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Daily Report: Don’t Feel Bad. Everyone Hates Calling for Tech Help.

It’s not just you. That call for tech support could get even the most mild-mannered person upset.

Now here’s the kicker: Most companies know they are making you miserable when you call for help.

As Kate Murphy wrote in the Times, a survey conducted by the industry group International Customer Management Institute, or ICMI, found that “92 percent of customer service managers said their agents could be more effective and 74 percent said their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences.”

Many companies run on what’s called a cost-per-contact model, which limits the time agents can be on the phone with you. If that person on the phone can’t deal with you quickly, it’s costing the organization money.

The worst offenders? Cable and mobile service providers, “which typically have little competition and whose customers are bound by contracts or would be considerably inconvenienced if they canceled their service,” Ms. Murphy writes.

What a shock.

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