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The Woodies have a blog. It’s a kind of collective. Not sure we’re about to start a revolution baby, but we might kindle a small debate or two and perhaps raise a smile. Anyway, rather than just blogging corporate Woodreed by fielding our top Woodie (as so many other companies seem to do in a thinly veiled attempt at impressing with their profundity), we wanted all our individual voices to be heard. An agency’s most valuable assets are its people after all. Everyone’s got something to say here and with us everyone’s ideas and opinions matter.

Each week someone different will be blogging. It's mostly about stuff that rocks our world as well as the flipside – the things that just don't cut it with us. We'll blog about inside and outside – inside this glorious industry where we work and outside in the real world.
It's a bit of an experiment, so go with us on this one.

Hope you enjoy.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Please hold the line...

Call me boring but one thing which really bugs me with the amazing technological developments we have today is the amazing creation that is... the call centre.

As helpful as they (apparently) are, I dread phoning any 0845 number or similar, for fear of the frustrating kind of conversation which may lie ahead.

We are deeply immersed in the cyborg era; where human and machine are combined as one. Those who eventually answer these phone calls (after patiently waiting on hold for half an hour) have been literally programmed to answer any query we have with a badly predicted script which - more often than not - does not actually answer the original question at all. We as customers, get nowhere in finding the answer to our query 55 minutes down the line. It is time-consuming, frustrating and impersonal.

By using a script I understand that companies may think they are promoting continuity of their brand, but do these companies not want to hear feedback outside of this restricted format rather than limiting the calls and reading the same scripted line for the 5th time before routing the caller for the 14th time to another person who is 'far more specialised in your query, madam... please hold the line'. I spoke to 7 different people in the space of 25 minutes the other day and got nowhere. Can these employees not be trained to care about the customer and be given the confidence and trust to be able to help customers using their own freedom of speech?

O2 and Natwest have got it right. No matter when I call them or from where I call (for example, on holiday this year when I had my purse stolen) they were more than happy to help, I had a real conversation with them and they even asked if I was okay. It was effective. Why can it not always be this easy?
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1 comment:

  1. Dave Wilson10 November 2010 at 12:01

    How about this one. My mortgage company rang up last week.

    Before I engaged in conversation, they said "Can you give me the first line of your address please?"

    I answered " I am not prepared to divulge my address until you tell me who you are and why you're ringing me.

    She answered (and I swear this is true), "I can't tell you that until you give me the first line of your address".

    I answered humorously " This sounds like Robin Hood and Friar Tuck competing for their journey on the log. Ha ha"

    She said " Robin Hood. is that the first line of your address.

    My case rests and well done Emma.

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