucks – The Downside of BIG
You’ve likely heard the phrase “bigger is better” at some point in your
life, but when it comes to technical support or customer service it’s
very difficult to make that argument. Consider that when you make that
support call to Dell, Qwest or Web.com, you first have to navigate
through an automated telephone receptionist. This method has improved
its accuracy a great deal over recent years but it’s still not nearly as
reliable as the human machine. Once you do get to an actual human,
you’re likely to be talking to someone overseas and English will not be
their first language.
I could try to question why some of these
companies prefer to annoy their customers but it’s pretty obvious that
it’s a way to improve margins. I’m sure most people understand that the
American workforce demands more money than their counterparts in
Bombay, India. That’s not to say that the overseas support personnel
doesn’t know what they’re doing… They just can’t communicate very well
due to the language barrier. A simple question can take 2-3 times
longer to resolve because either party can understand the other. Big
companies are certainly trying to demand that these overseas support
companies improve the language skills of their staffs but I think that
the complexities of the English language will not improve in my
lifetime.
Dell offers English speaking technicians for those
who wish to pay for their gold or silver support plans. They’re very
good but understand that it will add another $80 to $300+ dollars to a
system price depending on the plan. If you don’t spend the extra dough,
you will be stuck with crappy overseas support.
Companies that
seem to have bucked this trend of crappy service include Verizon and
GoDaddy. In the case of Verizon, I have contacted their
support/customer service on about 8 occasions. Each time I was helped
by someone who spoke & understood English perfectly. The person
that answered the phone was able to help with the problem without
transferring me to anyone else.
In the case of GoDaddy; I used to
resell web products for Web.com (formerly Interland) for many years
until they decided to go public. Soon after I watched Web.com reseller
support begin to deteriorate. Account reps & support staff were
replaced with thick Asian accented personnel who couldn’t seem to
understand me 90% of the time and were consistent in botching my
requests. This was how they treated their resellers! Not-to-mention,
resellers were expected to support their customers themselves. After a
year or two of this I discovered GoDaddy’s reseller program (Wild West
Domains) and I was happy to find that not only was their support staff
based in the United States, my customers could call the same people
directly, 24/7 , and get their problems resolved.
Bottom line:
Once a company makes a public offering, they’re most likely in it for
the money. There’s nothing wrong with this… Unless you’re the
customer.