For instance, I've stuck with the same Internet service provider for eight years now because, with few exceptions, the customer support has been outstanding. Way back, the company's founders created a filter for me that allowed me to have a nine-letter handle ("tomhyphen"), even though its Unix servers could only recognise eight ("tomhyphn"). A Mac specialist could be found, even in the middle of the night, if there were connection issues. When the company got rolled up and automation took over many functions, it still was responsive. Support personnel were patient. There was always an email follow-up (easy to do), and often a phone follow-up (that's conscientious).
This is largely how I judge companies these days. The products must be good. But you stick with a company if it treats you well.
That's why I find it hard to believe that a frequent benchmark of telephone support centres is call time. Call centre operators constantly boast of their abilities to bring down "talk time," by minutes at first, tens of seconds later, and a second here and there, when there's almost no talk time left.
This begs logic. This assumes that customers are wastes of time. That the only good customer interaction is no customer interaction. That you don't really want to hear from your sources of revenue.
Now, to be sure, there will be callers who abuse the system, who just want to hear a voice. But why measure the 95 percent by the standards for disposing of the 5 percent? Just talk about business and eliminate the conversations that lack purpose.
