September 2001

Nightmare On CRM Street

BY Tom Keating

Our troubles began well over a year ago, when employees in our branch office (we'll call it TMC2) tried to call our corporate headquarters (we'll call it TMC1). Approximately one out of every three tries would result in a fast busy signal when someone from TMC2 tried to dial TMC1. The caller would have to hang up and retry. Our IT department put in a trouble ticket to try and resolve this 33 percent failure rate. A WorldCom technician called to tell us that he tested the T1 line and that everything was working properly. Of course, it wasn't.

JUST THE BEGINNING
I decided to put on my CTO hat and take charge of resolving this issue. I promptly called WorldCom to tell them the problem was not resolved and to escalate the matter to a more thorough examination than just testing the T1 line. My theory was that since both TMC1 and TMC2 each had their own T1 trunk lines terminated to the same WorldCom switch, perhaps calling a number within the same switch had a limited scalability. That is, perhaps the switch could only handle X number of intra-switch calls and if you exceeded that number you would get a fast busy signal. After several repeated calls and several test reports that came up negative, I gave up. It just wasn't worth the effort making repeated calls, staying on hold, chasing down some phantom bug that no one could fix.

Fast forward one year to this summer. We were still getting fast-busies when dialing one-third of the time, and TMC2 encountered a new problem -- periodic static in the phone lines. Strangely, although the caller on the remote end couldn't hear the static, TMC2 employees would hear static so terrible it made it almost impossible to understand what the other party was saying. Yet again we put a trouble ticket in to WorldCom. WorldCom ran some tests on the T1 line and guess what the results were? You got it! They told us there was nothing wrong with our T1 line. Now this was something I couldn't give up on. This had to get fixed no matter what amount of time I spent on it. Several calls to WorldCom by the IT department and myself proved fruitless as all the tests kept coming up negative.

A NEW PROBLEM
Fortunately, a week and a half into this problem, all of a sudden TMC2 could not make local long-distance calls. Why was this fortunate? I was hoping that the local dialing problem was somehow related to the ongoing static issue and that WorldCom might be able to figure out the problem once and for all. Things went from fortunate to even more fortunate. TMC2 completely lost the ability to make any calls at all. "Now that our phone lines are completely broken, WorldCom will certainly be able to fix this problem," I sardonically told my IT department.

Well, I was right. WorldCom did get our phone lines restored and they even fixed the static problem. However, even worse than a fast busy signal one third of the time, now TMC2 employees could not dial TMC1 at all. Another trouble ticket later and WorldCom was able to completely fix this problem. TMC2ers were now able to successfully dial TMC1 on the first try 100 percent of the time.

IT'S THE HUMIDITY
A week later I read an article in a local newspaper which reported that the humidity that weekend had caused several phone lines to experience static in parts of Stamford and Norwalk, Conn. SNET (the local phone company) even blamed squirrels who chew the lines, allowing moisture to seep through. Whether squirrels or humidity caused our static problem, we don't know. WorldCom was not very forthcoming in our repeated requests to explain why it occurred. They did, however, tell us that the reason TMC2 was not able to dial TMC1 was because "translation in phone digits had to be fixed and an incorrect switch setting at the phone company."

What did I learn from this experience?

1. WorldCom's philosophy is "If it ain't completely broke, it ain't broke."
   
2. Worse than a top-secret government installation, phone companies will only give you information on a "need to know" basis.
   
3. Phone companies need to provide other means of communicating with them besides voice. My time could have been spent better communicating via e-mail rather than waiting on hold.

CRM NIGHTMARE: THE SEQUEL
My next dealing was with software giant Microsoft. The opposite of WorldCom, all my interactions with Microsoft were via e-mail, not voice. Three months ago, I signed up for the MSNBC newsletter via my Hotmail account. After receiving the newsletter, I realized that it was essentially a Web page with the exact same content as the MSNBC Business home page. Since MSNBC is my home page, I decided this newsletter was redundant and proceeded to unsubscribe. After unchecking the box next to MSNBC and submitting my request, I continued receiving the newsletter. I decided to write to Hotmail technical support. The edited transcript follows:

Hotmail Response
This is an auto-generated response designed to answer your question as quickly as possible. We hope the directions below answer your question. If after following the directions your problem is still unresolved, please send your question to the e-mail address listed at the end of this message and a customer support representative will help you.

MSN Hotmail WebCourier and Special Offers are online content delivery services that let you choose from a variety of rich, graphical e-mail messages covering an array of topics; you can receive these messages in your Inbox daily.

Under "Subscriptions" on the left navigation bar, click "Free News" or "Special Offers" to see all of our partners and to sign up for the services.

To unsubscribe from WebCourier or Special Offers:

1. On the left navigation bar under "Subscriptions," click "Free News"
   (WebCourier) or "Special Offers."
   
2. Clear the check box next to each service to which you're subscribed.
   
3. Click "OK" to unsubscribe to these services.

My Response
I'm still getting these MSNBC Business newsletters which I already unsubscribed from. I then tried using Hotmail's "Block this Sender" feature, but it looks like you guys don't like blocking Microsoft-related e-mails, as it didn't work. Gee, go figure!

Please get me off this list. I already have MSNBC as my home page, so I don't need to get the newsletter. It's the exact same content! Thank you.

Hotmail Response
Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail about your problem in unsubscribing to MSNBC. We've confirmed the problem that you described to the Technical Support Staff and are currently evaluating it. Your feedback is very important, and we evaluate feedback each week to prioritize future features and improvements. Unfortunately, I cannot give you specific dates on when you will see changes, but please know that we are working hard to update Hotmail and better serve your needs.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you. Thank for your continued patience.

My Second Response
Just a friendly reminder fellas. I'm still getting the MSNBC Newsletters which I have unsubscribed from. What's the deal? How hard can it be to remove my name from the list? What's the point of having Hotmail newsletter preferences (checkboxes) if you cannot get yourself off the list if you ever change your mind? How about a more detailed explanation at least while I wait for all these darn MSNBC newsletters to stop flooding my inbox every day?

Hotmail Response
Thank you for writing us back. Your e-mail message is extremely important to us, and we hope to contact you soon with a resolution. At Hotmail, we do everything we can to continue providing dependable, quality service. Thank you for your continued patience.

My Third Response
I am still receiving MSNBC Business newsletters even though I UNCHECKED/UNSUBSCRIBED from it. MSNBC is my home page. There is no point getting MSNBC content in my Hotmail inbox. It's really annoying having MSN Messenger indicate that I have three new Hotmail messages only to find out they are all MSNBC newsletters. Please remove my e-mail address from the MSNBC subscription database. This may need to be done manually, since the automatic system is NOT working.

Take this as a challenge. You will be the third Hotmail tech person I have contacted. The first two were unable to resolve this issue. Let's see how smart and technically savvy you are. There may be a problem with the system that you can point out to your superiors. Let me know what you discover, good or bad. If I have to suffer through more MSNBC newsletters, maybe I'll just sign up for a new Hotmail account, or else switch to Yahoo!

Hotmail Response
Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail. MSN Hotmail WebCourier is an online content delivery service that enables you to request that rich, graphical e-mail messages be delivered daily to your Inbox.

To unsubscribe from WebCourier:

1. On the left navigation bar under "Subscriptions," click the "Free News" link. The "WebCourier FREE Subscriptions" page appears.
   
2. Clear the check box next to each service to which you're subscribed.
   
3. Click "OK" to unsubscribe to these services or click "Cancel" to return to the Inbox with no changes.

Your satisfaction with my Customer Service is very important to me. If you consider your issue resolved, please click on the link below to let me know how I am doing. With your comments, please include my name and ticket number (found in this mail's subject line) to help me keep track of my performance.

Customer Service Survey: http://www.surveyhost.com/hotmail2/.

HELLO, ANYONE HOME?
Now my intelligence was being insulted. I had explained multiple times that I had "unsubscribed" from the MSNBC newsletter by unchecking the appropriate box and that this automatic feature wasn't working. Now this help-desk person is giving me instructions on how to unsubscribe? I felt like I had just entered the Twilight Zone where I was the only person who speaks English and even though everyone else speaks English, they don't understand a word I say. Frustrated and ready to just concede that I would have to live with a little more spam to delete each day, I decide to write them one last time. Also, since they weren't being very responsive, I thought a threat of embarrassing them might help.

My Response
Ok, let's try this for the fourth time.

1. I already unsubscribed from the MSNBC newsletter. The method I used is exactly the method described below (Subscriptions, Free News, WebCourier, etc). Unsubscribing from MSNBC does not work. I still get the newsletter on a daily basis.
   
2. I checked the box for MSNBC and resubscribed. Then I went back to the Subscriptions page and unchecked the box (unsubscribe) thinking maybe if I checked it, (clicked the Submit button) and then went back to the Subscription page, unchecked it (clicked the Submit button), it might fix the problem. No such luck.

This is a serious bug. I write for a technical magazine and perhaps I should write a column titled "Microsoft Spams Its Own Hotmail Users." I plan on including any and all e-mail responses from Hotmail technical support. I hope this problem can be resolved. I have the utmost respect for Microsoft and would prefer not to have to join the chorus of anti-Microsoft sentiment. Please escalate this e-mail to the next highest level since it would appear that the prior technical support technicians were unable to help.

Hotmail Response
There was a technical issue with the system that holds your account, concerning the subscriptions, I fixed it, you shouldn't be receiving any more e-mail from them. If you continue to do so please leave a copy of the e-mail in your Inbox and reply to this e-mail and we will investigate further. I apologize for the inconvenience.

My Final Response
Sorry, try again. It's still not working. I'd be really upset right now if it weren't so damn funny. I feel like I'm doing Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine.
Let me recap. I say "Please help get me off this MSNBC Business list" and you say, "We fixed the problem, it should be all set." I say, "I'm still getting the e-mails" and you say, "Go to the WebCourier subscriptions and uncheck the box next to MSNBC Business." I say, "Duh, I did that already. Please escalate to the next level technician since this appears to be a serious bug." You say, "There was a technical issue with the system that holds your account, concerning the subscriptions, we fixed it, you shouldn't be receiving any more e-mail from them." Wrong answer. You are the weakest link. I'm still receiving MSNBC Business in my inbox. Twice now you have told me it's fixed when it is not. This is like dj vu all over again.

READY TO SCREAM
As of finishing this column (remember, I have been struggling with this for over three months), I haven't received a response from Hotmail. However, there are a few things I've learned from these two experiences:

1. Companies need to offer multiple means of communicating. With my experience with WorldCom, I would have preferred interacting via e-mail. On the other hand, with Microsoft's Hotmail technical support not resolving my issue after several e-mail attempts, I would have preferred to contact them via the phone to work through the issue until it was solved.
   
2. Integrating and managing these different interaction types (e-mail, voice, chat, etc.) needs to be done to allow a help-desk person to view any and all correspondence with a customer. Companies such as Aspect, eConvergent, Quintus (now Avaya), and others offer solutions to suit these needs.
   
3. Recording and quality monitoring systems (Dictaphone, Envision Telephony, NICE Systems, Witness, etc.) need to be implemented to monitor the customer service rep's performance, which can then be used for training purposes. While I give the Hotmail customer reps high marks for not letting my anger and frustration affect their response, I'm sure many people would have taken this "polite" response in a bad way.

After all, the response didn't actually solve my problem. There's nothing worse than having an upset customer complaining only to have the customer rep respond politely with a solution that doesn't actually solve the problem. With a quality monitoring system in place that records voice, e-mail, and other media types, a supervisor could see that the customer was upset and perhaps recommend that the customer service rep call the customer via voice.

Of course, giving my home or work phone number to Microsoft is another story. But generally, this idea to escalate an e-mail conversation to an outbound phone call when a customer is upset is quite sound. It shows that the company cares enough to make the extra effort to call and possibly have to deal with a verbal tirade, which is much worse than an e-mail tirade.

CONCLUSION
There are many other ways to utilize technology to improve the customer experience. I'm sure I am not alone in experiencing customer service nightmares, so write and tell me about your experiences or tell me how you've successfully implemented a CRM solution to improve the customer experience.

[ Return To The September 2001 Table Of Contents ]