An Overdose of Politeness and Efficiency February 10th, 2012
Do you ever make one of those phone calls where you are talking to machines all the time, and wish that you could speak to a human being? I’ve just come off a call where I think I was speaking to human beings the whole time, but they were as close to machines as it is possible to be. Each interaction was perfectly polite and scripted – I think the sort of thing that we would all like to see in business, but the excess of it, and the different stages I needed to go through to get my query “registered” are beyond belief. As to whether my claim will be dealt with or settled – well we will have to see.
At the beginning of January I bought a new web hosting account for my new website Money Minding Mum. However when I tried to transfer the domain name over to the new account it didn’t work. Eventually I bought some hosting from the company that sold me the domain name in the first place – 123reg.co.uk, which works a treat and was very easy to set up – but that’s a different story.
|The fact is I was left with the original hosting package – unused, and I wanted a refund. I sent an email and they told me it had to be dealt with by phone. So this is the following conversation, which with pauses took over 12 minutes of a call to the USA. Names of companies and operatives have been changed….
[Machine] Welcome to Hosting Co. Please type in your account number for faster and more efficient service….(I did)
[Machine] Thank you – now please choose one of the following options… neither of them was cancelling the account, so I picked the best I could.
[Machine] Please wait…..(music) [Machine] Waiting time less than five minutes
Operative: Good afternoon my name is John and you are through to Hosting Co. I see you have entered account number 12345678
Me: Yes I did
Operative: Can you please tell me your title and your name?
Me: Mrs Debbie O’Connor
Operative: How may I help you today?
Me: I want to cancel my hosting account
Operative: Thank you Mrs O’Connor. I will give you a code number for our conversation today [music] your code number is 1111. Then I will write up my notes and after that I will transfer you to the hosting department, and I will also give you their direct line. (music – more than 1 minute)
Operative: Thanks you for holding Mrs O’Connor, now I have written up my notes and I am transfering you to the hosting department who will help you with your query. (music)
[Machine] …waiting time, less than 5 minutes…
Operative 2: Hello, my name is Jane. Am I speaking to Mrs Debbie O’Connor?
Me: Yes you are
Operative 2: And your account number is 12345678?
Me: Yes it is
Operative: And you wish to cancel your hosting account which you purchased on 1st January?
Me: Yes
Operative: May I ask why?
Me: Because I have got hosting elsewhere and am not going to use it
Operative: This is hosting for a blog. Are you going to blog in the future?
Me: I currently blog, and have got hosting that works perfectly well for the two blogs that I have so I do not need your service.
Operative: Thank you Mrs O’Connor. I will write up my notes, and give you a reference number for your conversation. I will give this to our accounts department who will write to you within two business days [music]
Operative: Thank you for holding: I have now written up my notes – here is the code for our conversation. Can I confirm this is just to cancel your hosting account?
Me (trying not to lose temper at this point) Yes I want to cancel my hosting account
Operative: And you are not claiming any refund?
Me: Of course I want a refund of whatever is appropriate. I bought the year long package one month ago and havnot used it at all as I was unable to access it.
Operative: OK, Mrs O’Connor, I Understand. I will write up the notes of our conversation and send them also to our refunds department. They will also contact you within 7 working days. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Me: (trying very hard not to make sarcastic remark at this point) No , I think that’s about all you can do for me
Operative: Thank you so much Mrs O’Connor. Have a very nice day.
So 12 minutes later, I still don’t know if I will get a cancellation nor a refund, and they will come from two separate departments if I do. Everyone was unfailingly polite – but it just makes me want to tear my hair out…….Why does it have to be so difficult?
This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2012 at 10:23 am and is filed under Business technology, Mums in Business, What's Holding You Back?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
10 Responses
Fatcow Says:
I work at the customer service desk and my main rule is to be more warm and natural with our customers. I try not to use these obvious phrases like “Thank you for your call” or “your call is very important for us”. It looks so fake for me. We are all human beings!
Debbie Says:
It just sounded so fake. The individual sentiments were fine but the delivery was so mechanical. And why did it take two people and 12 minutes to register my query?
Gwendolyn Says:
This is not a true politeness..They don’t treat good their costumer..
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Hannah Says:
I think great customer service is crucially important – if it doesn’t sound natural then the customer is less likely to believe you really are wanting to help. If you talk to them naturally and as a human being, then it’s much friendlier, and actually creates happier customers!
canvas prints Says:
indeed, customer service should be in your top three must haves in your business
Nancy Says:
Customer service is very important especially in a business…Am I right?
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Debbie Says:
That’s exactly it – customer service needs to be genuine, not just scripted out of a textbook. I know that companies save money by setting up customer service departments away from their main offices, staffed by people who know nothing of the product, nor in some cases the couture of the customers, but this very rarely works well in my opinion….
Joannah Says:
I agree that customer service is very important and a lot of employers and employees should be aware with it…
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compliance posters Says:
I think many customers agree with this. I know they encounter of this kind of conversation that makes you anger.
Jenny Says:
This really get’s my goat when customer service reps clearly are not even listening to you and just mindlessly reading from or going off of a memorized script. It’s very impersonal and I just want to cancel any business I have with them. Another thing that bothers me is having a machine answer, you go through the questions…name, account number, phone number, problem etc. and when the person finally comes on they ask you the same questions again…ever get that one?
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