my 2 cents

On Hold

We're bombarded by thousands of advertising messages every day -- not just via traditional and digital media, but by all sorts of out-of-home vehicles ranging from the old standby -- billboards -- to logos on clothing and tattooed on people.

Even I, who would routinely complain to the manager of a movie theater that showed commercials before the tra8ilers and the film, have grudgingly given up and quietly sit through the  pre-movie ads, even after paying $10 for the privilege.

But here's something new that I know is going to get me riled the first time I am subjected to it -- ads while you're waiting on Hold.  Give me a break... please!

Wednesday's Wall Street Journal tells the story.  Callers to customer service, while waiting for the next available representative, are seen as a huge captive audience.  More than 320 million calls a month and growing, says one of the companies that  sells ads for play to on-hold callers.

The article says the company claims customers are particularly "susceptible" to marketing pitches while they're on hold "because they are attentively waiting for someone to arrive on the other end of the line."  They know, though, that they need to be careful in choice of ads and length of ads, or "there is a danger of riling customers - or potential customers - by blitzing them with ads."

I can see this being acceptable in some situations.  If I'm calling a radio station, for example, I can see hearing  entertainment-related ads while waiting, or even ads for companies that advertise on the station's airwaves.  Playing ads, after all, is a radio station's business.

But if I'm calling to order a product or to get help with a problem, the last thing I'll want while waiting is to have ads thrown at me.  I can understand promos for products of the company I'm calling, but if I'm calling for help with my new Dell computer, I'll be damned if I want to hear an ad for Coke or Mazda or a credit card while I'm on hold.

I'll take Muzak.  And unlike the company that says we're attentively waiting, many callers put on hold are actually doing other things while waiting.  I often put the call onto speaker phone, so I can do other work while waiting, until I hear the customer rep pick up.  But if ads are being thrown at me, it's hard to focus on other things.

I see it as a huge intrusion on my time.  And then I'll wonder, am I being put on hold an extra few minutes so the company can sell my time to advertisers?  Or what if a service rep is ready for me, but "hold" still has 20 seconds left in an ad that's playing?  Will I have to wait, unnecessarily, for those extra 20 seconds until the ad is finished?

I don't like this idea one bit.  I'd like to see it be put on hold.

 

Call centers shouldn't be a joke

When someone mentions call centers, what comes to mind?

Outsourced
    Offshore
        Talking to someone named Ronnie
        whose real name is Rajiv

Need customer service from a large company?  Most of us dread the thought because it means dealing with a call center.

It means talking with a very polite person who may or may not fully understand the English language.  And, just to make it more challenging, there's a fair chance they don't really know the product or service you're calling about.  They may respond based on scripted answers, but if you need to go much beyond that, you could be in trouble.

According to Thomas Friedman's wonderful book The World is Flat, call center jobs in third world nations are considered very prestigious plums.  I believe the people manning them are earnest in their desire to provide good customer service.  Many times they succeed, but evidently not enough.

That's why offshore call centers have become the subject of jokes and parodies, like this short clip below that's currently circulating the email chains.  It's funny because, unfortunately, it's true to a degree (RSS Readers: go here)

Companies see customer service as an overhead and, understandably, they want to keep overhead to a minimum.  So they opt for calling centers in faraway places where the customer service reps are paid a fraction of what they'd earn here.  But should a company think of customer service as an overhead expense? 

Isn't good customer service really a marketing investment?

Give the customer good service and you'll likely have a loyal customer who will come back to buy more of what you sell, and who will tell his friends how wonderful your products and service are.  And what form of advertising is more powerful than word-of-mouth?

It's really not about where the call centers are located.  It's good that American companies are providing jobs for people around the world.  But shouldn't business invest some of the money they save in lower wages by providing better training so the service reps know the products intimately.  Wouldn't the savings be well spent if invested in better systems that reduce or eliminate the long waiting time for a service rep to come on the line?  The ROI might far outstrip that of the ad campaign.

So why do so many companies skimp in this critical area?

I don't have the answer.  But there's probably an 800 number you can call to find out... if you have a lot of time and a lot of patience.  Good luck.

Thanks to Chuck Klein of Chuck Klein Productions for sending me the link to the video clip that inspired this.