I hate talking to sales people. These days I expect that for most activities I should be able to accomplish everything via a website and having no interaction with an actual person. Unlike some people, I prefer this lack of interaction and fill with dread when some step mentions snail mail or having to call the company. Comcast has found a new annoyance, the Live Chat. I went to the Comcast website, filled out a form, and then the only option was to enter a live chat with a Comcast representative. The first part was an infuriating series of questions asking me to given them the information I had already entered on the form. This was followed by the representative trying to
sell me a bunch of crap inform me of exciting deals. At the end of this chat a survey was provided to rate the experience. Unfortunately I didn't save the survey page, but to the best of my recollection the four questions were:
Was your problem solved?
I had to answer yes, however, my problem could have easily been solved if they would have just processed the web form in a reasonable way. I gave them all of the information they needed on the form, there was no reason to do the live chat.
Would you use this service again?
Well, for nice high speed internet in my area Comcast is really the only choice and there was no way to avoid the live chat on the website. So yes I would use it again.
How helpful was the Comcast representative?
The representative was as helpful as she could be given the whole service, especially for my issue, was a complete waste. The sales pitches were annoying, but I'm sure the representatives are required to nag the customers with that garbage.
Was this service more or less work than you expected?
- less
- about what I expected
- a little more than I expected
- way more than I expected
I said way more than expected. In reality when I first saw the text on the form saying I would have to do the live chat to finish I was expecting a complete pain in the ass and waste of my time. So I suppose it was about what I expected. However, since there was no place on the survey for free text and the questions are not designed to get useful feedback, this last question seemed like the best option for ranking them poorly.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for your frustrations with our Live Chat. If you would like, send us an email with your account phone number and a good contact number. We will see that your frustrations are addressed.
Best regards,
Mike Padgeon
National Customer Operations
we_can_help@cable.comcast.com
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is a need for a follow up by phone. My frustrations can be summarized as:
1. I prefer a completely self-service experience via the website. Maybe I'm one of the minority of your customers that feels this way, and if so, then I suppose live chat is probably better than a phone call.
2. I don't like to repeat myself. I shouldn't have to provide the same information in the live chat that I provided on a form before entering the live chat. You have surely heard people complain about calling tech support and having to give the same information every time they are transferred to a new person.
3. There should be some added value that is obvious to the customer for entering live chat. I filled out the movers form with the new address, services I wanted transferred, and the requested times for connect and disconnect. It was then required to go into live chat where I had to give the sales representative the same information and get pestered with sales offers to finalize the process. There was no new information given or any real value for me to use the live chat. I just don't see why you couldn't take the data on the web form and be done with it. Or just send someone directly to live chat so at least they don't have to repeat themselves.
4. The survey is worthless. This point is what the post was about. So let me ask you this, given the multiple choice questions on the survey, how would you convey that the live chat was unnecessary and redundant with the web form?